“She kept watching him even when she was through cutting onions and she kept on watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea.”(669)
Marquez makes a point by describing the old man in a very unconventional way; he is by no means a typical angel, if indeed he is an angel at all. He is disheveled and weak, speaks an incomprehensible tongue, makes little attempt to communicate, is infested with parasites, and has ugly vulture-like wings. He bears little resemblance to biblical angels, without halo, flowing robes and magnificent presence, and humans don’t seem to respect him as such. Author may imply that villagers in a typical human behavior have been passing a judgment, based solely on looks and attributes. He may be suggesting that things are not always as they seem, and one should try to look deeper into a person or situation before forming an opinion.
The truly interesting aspect of the story is how fast the angel loses his incredible status. People, who at first where lining the street to see him caged and eagerly have paid five cents, for the privilege, soon abandoned him in favor of new attraction -- a Spider-Woman. Angel failed their expectations, he didn’t “act”, he didn’t seem to perform any valuable miracles and soon he became a nuisance. How very true of human nature--only to be interested in something or someone—while it provides amusement or grants favors. Even Pelayo and Elisenda who have made a fortune on angel’s popularity showed no gratitude or interests in his well-being
Garcia Marquez presents the old man with wings without much explanation, his character never utters a word, therefore we cannot categorize him, and that’s unsettling to the reader. He is very real, until the moment he flies away. Only then we can “ imagine” that he never existed. Therefore he is contradiction in terms like magical realism itself.
Octavio Paz’s extraordinary tale of “My Life with the Wave” is a poetic description of an unlikely union. Paz experiments with composition, and techniques and takes modern story to a higher level. He plays with our imagination from the start, and lets us believe the man and “a daughter of the sea” bewildered with each other, try to establish a relationship, despite their different backgrounds. The way this two character react to one another represents the friction found so often in relationships. This is a love affair doomed from the beginning, but destined to be experienced, and we are invited for the ride.
Like so many other wonderful tales from Latin cultures, this story blends imaginative events with realism. Paz encourages you to believe in incredible—a passionate love affair between a man and the wave—at the same time posing realistic problem in front of the readers—issue of transporting man’s beloved on the train to Mexico City. Those contradiction leave reader a little puzzled, but very engaged in the story, opening a completely new universe before his very eyes. Choosing a wave as his metaphorical heroine had special meaning, for she represents all the qualities of water: unstable, ever changing moods--calm and tender or fiery and passionate. The water can never be truly conquered or contained; it can evaporate or freeze. That’s how the author is imagining a woman-- unpredictable, temperamental and impossible to subdue.
Paz present’s the wave as a real being, however she has very special qualities too. She is immortal and resourceful, when left behind on a train, and poured into the engine she becomes a vapor and finds her way into her lover’s apartment in the city. Proving how budding love can overcome all the obstacles on its way to happiness. They’re as her usual self in a small apartment she waits upon her lover’s arrival from jail. He also suffers for her, imprisoned for smuggling her on the train. Once reunited, however, they forget all the trouble and carry on as most relationships in the beginning:
“Love was a game, a perpetual creation. Everything was beach, sand a bed of sheets that are always fresh.”(534)
That didn’t last forever as one may expect, just like moody water the wave began quickly change her ways. She started to complain of solitude, roared and twisted at unexpected hours and become irritated:” She changed her moods and appearance in a way I thought fantastic, but it was as fatal as the tide.”(535) Her lover tried to amuse her bringing her shells, conches and little fish—just like in real life one brings gifts, tries to mend a relationship by bringing kids into this world. And just like in real world it leads only to more complications, for woman often devotes all of her attention to her children, totally neglecting her partner. In the fit of desperation and jealousy, the main character in the story attacks the little fish hoping to get some attention from his lover. This however brings only more troubles, since as every mother, wave defends her children ferociously and brings her partner to the point of death.” Her sweet arms became knotty cords that strangled me”(536)
As winter arrives and relationship goes sour, the protagonist decides to run away from this toxic union, he breaths fresh air in the mountain, and feels liberated. Upon his arrival he finds a statue of ice, which once was his beloved wave. Without thinking twice he sells her to a waiter friend, and she is cut and deposited in buckets chilling wine. Although Paz’s ending seems to be very cruel in respect to the wave, we somehow sense that in her perpetual nature she will emerge again, shimmering, happy and ready to love again.
There is a lot to be learned from this careful analysis of one imaginary, but how realistic and familiar scheme of a relationship. Passion and magic that connects two entirely different beings quickly dissolves and leaves them with very down-to earth problems that must be addressed if the union is to be successful. Perhaps the indication of the problem, that has appeared in the very beginning is that even in the most intimate moments, at the peak of their love, the protagonist could never understand his lover: ”But I never reached to the center of her being” He was simply content by noting: ”Perhaps it does not exists in waves, that secret place that renders a woman vulnerable and moral…”(535) As a typical male he discredited wave’s sensibility, simply because he could not discover it.
Authors use magical realism as vehicle, which transports reader from reality into the abstract universe, full of symbols and hidden meanings. They serve as a modern version of a fairy tales for grown ups, tantalizing our imagination, making us rediscover and rethink universal truths: love, human relationships, morality, virtues. Marquez and Paz mix fantastic elements with down-to-earth stories in order to create new world, one that will make us look at life from a perspective, objectively and appeal to us at a subconscious, spiritual level. It also should help us broaden our range of beliefs and possibilities.
