Magical Realism: From James to

Magical Realism: From James to Esquivel Magical realism is difficult to describe. Some maintain that it is a distinct genre, others that it is a style that can be found in several different genres and periods of literature.

The tem was first applied to a handful of Latin American authors and their works that incorporated fantastical and/or magical elements in a very realistic manner to enhance and disrupt their narratives and create stories compelling not only for the truths they reveal and the striking features of many of the plot points, but also for how these stories are told; the language used and the implied spirit behind it.

The Mexican film Like Water for Chocolate, directed by Alfonso Arau and written by Laura Esquivel, who also wrote the novel upon which this film is based, is a classic example of the magical realism in its first recognized state -- that is, as one part of the current Latin American tradition. A less immediately recognizable writer in the magical realism style is Henry James, the nineteenth-century American author of the Turn of the Screw.

Both of these stories are delivered in realistic styles, but are interspersed with interactions and utilizations of the supernatural in ways that are taken as almost ordinary by at least several of the characters.

There are also many differences in the two narratives, however, and an exploration of the use of magical realism in both James' the Turn of the Screw and Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate reveals that despite the differences in the ways these two works employ that particular style, a clear definition of the term is allowed to emerge. Henry James' the Turn of the Screw is basically a ghost story.

Like many of James' works, it is delivered within a frame; that is, the actual story of the novel takes place within a larger story. The frame's narrator is listening to a friend read a manuscript that the latter claims was written by a former governess, now deceased, that he once knew. It is the story found in the manuscript that tells the real tale of the novel, but the appearance of magical realism begin with the frame's narrator and the way he sets up the story.

Though magical realism is not the same as fantasy, there are elements of fantasy in it. In this instance, the tale takes place as an adult ghost story, delivered with total seriousness and even some trepidation -- Douglas, the reader of the manuscript, informs the group of listeners that "Nobody but me, till now, has ever heard. it's quite too horrible'" (James, 6).

The group has been discussing and telling ghost stories, all of which seem to be believed with a mixture of horror and delight, and Douglas' reading of the governess' manuscript promises to be the most delightful and the most horrifying -- a contrast of moods typical to magical realism. The story the governess tells in her manuscript involves her becoming the sole caretaker of two children, Flora and Miles. She begins to see two figure, a man and woman, that she quickly comes to believe are ghosts.

Though she is far from pleased at their appearance -- the disturbance they create with her and as she believes with the children make up the action of the novel -- she also does not react to them with the horror and shock the one would expect, but rather encounters them as a problem to be dealt with, which is typical of the way characters in magical realism deal with fantastical manifestations.

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. There are also other instances of Tita's mood possibly -- and likely -- affecting the things.