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Scott Blain

Mr. Thomas Moudry

English 102

2 December 2010

Gabriel the Sorcerer

When one thinks of magic in literature, the first images that tend to emerge are those of

Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the countless other works of pure fantasy that

spread visions of far away kingdoms and impossible feats. However, many people tend to

overlook the more mundane magic that is hidden right beneath their noses. The novels of

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other Latin American masters of magical realism have crafted

stories which are no less fantastic than those of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. His uncanny

ability to create his sorcery evolved directly out of his distinctive childhood. Garcia Marquez

grew up in a small Columbian city with his prolific grandparents. Their influence on his literary

style was infinite; his grandfather’s miraculous tales from military and political experience along

with the magical stories of his grandmother would help shape the way Gabriel wrote throughout

his entire career (Sickles). "The tone that I eventually used in One Hundred Years of

Solitude was based on the way my grandmother used to tell stories. She told things that sounded

supernatural and fantastic, but she told them with complete naturalness. In previous attempts to

write, I tried to tell the story without believing in it. I discovered that what I had to do was

believe in them myself and write them with the same expression with which my grandmother

told them” stated Garcia Marquez in regards to the origin of his magical realism (Ruch). This

unique style is present all throughout his novels whether it is Rebeca’s habit of obsessively

eating earth or the blood from a murder traveling hundreds of feet right to Ursula’s chair. His
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ability to evoke mental response without the typical emotional undertones of fiction authors

makes his style distinctive and effective. Gabriel Garcia Marquez utilizes magical realism

extensively throughout his literary work to create an atmosphere of magic and wonder that melds

naturally with the rest of the storyline; whether or not the influence was direct, it is unarguable

that the Garcia Marquez style is reflected in the fiction of many other novelists, not only his

Latin American contemporaries such as Laura Esquivel and Oscar Hijuelos, but also authors of

more embellished fiction including Salmon Rushdie and J.K. Rowling.

The presence of magic in the literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez is undeniable. The

appeal of his magical realist style is in his unique presentation of the fantastic events in his

novels. By naturally blending implausible occurrences with the commonplace proceedings in

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez is able to create a willing suspension of

disbelief among his audience and make the unnatural seem completely natural. Dean Irving, the

established literary critic, describes his work as “lo real maravilloso” — the marvelous reality

(Irving). Irving discusses how Garcia Marquez utilizes the opposition of postmodernism and

post colonialism to create magical realism in his novels. While there are no anthropomorphic,

Jesus representing lions, or magical weeping-willows, the novel holds its fair share of magical

events. An uninformed audience may even completely overlook these impossible events if they

are not reading closely; this is the extent of the precise realist style presented in the work. The

most basic of magical elements are also seen in the appearance of animal characteristics in the

offspring of the inbreeding members of the Buendia family. From the beginning of the novel,

Ursula expresses her fear of breeding to José Arcadio due to the chance that their child will have

a pig’s tail. The subject is treated with complete naturalness and the later occurrence when a

child actually does have an animal tail is not given a second thought. These subtle but
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memorable touches are what make the novel so special (Devera). Garcia Marquez also has more

extreme instances of paranormal activity throughout the novel. However, these are treated with

the same emotionless attitude that makes the novel seem as genuine as Faulkner. One such

supernatural occurrence is the unnatural traveling of blood after a murder:

“A trickle of blood came out under the door, crossed the living room, went

out into the street, continued on in a straight line across the uneven terraces, went

down steps and climbed over curbs, passed along the Street of the Turks, turned a

corner to the right and another to the left, made a right angle at the

Buendía house, went in under the closed door, crossed through the parlor, hugging

the walls so as not to stain the rugs, went on to the other living room, made

a wide curve to avoid the dining-room table, went along the porch with the begonias, and

passed without being seen under Amaranta's chair as she gave an

arithmetic lesson to Aureliano José, and went through the pantry and came out

in the kitchen, where Úrsula was getting ready to crack thirty-six eggs to make

bread.

"Holy Mother of God!" Úrsula shouted” (Garcia Marquez 136).

This magical event is undeniable, but could be completely overlooked because of the mundane

tone that is used to present the event. In the world of Garcia Marquez the laws of the world are

turned upside down and the unexpected becomes the routine. Another concept that illustrates the

magic of the novel is the fantastic inventions of the gypsy tribes. At the beginning of the novel,

they present Macondo with a magical ice, not ordinary ice, but a strange variety that never seems

to melt. They bring several other amusement devices such as magic carpets and other

miraculous marvels (Baker). The truly functional inventions are all caricatures of their real-
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world counterparts. The novel contains a colossal magnifying glass which is able to burn large

objects and can be used as a weapon. Other farfetched creations include flying carpets and glass

houses. These magical inventions, along with the many other fascinating events and items in

Macondo make it truly a magical world that makes the magic of Garcia Marquez more than

evident. By creating a world that is both fantastic and believable, he is able to captivate his

audience without alienating the common man.

