Ashley Duvelius' Opinion of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

          Good evening, my fellow bloggers!  This week my literature class has been reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short stories.  Marquez's two stories, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World," are very different yet uniquely similar in their metaphorical meaning.  Both are of the genre of Magical Realism fiction.  Marquez's idea of Magical Realism was to create tiny myths to confuse the reader, to communicate the intensity of simply being alive, that art helps one feel less alone in the world, and also, that art is all about catharsis.  All of which he interestingly conveys in his short stories.
          Marquez's first story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," was about a fallen angel.  This fallen angel was not what one would normally preconceive an angel to look like because he was old and filthy.  The Church didn't believe he was an angel and even said that he could not possibly be an angel because he did not speak in the sacred tongue of Latin. That is exactly the criticism that Marquez was trying to make here:  the Church is blinded by preconceived notions and this made the divine uncomprehendable, unimaginable.  Marquez's story criticized the Church as an institution, not as a religion.  He was poking fun at the Church's hierarchy and their judgment when he wrote of their delayed and lofty response to the parish priest. The bigger picture for Marquez is that the human faith is limited by our blinding ideals.  The Church had such a strong affect on the villagers in the story that they, too, did not believe the old man was an angel.  I felt very sorry for the old man as the people paid to see him like at a carnival, and they threw garbage at him.  I believed that it was definitely possible for him to be divine.  I even thought that those villagers were making bad karma for themselves by treating him so poorly.  Then the last line of this story meant that the divine is so unimaginable and uncomprehendable that it is best to keep it out of ones lives.  I suppose it would be best to keep the divine out of ones lives if it truly is that spectacular.  The idea of the divine is also the focus in Marquez's other short story, "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."         

          In Marquez's story, "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World," there is a village of normal people which is similar to the village of people in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."  Down to the mention of courtyards, much of the two stories' villages were the same.  Also, obviously, both of the villages experienced the arrival of a mysteries unearthly stranger.  What differed between the two strangers, was that the old man was filthy, old, and ill, while the handsomest man was the most handsome, large, and vibrantly healthy man in death that any of the villagers had ever seen before.The other main things that differed between the stories was the way the villagers perceived their stranger and how they treated him.  The villagers who took care of the handsomest man took very special care of him and treated him as if he was a god.  Those villagers had created a reality based on the dead, handsome man.  Their fictional reality became their actual reality as they had created a divine world centered on him.  The handsome man was the divine because the villagers had no preconceived notions of celestial beings and they believed that this man had to be one.  Their faith was limitless because they were not blind to what could be the divine.  I, myself, was even fascinated by the handsome man.  I could imagine this fictional reality of the handsome man leading his village and being virtuous, mighty.  I was glad that the villagers treated the man with such respect and honor, even in death.  I felt like this short story showed how to achieve good karma and how to open one's mind to the idea of the sublime.
          Marquez's short stories were a breath of fresh air compared to Cortazar's twisty, dark plots.  I enjoyed his stories more because they had differing views on the limits of human faith.  It was interesting to read two stories that were strikingly similar, yet their concepts were completely different.  The old man was the unlikely angel, whom I felt sorry for and truly wished I could change his fate with the villagers.  I honestly don't know how people can treat other people like that.  The handsome man was a more positive tale of a celestial being.  The man was treated like a god and the faith that the villagers possessed for him was inspiring.  Their devotion and respect for him made me happy that there are people who can have faith that is not blind.  However, by creating their own reality with the man, they were perhaps blinded from their real life and from their real responsibilities.  I will have to read more literature dealing with thoughts of the divine through magical realism.  I find it interesting and different.  I, unlike the first villagers, have an open mind and a faith that is limitless.