Marquez reader response

 

The first Marquez story I read was called “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. After reading Cortazar, I was excited to read magical realism from another author.  The stories by Cortazar were both exciting and full of wild twists that were clear and unmistakable. However, this story did not impress me.  I was lost by the end of the story. I could not find the metaphor on my own and had to wait till class to learn the metaphor. I found out that the metaphor was that people’s expectation of the divine causes them to disown anything that does not match that description. As a Christian, I can relate to how judgmental some people in my own religion can be towards those who do not look and dress to their standards. The story was easy to read, but I failed to find the magical realism. I would have preferred the obvious magic that Cortazar used in his stories.  

The second story I read was called “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”. This story was written as a criticism of playboy magazine, which I learned in class. After finding that out, I was very impressed by how the author set up the story. The ideas of comparing yourself to something unattainable and living in a fantasy that changes nothing in the real world are portrayed perfectly in this story. I also felt like the story could be related to other means of fantasy such as movies and even books. The story was very humorous and was even funnier after finding the metaphor. I would even recommend this story to others so that they too could see the humorous nature. It is perfectly relevant to our society today because people are always trying to attain perfection in an imperfect world. I have never read stories by this author but I am very impressed after only reading these two.