Lesson 1: Magical Elements in Magical Realism

This is the first lesson in a series about One Hundred Years of Solitude and García Márquez's use of magical realism. The lessons can be taught in sequence or used independently. It is expected that students have read the novel before beginning these lessons.

The first two lessons in this unit look at both sides of this novel, the magical and the realistic elements, in an effort to come to understand magical realism. In Lesson 1, students begin their analysis through a study of how García Márquez used fantastic elements to enrich the story of the Buendía family and the history of Macondo.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Optional: A day or two before the lesson, freeze a large block of ice in a bucket; you might be able to use your school’s freezer. On the day of the lesson, bring the ice block to class in a cooler.

If you wish to spend more time on the concept of tone, or if you feel the need to provide a scaffold for the worksheet with a word bank, you may wish to have a list of words suggesting the author’s attitude toward his subject.

• Worksheet 1
• Worksheet 1 Teacher's Version

Activity 1. Magical Elements in Magical Realism

One of the hallmarks of García Márquez's magical realism is the porous boundary between the magical and the real. In this lesson, you will explore the specific techniques García Márquez uses to achieve this porosity—to blur lines that might seem hard and fast before we open the novel.

The Magic of Ice

Find the section about ice at the end of chapter 1, beginning with the paragraph that starts, "Holding a child by each hand..." Read aloud to the end of the chapter.

Reflection and Analysis

• Why might the people of Macondo think ice is magical? What other things might be perceived as magical in different times and places?
• Compare the reactions of José Arcadio Buendía and his two sons, Aureliano and José Arcadio,upon touching the ice.

Building Faith in Magic: Vivid Details

García Márquez actually claimed that everything he wrote had some basis in reality. Gabriel Garcia Marquez noted in his interview with The Paris Review, “The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination."

Reread the paragraph in chapter 1 that begins, “Holding a child by each hand …” and the two paragraphs in chapter 3 that begin, “Visitación did not recognize him … ” Then read an excerpt from the interview conducted by Peter Stone, “Gabriel García Márquez, The Art of Fiction No. 69.”

INTERVIEWER

There also seems to be a journalistic quality to that technique or tone. You describe seemingly fantastic events in such minute detail that it gives them their own reality. Is this something you have picked up from journalism?

GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

That’s a journalistic trick which you can also apply to literature. For example, if you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants flying in the sky, people will probably believe you. One Hundred Years of Solitude is full of that sort of thing. That’s exactly the technique my grandmother used. I remember particularly the story about the character who is surrounded by yellow butterflies. When I was very small there was an electrician who came to the house. I became very curious because he carried a belt with which he used to suspend himself from the electrical posts. My grandmother used to say that every time this man came around, he would leave the house full of butterflies.

Reflection and Analysis

• Provide a possible magical and non-magical explanation for Melquíades's reappearance.
• How does García Márquez integrate fantastic elements into the novel?
• How does García Márquez establish credibility in his fiction?
  • Think about two techniques in particular: the use of rich descriptive details to impress the reality of an event on the reader, and the matter-of-fact tone.

Building Faith in Magic: Tone

What is tone? A simple illustration: say the sentence, "You didn't do your homework" in several different ways.

• Very loud and aggressively (angry, exasperated);
• With emphasis on the word “You” and a questioning tone (surprise that a good student didn’t complete it);
• Slowly, stopping after each word (annoyed);
• Sing-song, like children teasing (taunting).

Though the words are the same in each case, the tone--or attitude of the speaker towards the subject--is different.

Think of a tone word that might ordinarily describe how they would feel if they saw someone coming back from the dead.

Locate Prudencio Aguilar’s ghostly return in Chapter 2. Read aloud from “The matter was put down as a duel of honor. …” to “Go in peace now.”

Reflection and Analysis

• What kind of tone does García Márquez use to describe this ghostly apparition? Use specific evidence from the text to support your claims.
• What effect does this tone have on the narrative?
• What effect does it have on the reader?

Use Worksheet 1 to analyze specific details and examples of tone.

Choose your favorite “magical” event from the novel. (Select one not already discussed in this lesson.) Write a paragraph explaining how García Márquez included specific details and a matter-of-fact tone in order to blur the line between fantasy and reality in this episode. Use textual evidence in your explanation.

Magical Realism in Art: The New Objectivity

While the term "magical realism" has become associated most closely with Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, and Isabel Allende, it was first used to describe visual art. In particular, it was associated with an artistic style prominent in Weimar Germany after the end of World War I. This style was in part a reaction to the abstraction and romanticism common in Expressionism: these artists portrayed more somber subjects with careful and precise technique. "New Objectivity" is also used to describe many of these artists. Look for some examples of artwork in this style to get a feel for the way these artists represented their subjects. Remember that artistic and literary genres are usually applied retrospectively, so there is great diversity even within a given style. Then, examine this lithograph by Georg Scholz, a prominent magical realist artist in Germany.

• What was the social and economic context in which Scholz created this lithograph? What connections can you make between that context and the image?
• How would you characterize the "realism" of this image? What aspects seem more "real" to you? Why? What aspects seem more "magical"? Why?
• What kind of critique of German society do you think Scholz is making with this lithograph? Use specific visual evidence to support your answer. What techniques does he use to make this critique? Are they effective? Why or why not?

This lesson extension may provide a segue into the second lesson in this unit: Lesson 2: The Realism in Magical Realism