Jorge Borges and Julio Cortazar: Magic Realism as an Aid to Reveal New Aspects of Reality

Jorge Borges and Julio Cortazar use magical realism to aid the reader reveal new aspects of reality. In the tales “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Borges and “Letter to a Lady in Paris” by Julio Cortazar.The use of magical realism aids the reader develop deeper understandings of the subjects in the work.

In the short tale “Garden of Forking Paths”, magical realism is shown through the new perspective of time. This new perspective was shown in a book within the short story. The book was described to be a maze. Ts’ui Pen, author of the novel, suggested a reality totally different from everyone else’s. So different and out of proportion that his family wanted nothing to do with his work. They even cursed the monk who published it. For these reasons, the magical realism of the story is time. Time is non contradictory aspect of practical reality, yet in this tale, time is limitless and every possibility is fulfilled. Stephen Albert further explains, “there is an infinite series of time, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel times” (9). This concept of time would be unfathomable, but magical realism helps the reader realize this new perspective on the reality of time.

In “Letter to a Lady in Paris”, a new perspective on the reality of apprehensiveness disarrays are given. The narrator shows signs of having severe anxiety. Yet, instead of having an anxiety attacks, they vomit up a rabbit. Vomiting rabbits would be the magical realism of the story. Although anxiety disarrays are common in reality, vomiting bunnies are not. Jorge Borge uses magical realism through the bunnies and makes several connections to anxiety disarrays through them. The narrator wrote, “vomiting up a little rabbit from time to time wasn’t such a nuisance after all once you’d mastered the cycle, the method” (2). Just as the narrator got used to vomiting bunnies, most people with anxiety disarrays get used to living with their disarray. The bunnies symbolize the narrator’s anxiety disarray. The narrator’s anxiety worsened as more bunnies accumulate and the bunnies, anxiety disarray, drive him to become an insomniac. The narrator formulates, “Not so with eleven, for eleven inevitably means twelve, Andree, twelve which will become thirteen” (5). This is the narrator confessing they believe they have lost control of the bunnies and also believe it will only get worse. Soon after writing this, the narrator commits suicide. The narrator also kills the bunnies with him, which could exhibit the narrators thought of killing their anxiety disorder while committing suicide. A new aspect on the reality of anxiety disorders is better perceived and comprehended when the use of magical realism through vomiting of the bunnies is used. “The Garden of Forking Paths” and “Letter to a Lady in Paris” both give a new aspect on reality. “The Garden of Forking Paths” subjects anxiety disorders, while “Letter to a Lady in Paris” introduces a new perspective of reality on time. Both tales are able to use magical realism to aid the reader in revealing these new aspects.