Wings of Imagination: Magic Realism in Borges' The Circular Ruins and Marquez's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.

Abstract

Magic realism, a literary technique that blends magical elements with ordinary reality, gained prominence through the works of Latin American authors, particularly Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. Their ability to intertwine the fantastical with the mundane is evident in their iconic stories, such as The Circular Ruins by Borges and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Marquez. In The Circular Ruins, Borges masterfully explores the concept of creation through the mysterious tale of a man dreaming a son into existence. Marquez's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings presents the surreal arrival of a winged old man on a family's shore, blending the extraordinary with everyday life. These stories exemplify the core characteristics of magic realism—where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, often leaving readers pondering the underlying mysteries. Borges and Marquez’s sophisticated use of language and intricate narrative structures highlight their command of this literary style. This paper examines these texts, drawing insights from secondary sources such as journal articles and online analyses to explore how both writers expertly fuse magical elements with the ordinary, offering readers a unique narrative experience.