Ib Literature Paper

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, takes the spotlight for this reflective essay. The mythical town of Macondo is the main setting for the story during a time of turmoil in Latin America. Gabriel Garcia Marquez reveals an exciting world of fantasy and realism by cleverly inserting works of fiction at unpredictable intervals. This addition of magical realism can be found throughout the story.
The mention of flying carpets at the carnival within this fantasy world portrays a perfect example of magical realism. My expectation of a carnival is that strange and exotic objects exist, but flying carpets symbolizes fantasy. The realism of this passage is that the existence of a carnival is perfectly normal, but flying carpets cannot possibility exist. Confusion overtakes my mind while reading the section mentioning the flying carpets because everything that occurs prior to this point contain realistic world elements. After reading the section several times over, I realize that this is a world of realism as well as that of fiction. Magical realism confuses me by making me doubt if what I am reading is a work of fiction or that of realism.
The difference in culture between Latin America and North America is another major factor influencing my understanding of the story. Because of our cultural difference, it is entirely possible that a cultural difference can be mistaken for fantasy due to magical realism. The similarly in the names of the characters may be a cultural different or fictional. In American culture, the children usually get unique first names but similar last name. Members of the Buendia family either had their entire name or a large portion of their names identical to another member of the family. This tradition of using names of living or past relatives found within the story could possibly be part of South America culture. Due to my personal lack of cultural knowledge about South America, I had to suspend my own disbelief of this