Big Fish Magical Realism

Over the years, science and reason has increasingly overpowered many cultural legends and myths, causing them to be considered as escapist fiction. However, even though magical realism may contain what we deem to be fantasy elements, magical realism “conveys the reality of one or several worldviews that actually exists or existed” as stated in Bruce Holland’s article titled, “What Is Magical Realism Really?” (1). There are multiple versions of it, each with its own cultural background and beliefs. Magical realism is a type of realism but “one different from the realism...most of our culture now experiences” (1). Although it is different from the typical western culture nonfiction, it still a type of reality.
Both fantasy and magical realism
can contain magical elements such as witches and spells, however magical realism is distinctive because it seamlessly blends the miraculous with the ordinary, an essential component to this genre. In the beginning of Gabriel Marquez’s short story titled, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” the townspeople’s reaction to a fallen angel in the protagonist’s backyard made it seem that the angel was ordinary, not some magical creature from a different planet. “They looked at [the “angel”] so long and so closely that...he was almost found familiar” (1). Their strong Catholic culture influenced them to believe in angels, an ethnic reality. Angels seemed natural to them since they are mentioned and accepted in the Bible. Later in the story, when a traveling carnival arrived to the town, the townspeople also had an ordinary reaction to an attraction featuring “a woman who had been changed into a spider for disobeying her parents” (3). In this Colombian culture, myths or legends are created to encourage people to obey certain rules. In this case the girl disobeyed her parents and she paid the price by turning into a spider; a price she paid for going against her culture’s laws (3). The townspeople were not flabbergasted when they saw the “spider woman” but unsurprised. Moreover, in Rudolfo Anaya’s novel Bless Me, Ultima, the town culturally accepts witches. Towards the commencement of the novel, the protagonist explains that Ultima’s powers can “lift curses laid by brujas” as well as “exorcise the evil the witches [plant] in people” (4). He sees witches as evil, not fantasy, characters. Likewise, when a witch is spotted or seen by the townspeople it is as ordinary as seeing a criminal. Again, their strong Catholic beliefs help create this cultural reality and cause the town’s ordinary response to a magical being. The people’s reaction in both quotes is an example of magical realism because the supernatural and ordinary are blended and seen as the coexisting. Influence of oral tradition is another factor of magical realism, however it is not as essential.
When the story holds influence of oral tradition, such as a tall tale, legend, or a story narrated by a charmed storyteller, it depicts magical realism. Edward Bloom, the father of the protagonist (William Bloom) of Tim Burton’s film Big Fish, is a storyteller that incorporates magical and whimsical pieces into his stories. Even though Bloom lengthens the truth, it is to a point of enjoyment to the reader. His charming personality and his addition of “flavor” to the story enables magical realism. Correspondingly, the narrator of Anaya's novel also recounts events that occurred in the past, impacted by oral tradition. The story begins with Antonio (the main character) recounting his interactions and life events that occurred during the time Ultima was his teacher and friend when he was six to seven years old. However the time gap between the events in the story and his retelling of the story causes suspicion of a unreliable narrator. These elements resemble magical
realism. An interesting component of magical realism is that time does not always follow or occur in a linear order.
In Big Fish, Edward Bloom does not recount the story “through and through” but adds his own twist and his end is really the beginning. This is evidenced by beginning the movie with a story of overcoming his childhood fear of a witch and her being the lady whom he dumped for his wife, who became lonely and known as a witch. In addition, close to the middle of the film, time is stopped. Edward Bloom visits a carnival where he sees the love of his life and time stood still, taking the familiar saying “when you meet the love of your life time stops’’ literally. Then adding “What they don’t tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.” This is a construct of time which does not follow typical Western conventions and is an element of magical realism. Similarly, in Julio Cortazar’s short story, “La Noche Boca Arriba,” the protagonist is living in parallel worlds. The reader is tricked into believing the main character is living in the modern day world and dreaming about living in the Aztec empire. However it is revealed at the end that he is an Aztec but he dreams about our modern day world even though he has never experienced it. “But now he knew he wouldn’t wake up, that he was awake…[the] dream’s infinite lie had approached him” (Cortazar, 22). This blend between two parallel and distinct worlds can be an example of magical realism
because it shows evidence that time is not linear. Overall magical realism is a different form of the reality one is used to when comparing it to western culture’s nonfiction, but it is real. It shows different world views in varying perspectives, and enables the gain of knowledge about cultural identities.