In the creation of her novel, “The House of the Spirits”, author Isabel Allende uses a literary technique called ‘magic realism’. Magic realism is the approach to a narrative in which fantasy occurs as commonplace within a façade of reality. Selective magical details, as well as reappearing fantastical themes, weave themselves together with a realistic world to create a multitude of creative possibilities. Isabel Allende’s understanding of the creative scope of magic realism is that of a true humanist, as she explains:

“In Latin America, we value dreams, passions, obsessions, emotions, and all that which is very important to our lives has a place in literature – our sense of family, our sense of religion, of superstition too. That’s magic realism – the emotions that everybody has, plus our reality”.

In this quote Isabelle Allende describes several main aspects of human existence that are enhanced by the use of magic realism. Many human characteristics are clearly evident in “The House of the Spirits”, and the use, or the lack of, magic realism, is important in highlighting each characteristic.

Overall, Isabel Allende’s magic realism is used to present dreams, superstition, and idealistic obsessions shared by all humans, amplified, but still within the context of a firm reality. I feel that this allows these aspects to be appreciated with a greater degree of subtle appreciation of the absurdity, the beauty, and the seriousness of human characters. This is typically lost in many works of general fantasy, which lack such strong linkages with our own world.

Isabelle Allende also emphasises how magic realism can effectively represent people’s obsessions. Uncle Marcos is the best example of this. His eccentric behaviour, and fantastic adventures are blown into fantastical proportions. The magic realism used in the descriptions of him, allow the author to exaggerate typically normal obsessions to the extent where they strike the reader as incredible. Generally within the book, most passions and obsessions are associated with male characters, and mostly have a negative effect on the character’s life, as with Uncle Marcos, who ends up dying on one of his adventures.

The quote comes from a major section of the novel, which is devoid of magical realism. During this period, politics is depicted as a passion, and the magic realism is replaced with powerful serious imagery. This contrast with the rest of the book highlights the author’s belief in the seriousness of politics in human existence.

“In the big house on the corner, Senator Trueba opened a bottle of French champagne to celebrate the overthrow of the regime that he had fought against so ferociously, never suspecting that at that very moment his son Jaime’s testicles were being burned with an imported cigarette.”

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