Use of Humor and Magical Realism, Essay Example

Every author—of fiction or non-fiction—writes to address a specific issue in society. Not all, but most of them write about serious themes in their works. But it might prove challenging to capture the readers’ attention if the writer is in a grim attitude throughout the piece. The difference between famous works like “The First Confession” and “The Destructors” and the others that have not had that much attention is the sense of humor in them. [1]A purely humorous work of literature may not be received well by the audience, but the one that uses enough flashes of humor here and there charms the readers and makes them read intimately to understand the writer’s message.

Frank O’Connor’s “First Confession” is a story narrated with humor. Frank addresses a serious theme of religion in this story and how it can shape children in their growth if it can be clarified for them to understand. Humor is evident throughout the story in irony, wit, and satire, among others. As the story begins, Jackie, the narrator, describes his grand-mother in dark humor that portrays her as an old-fashioned woman. He says she had old wrinkled face and would not wear shoes (Frank). By this description, we get the first glimpse of Jackie’s attitude toward his grandmother. And to make his grand-mother even more old-fashioned, he continues to say that the reason she moved around barefooted is that she claimed that “the boots had her crippled.” That was ironic because whereas shoes are supposed to protect one’s feet from harm, for her, it was the opposite—making her crippled.

It was also ironic that the narrator would be in trouble for being honest. He says that being too honest was his trouble(Frank). Although Nora, the narrator’s sister, used to take money from her grandmother, Jackie ended up paying for it. And then “to crown her misfortunes,” it came a time for him to confess for the first time in his entire life (Frank)

On his way to the priest to confess, Nora turns to remind him of all the bad things he had done. But, ironically, although they are many, Jackie finds out that his sister did not even have half of his sins (Frank). Up in the church, Jackie uses satire to describe the hypocrisy of his sister.  He says that when it was her turn to confess, even her voice changed, “as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.” He compares the ever teasing sister who always tells on him and the sister whose time to confess had come and he sees her walking style changing to that of a saint (Frank). And then, in the actual confession, he discovers that it was not as hard as he had thought.

Graham Greene’s “The Destructors” is another story that uses humor to address the theme of loyalty. At the beginning of the story, as the gang boys are making plans for destruction, and at the same time their current leader is losing his command on the group, Graham describes Mike’s—one of the gang boy—reaction as being surprised to the extent of involuntarily opening his mouth. The reason he had learned not to open his mouth was that he had once been told, “You’ll get a frog down it.” Here, Graham uses humor to describe the boy.

The boys are planning to “pinch free rides” from buses, but their new recruit, T, comes up with a new plan that captures all the boys’ attention and renders him the leader. The plan entails demolishing the house of the Old Misery. When the other boys tell him that it is too dangerous and they would be caught, he explains it humoredly that they would never be caught because they would do the destruction like “worms in an apple,” doing the damage unnoticed (Graham).

When the destruction starts, the boys coordinate the work so well under T’s leadership that even Blackie, their former leader, is impressed by it. However, the Old Misery returns unexpectedly and before the demolition is over. They lure him deceptively into his toilet, where they lock him up so that they can finish up with the destruction; they tell him, “There’s nothing personal; we want you to be comfortable tonight.” But the humor is depicted by how the final blaze of demolition is done. The boys tie a rope from the building’s supporters to a lorry packed nearby, and when the driver starts it, he unconsciously draws the whole building with him. But the writer says humoredly, “That way he (the driver) could drive right out and down the street without reversing,” now that the building was no more.

Magical realism is another literary genre that authors use to present their fictional work. It is a style of painting the realistic modern world with an additional touch of supernatural and magical aspects in creating fiction. This style is in between fantasy and reality like in the “Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “The Youngest Doll.” It is commonly associated with Latin Americans, but other authors in other parts of the world have been using this style to depict aspects in their stories that would otherwise have proven impossible in reality. [2]Therefore, magical realism is a style that authors use to help them boost the conveyance of their idea into society.

In the “Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” Marquez uses magical realism to paint the drowned man as so enormous and handsome in an impossible way. In the villager’s hands as they curried him, he was as heavy as a horse (Gabriel). The use of the aspects of magic makes this man draw the attention of everyone in the village while at the same time being seen as responsible for the natural changes; the village women felt that the wind was steadier than ever before, and they attributed the phenomenon to the presence of the stranger’s body (Gabriel). Here, Gabriel uses magical realism to depict the theme of isolation. If it were in reality, the isolation the drowned man suffered would not have been so intensified.

It is also magical how this man, a stranger to the village, keeps influencing their lives even after his body has been thrown into the sea. “They knew that everything would be different from then on” (Gabriel). And it became different because the houses they started constructing thereafter were so that they would accommodate this stranger’s enormous body, so that his memory would not leave them (Gabriel).

In “The Youngest Doll,” Rosario Ferre uses the dolls to portray magical realism. It was an impossible event in real life for someone of her beauty to give up her whole life to devote herself to making dolls for her nieces just because a river prawn had bitten her. Although she was beautiful, the prawn growing in her leg made her see life as nothing. It was also a strange prawn that had bitten her, because the doctor’s conclusion was that it had penetrated her leg and it was determined to grow there (Ferre)

Ferre uses the unrealistic prawn bite to portray the theme of the doctor’s selfishness; the doctor had brought his son to the aunt to see where he had been getting his school fees from (Ferre). And that was by treating the prawn inside the aunt’s leg. It would have been hard for the writer to portray the theme without magical realism because without the prawn bite the doctor would not have had a chance to show his selfishness.

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