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The Role of magical realism in the Life of Pi and An Old Man with Enormous Wings

Magical realism is the distinctive blend of fantasy and reality. It involves intertwining the

elements of the divine with the earthiness of human nature. In the two stories of Marquez and

Martel, they have effectively blended reality and fantasy in different ways. They both challenge

the weakness and strengths of our religious faiths alongside revealing how science can contribute

to our day to day coexistence. Magical realism expands the reality so to encompass myths, magic

and other extraordinary phenomena in nature and experience. In this paper, I will highlight the

role of magical realism as I give examples from each (Doyle 90)

Marquez and Martel use magical realism to reveal to us the reality of religious prejudice. For

example, the priest tries a type of exorcism and spoke to the angel accusing him of carnival

attacks which failed. He then writes to the Pope to obtain the final verdict of what they should

do about the angel. The pope doesnt respond, Elisanda and Pelayo decide to make money from

charging a fee from anyone who wanted to see the angel. It clearly plays a role in telling us that

religion will not offer all the solutions to the answers as father Gonzaga thought and believed

(Aldea 109).

It also plays a role in explaining the nature of human beings. In this story, the human nature is

seen as that of opportunism. This is evident by how they started charging people who would
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come to see the creature. They made a lot of money out of it and became wealthy. They ignored

the explanation on the existence of this creature but focused on the material acquisition. They did

not forget their poor state. On the other hand, Pi is pondering over how he managed to survive,

he could not find an answer from his religion neither his science, he remains devastated after

losing all his family members and the fact that he gets no answer to the happening. Instead, he

holds to his faith. Another role that magical realism plays is the place that faith and science can

have in our struggles in life; faith can help us overcome our day to day challenges. For instance,

pi was able to handle the post trauma of him losing his family by just a believe in his faith; he

believed that there was life after death; He simply had faith (Wilson, 398).

Magical realism also plays a role in revealing the extreme trials our faith endures in the face of

life and death. The old man undergoes a lot of suffering in the face of humanity. He is used as a

tourist attraction despite him being human. He is used by Elisanda and Pelayo for material gain,

and after people had stopped coming, they were bored up and started complaining. He was no

longer wanted. In this way, we are shown how people face extreme suffering and trials. Pi, on

the other hand, suffers after the loss of his family, he had to find answers which his religion

neither his science could offer (Martel 109).

Examples that illustrate magical realism from the stories include; in the Life of Pi the story of Pi

and the animals in the boat is magical realism, "I know zoos are no longer in peoples good

graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.

after pi was thrown out of the boat, he finds himself in a boat with there animals which remind

him of the laws of the jungle. Whereby in the jungle, there are groupings from the most powerful

animal most feared by all to the weakest one at the bottom, in the jungle there is totally no

freedom, they are exposed to predators and are at a high risk of starvation due to lack of food but
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in the zoos they are perfectly fed and at the right time and well taken care of. In the religious

aspect, people may believe that when faced with religious intolerance and oppression, their

religious beliefs may help them to face the challenges effectively (Martel 123).

In A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings "What surprised him most, however, was the logic

of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldnt

understand why other men didnt have them too. The man didnt understand why he was with

wings while others did not have. The reality is seen in a magical way. Neither the religion nor

science could offer an answer to him. The angel is also very magical and works miracles; he

cures the boy instead of letting him die. This shows that on the other hand he is human too as he

is described as a drenched great grand father.

"The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar." (Life of Pi) Here there is magical

realism as it shows the nature of the human story of survival in all kind of life. When in a sad and

poor state the mind will always find a way to deal with the situation and come out victorious.

In summary, the two works try to explain the role of magical realism in the society and how they

have been blended with fantasy.

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Work cited

Aldea, Eva. Magical Realism and Deleuze: The Indiscernibility of Difference in Postcolonial

Literature. London: Continuum, 2011. Print.

Doyle, Brian. The Plover. , 2015. Print.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. Orlando: Harvest, 2004. Internet resource.

Martel, Yann. The High Mountains of Portugal. , 2016. Print.

Wilson, Flannery. New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus: Moving Within and Beyond the Frame.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014. Print.