The magic of One Hundred Years of Solitude is not only evident in the isolated events of

the story, but also in the novel as a whole. This magical realism is clearly exhibited in the

magical personalities and varying longevity of the many members of the Buendia family

presented throughout the novel. The characters are magical in both the physical and mental

abilities. The unbelievable size of Jose Arcadio is one such instance of magical character

attributes. He is larger than life and impresses all with his physical strength. His sexual prowess

is also immense, but he is shown to be loathed by his family and eventually runs away from

home with a gypsy girl. Another striking magical characteristic of the novel is the presentation

of the afterlife (Baker):

It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was

keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between

excitement and disappointment, doubt and revelation, to such an

extreme that no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay. It was

an intricate stew of truths and mirages that convulsed the ghost of José Arcadio

Buendía with impatience and made him wander all through the house

even in broad daylight (Garcia Marquez 226).

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The ghosts of several characters in the novel fill the halls of the Buendia residence. Death is

dealt with very lightly and is overcome by Melquiades on multiple occasions. After dying at the

edge of the world, he comes back to Macondo as good as new. After he eventually perishes, the

ghost of Melquiades remains in the mansion and even communicates with various other

characters. The unbelievable longevity of Ursula, as well as Pilar, is another example of the

supernatural aspects of the novel (Devera). Ursula is able to outlive nearly all of her children

and live for many generations, in an almost Biblical fashion. When the matron of the Buendia

family finally perishes, she doesn’t want to let go easily:

“Poor great-great-grandmother.” Amaranta Ursula said. “She died of old

age.”

Ursula was startled. “I'm alive!” she said.

“You can see,” Amaranta Ursula said, suppressing her laughter, “that she's

not even breathing.”

“I'm talking!' Ursula shouted.

“She can't even talk,” Aureliano said. “She died like a little cricket.”

(Garcia Marquez 341).

These proceedings serve to further affirm the magic of Ursula and her abilities to defy the logic

and rules of the universe. The intriguing personas of One Hundred Years of Solitude work to

form a magical world that is presented as if were the everyday. However, the novel’s concept of

manipulated, mutilated time adds even more magic to the story. The first line of the novel sets a

trend of distorted time by starting in the middle of the narrative: “Many years later, as he faced

the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his

father took him to discover ice” (Garcia Marquez 1). This line is only the first of many
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flashbacks and other leaps in the continuum of time. Throughout the novel, time is a major

theme; time in One Hundred Years of Solitude is completely different than time in any other

novel. Time in Macondo passes in haphazardly alternating periods of lingering sentiments and

swift years suppressed into a single page. When Colonel Buendia goes off to fight for the liberal

party, the ages pass by swiftly and he is raised up as a hero, despite his many defeats. Time

bends when he returns and a single week is stretched into the time of several years. In general,

as the novel progresses further along, time seems to become slower. This unique perception of

time is just another example of the magical world of the novel and, like all the other elements, is

presented in a completely natural manner. It allows for the fantastic events and characters to be

expressed to their fullest extent in an effective, yet magical manner. The world of the novel is

seemingly impossible but oh so ordinary, all at the same instant.

The magic of Garcia Marquez is certainly evident in his literary work. However, the

magic is even more evident when One Hundred Years of Solitude is compared directly to the

works of fiction authors. The magic of Marquez can be inducted by looking at the authors who

influenced him. One of his first literary inspirations was Kafka’s Metamorphosis. After reading

a copy of the novella while in college, Garcia Marquez exclaimed: “I thought to myself that I

didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started

writing a long time ago.” This clearly proves the intentions to invoke magical images in the mind

of his readers. Kafka’s work was a forerunner of magical realism and certainly contained many

fantastic happenings. This influence, along with that of realist authors Faulkner and Wolfe and

that of his grandmother, was what led Garcia Marquez to develop his distinct magical realist

style (Bell-Villada). From the start, this style was very appealing and successful across a broad

audience; this soon led to its spread among other authors. The immediate repercussions were
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focused on the literature of his Latin American Contemporaries. Many others, such as Isabel

Allende, used magical realism as the basis of their work. The concepts of magic, time, sexuality,

and solitude fill her House of Spirits. The book clearly echoes of influences from One Hundred

