Axolotl and Death and Transfiguration of a Teacher
As much as we view texts as products of human creativity, it is also important to be cognizant of the fact that they are exact reproductions of our culture. Garcia Marquez’s speech, The Solitude of Latin America, is an exact replica of this argument. The speech clearly features the world in which he wrote it. In his speech, Marquez features the major elements of magical realism by narrating the struggles of America in the 20th century (Márquez). It is quite breathtaking to talk of loneliness the entire world containing more than half a billion people. The celebrated author, however, goes ahead perfectly explain the possibility of solitude in the 20th century.
Maria Theresa Solari’s, Death and Transfiguration of the Teacher, uses magical realism to enlighten us on how the world would be chaotic with the disappearance of literature (Solari 843). The events narrated in the story are hard to believe although they pronounce the sad reality. It is quite unpleasant of how the education sector tries to dismiss the role of literature in building the society yet at the moments of crisis; the discipline is consulted (Solari 845). This story utilizes magical realism to illustrate that literature is a very vital discipline that can hardly be eradicated as more poets will rise even at the death of the present ones.
In the narration of the story, Axolotl, there is a notable constant change from the recent past to the present (Cortazar). The narrator first changes from a human to axolotl. He is too much attached to the axolotls that he visits them every day (Cortazar). Perhaps there is something human with the creatures since the author had never had a similar connection with any other animal. His fascination turns out to be an obsession as he is no longer able to distinguish his identity from that of the axolotls. The story ends with the man taking the third person point of view assuming that he has been trapped in the aquarium of the axolotl (Cortazar). 