In the first chapter, I studied the various ways in which a narrator produces a magical realist effect in the text. One important point that emerged from the passages being analysed was the centrality of communal belief for adopting a perspective upon reality that is regarded as valid. Disbelievers are frowned upon while storytellers are seen to embellish and exaggerate their accounts on many occasions. The confusion that arises for the reader creates the impression that two points of view upon a given reality are battling with one another. In fact, there are frequent examples within both texts where events are described from conflicting perspectives, leaving the reader feeling bewildered by the tone of the passage under interpretation.

In the opening paragraph of García Márquez's novel, the gypsy Melquíades utters the first spoken words of the novel, which function as an explanation for the apparently magical properties of the magnets to the wide-eyed inhabitants of Macondo: ‘las cosas tienen vida propria … todo es cuestión de despertarles el ánima' (García Márquez 2000, 82). This naïve and isolated community, we are told, is visited by a band of gypsies every year who bring a variety of magical gadgets and objects ranging from telescopes to flying carpets.