Magical Realism: From James to Research Paper

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In another type of story, this reaction would simply be the fantasy-action hero's resolve to beat the bad evil spirits. This story, however, is far more realistic, and there is even some question a to whether or not the ghosts are real. The governess convinces herself that the children, Flora and Miles, can see the ghosts and are pretending not to out of some sort of collusion with them against her. She fears the ghosts not for herself, but for the corrupting influence she believes they are having on the children (and the influence the two individuals she believes them to be had on Flora and Miles in life). Yet one very possible interpretation of the novel is that the governess is the only one who actually sees the ghosts, and may even be hallucinating. At one point, when confronting Flora about the ghost, she remarks, "I quailed even though my certitude that she thoroughly saw was never greater than at that instant" (James, 140). In this way, the magical realism disrupts the narrative by increasing the ambiguity James has created with the frame and double first-person narrators (in the frame and in the manuscript).

In Like Water for Chocolate, on the other hand, the ambiguity is far more subtle and is not an aspect of the narrative as a whole. The ghost of Tita's mother most definitely appears, and even lights Pedro on fire. The elements of magical realism here are certain and paramount to the story. Tita falls in love with Pedro, but cannot marry him because she is expected to take care of her mother. When Pedro marries her sister in an attempt to at least be closer to Tita, her grief is transmitted to the wedding guests by her cake. This is the first instance of this fantastical ability or byproduct of Tita's cooking, which appears several times.

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There are also other instances of Tita's mood possibly -- and likely -- affecting the things around her. In this story, magical realism is used to reflect the mood and enhance the narrative of the movie, rather than disrupt and question it is it does in the Turn of the Screw. There is even a possibility that it drives the plot; when Tita's sister becomes ill late in the movie and eventually dies, it is possible that Tita's cooking -- not through poisoning but through the seeping-in of years of pent-up frustration, anger, and betrayal -- is responsible for causing the ongoing digestive problems that eventually kill her.

There is a much more fantastical strain to Like Water for Chocolate than in the Turn of the Screw, which is grounded in James' psychological realism. Both narratives, however, could be classified as magical realism. The similarities that allow for this classification are surprisingly simple -- elements of fantasy are introduced to both stories as a way of exploring the very real relationships between the characters of the stories and the worlds they inhabit. Though other genres use fantasy as a way to escape reality, magical realism uses it as a way to better define and understand reality. Magical realism, in some ways, is more a way of reading certain works of literature than something inherent to the works themselves; it engages the reader in several worlds at a time, and calls conclusions about all of these worlds into….....

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