Horacio Quiroga's The Decapitated Chicken

Written by Horacio Quiroga, “The Decapitated Chicken is an engaging, emotion-filled, tragic tale, that depicts the story of a family with children who have special needs. It is evident that this text was written amid the contemporary period during the late 19th century or early 20th century. During this time period, characteristics such as magical realism and hybrids of realism and modernism are prevalent in addition to themes like terror and revolution and political upheaval, which are all unmistakable in this work of literature. The theme of terror is extremely prevalent in this story. Many writers during this period were influenced by the horror-filled writings of Edgar Allen Poe. While his influence can be clearly seen in “The Decapitated
The story depicts a couple full of love and passion. After having three baby boys who all become ill and lose the majority their cognitive ability, the couple is distraught, their hope for a better life having decreased greatly. A few years later they conceive a child who remains healthy through the majority of her childhood, until her brothers find her and decapitate her. At this point the parents are completely stripped of their belief in a promise for a better life.
Additionally, there are hints of the literary theme of magical realism in this text. Magical realism seeks the union of opposites such as life and death or urban and rural. In this story, magical realism is seen through the joining of intense loss and intense gain. It is almost magical and otherworldy the extremely levels of joy that they experience through the birth of their daughter joined with the deep level of loss through her death. At the same time, the story is depicting the real life events of a family bringing in the realism literary