Years of Solitude, despite the difference in characters and plot. The same is true for Laura

Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. This captivating work contains many elements similar to

those in the works of Garcia Marquez. The overall premise of the novel is that Tita is isolated to

taking care of her mother, much like the roles of Amaranta and Ursula Buendia. The concept

that feelings can be transmitted through food shows magical reflections of the powers of

Melquiades and Pilar Ternera. By taking the magic found in the novels of Marquez and making

it slightly more extreme, his fellow Latin Americas amplify the fact that magic does exist as a

major aspect of his literature. Authors of slightly more apparent magic in their work include the

great Salmon Rushdie. The characters of his Midnight’s Children show striking similarities,

while they are slightly hyperbolized, to those found in the works of Garcia Marquez. In the

novel, all children born at midnight are imbedded with magical powers. The novel contains

witches and ware-people, and most magical characteristics that reflect the more subtle powers of

Ursula and Pilar in One Hundred Years of Solitude. The influence of Garcia Marquez is clear,

and the presence of magic is even clearer. Novels of more extreme magic may not be considered

to be realism, but they serve to prove the influence of magical realism, as well as illustrating that

there are distinct magical elements in the novels of Garcia Marquez. In fact, the Harry Potter

novels of J. K. Rowling are show more stylistic similarities to Garcia Marquez literature than

many would believe:

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor’s tank had

vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto
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the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running

for the exits (Rowling 28).

The events presented in this passage from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone contain slight

magic similar to that of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is dealt with in a semi-realist

style. When compared to a passage of Marquez, the influence is undeniable:

There he took off his shirt, sat on the edge of the cot, and at three-fifteen in the

afternoon took his pistol and shot himself in the iodine circle that his

personal physician had painted on his chest. At that moment in Macondo

Ursula took the cover off the pot of milk on the stove, wondering why it

was taking so long to boil, and found it full of worms (Garcia Marquez 181).

The parallels exist, not only in the magic of the events, but also in the style. This helps to further

affirm the presence of magic in the work of Garcia Marquez. He was a creator of truly

magnificent worlds that would be an influence to authors for decades to come.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the epitome of both magic and realism in his enchanting

literature. “He was the uncertain old man whose real existence was the simplest of his enigmas”

(Ruch). From the stones of Aracataca, rose one of the greatest literary minds of the 20th century.

One Hundred Years of Solitude evolved out of magical stories from a set of unique grandparents,

an outlandish novella, and the realistic atmosphere of Yoknapatawpha. He has crafted, in

Macondo, a world of magic and wonder that still manages to seem as commonplace as any small

American town. Garcia Marquez offers an optimistic perspective of literature and truly

represents the spirit of magic and innovation; he is always seeking to make an impression

through his magical literary creations. He is noted for his many quotes concerning the

importance of both magic and realism in literature — “What matters in life is not what happens
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to you but what you remember and how you remember it” (Ruch). His hyperbolizing of both

science and history help create his renowned magical style. One Hundred Years of Solitude is a

very extraordinary novel, which any fantasy aficionado will adore, but the average bystander will

still appreciate. The influence of Garcia Marquez on the future of fiction is truly immeasurable.

By revolutionizing Latin American literature, he helped to change the literary world as we know

it today. His creation of magical realism is perhaps the largest impact that a Latin American

author has ever unleashed on the art as a whole. Without the inspiration of One Hundred Years

of Solitude, the Mambo King would never have sung songs of love and there would be no spirits

in the house. Without Macondo, there would be no Hogwarts. Garcia Marquez inspired a new

generation of authors which dared to dive into the depths of mystery and miracle. His magic is

entirely undeniable. He is truly a sorcerer of script, and one of the most influential authors in the

history of words.
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Works Cited

Baker, Anaya. “Characteristics of Magical Realism: One Hundred Years of Solitude and Spirits

in the House.” HubPages. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

Devera, John. “Magical Realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Helium - Where

Knowledge Rules. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

García, Márquez Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

Print.

Irvine, Dean. “Fables of the Plague Years: Postcolonialism, Postmodernism, and Magical

Realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred

Years of Solitude. Ed. Bloom, Harold. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003.

125-149. Print. Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations.

Rowling, J. K. “The Vanishing Glass.” Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: A.A.

Levine, 1998. 28. Print.

Ruch, Allen. “Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” The Modern World. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.

Sickels, Amy. “García Márquez, Gabriel.” Bloom's BioCritiques (2005): n. pag. Web. 27 Nov.

2010.

Bell-Villada, Gene. Garcia Marquez: The Man and his Work. Durham: University of North

Carolina Press, 1990. Print.