Magical realism is a genre of modern fiction that goes beyond the reader’s sense of reality wherein there is fantasy, imagination, and a implication of surrealism; however there is still of quality of believability. In the novel The House of the Spirits as well as the short story “The Man With Enormous Wings”, magical realism is similarly employed. The “real” aspects of this literary-writing technique also evoke the ideas of social class distinction, power of life over humanity, and masculine characterization versus feminine characterization. These concepts are significant in both works, to demonstrate the reader’s perception of life.

In the novel, and the short story, fantastic attributes are given to the various protagonists to differentiate between the characteristics of the “normal” characters. For instance, The House of the Spirit’s Rosa the Beautiful, is credited with being “the most beautiful creature to be born on earth since the days of original sin” (Allende, 4). The vivid imagery describes her porcelain skin, green hair, and yellow eyes--although one would not regularly view these unusual features as beautiful, Allende uses the idea of magical realism to make Rosa seem striking. Likewise, Rosa’s sister was