A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings&Big Fish

             Magical Realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality, it exists in both literature and film.  A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” tells the story of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda, who find an old man with wings in their courtyard after killing crabs in a rainstorm."The news of the captive angle spread with such rapidity that after a few hours the courtyard has the bustle of a marketplace..." (Marquez 2).Pelayo puts him in a chicken coop after being convinced by his neighbor that he is an angel, people swarmed to the chicken coop and paid to see the angel, soon Pelayo had enough money to build a mansion for him and his family. In "Big Fish" Will Bloom at spent his days hating his dad's stories because he thought they were all just made up stories, and he thought of his dad as a liar and a cheater only to realize at his death bed that his stories were real but simply exaggerated to make them sound more exciting and fun. 

           Magical realism in both Big Fish and A Very Old Man Enormous Wings teaches a lesson  by comparing reality to fantasy. A Very Old Man Enormous Wings teaches the human need to interpret and make sense of life's events by drawing conclusions."What surprised him most, however, was the logic of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn't understand why other men didn’t have them too.” (Marquez 4). People try to understand and put a logic sense to what they can not understand, and when they realize this, they lose interest in it because they can not interpret it and move on to the next thing they do not understand like the "shiny new toy". In Big Fish, Will comes to realization that   his fathers tall tales were only to expand his imagination and creativity, making his childhood more exciting and memorable.  Upon this realization, he continues to tell his father's tale to his own kids, letting his indulge in the fascinating world of magical realism.