“My Life With the Wave” by Octavio Paz Essay

March 19, 2022 by Essay Writer

Introduction

There are numerous reasons as to why people read fantasy stories. However, a major percentage of the people read the stories because they want to take their minds to a world way beyond the realistic one. The feeling that comes with suspending reality, and going into a fantasy world is breathtaking, and readers would pay any amount of money to have such a feeling in the real world. When an old person reads such stories, he or she feels as if he or she is young again.

The characters in the story, also take part in the reader’s real life. To analyze this issue better, there is a need to scrutinize two stories that relate to the subject matter. The paper discusses the two stories viz. my life with the wave, and a very old man with enormous wings to explore the suspension of reality aspect.

Discussion

My Life with the Wave

When reading My Life with the Wave by Octavio Paz, a person is driven into a new world of make-believe in which he or she is coaxed to rubbish reality. The story has a many-layered nature that escapes the normal definition of realism. The story additionally leaves the reader wondering whether the writer wanted to talk about a love relationship with the wave, reminiscence, or is it the imaginary encouragement that that follows him from the sea.

The imaginary spur already is an aspect that makes an individual wonder about the happenings of life is real in the world that is in the discussion. This helps to pull the reader to a new world that he or she cannot help but think it is a phenomenon, and that is an outstanding created fact by the author. As abovementioned, such a story pulls the mind of the reader to a point that he or she forgets where he or she is in the real sense (Kennedy and Gioia 348).

The Wave pulls the reader to the fantasy world since it has been personified, and additionally, creates a relationship with the reader that is physical, and emotional. If a reader does not settle keenly on the story, he or she will assume that the wave is a love relationship. The sections that would flabbergast the reader, and pull him or her to this conclusion are the sumptuous nature of the wave and the emotional relationship that the speaker has with the wave.

Up to that extent, the reader is already in a world that he or she has suspended reality. This may have been the main reason as to why the writer wrote the story. Therefore, the story is justified to be listed as one that makes a reader forget all his or her troubles and takes him or her to a journey that he or she will not come out of until he or she completes the reading.

One other factor that makes a person get lost is the inconsistencies that are brought forth by the wave. The wave has some non-human qualities, whilst it has human feelings. Her thunderstorms similar to those of the sea are knotted to the weather. This inanimate characteristic brings into view the fantasy part of the wave, and as abovementioned, that is one characteristic that pulls the reader towards a world that he or she can only but imagine (Kennedy and Gioia 348).

The wave also lacks mortality; this characteristic excites the reader to conclude that the world that he or she has been pulled to is imaginary. The vulnerability that the normal human being has is also not present in the life of the wave, and that is an outstanding aspect. Overall, the story is quite exceptional due to the characteristics of the wave, and the hidden information that is behind it. These intricacies persuade a person to go into a world that he or she cannot deny.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

This is additionally an outstanding story like the one discussed above. It is essential to write whenever an individual feels like going into an imaginary world. When reading this story, an individual is suspended from the normal world, and he or she only comes to reality after completing it. Pelayo and Elisenda find an old man with enormous wings on their courtyard. Up to this extent, the reader is already in a world that the unimaginable happens. The couple picks up the man from the mud and then tries to talk to him. The preacher says, “the old man does not speak their language” (Kennedy and Gioia 352).

This then brings the reader into a further imaginary world, and he or she starts to think of aliens or supernatural beings that can speak a language that man cannot understand. The other intricacy is how the whole community comes in, and tries to talk to the man to prove whether he is an angel or not. In reality, angels are not seen, and therefore, the world that the reader is in is fascinating especially as the priest talks in Latin to the angel but he cannot answer, therefore, ruling out the likelihood that he may be an archangel. The made-up world is also fascinating because the creature has too many mortal characteristics. It would be quite fascinating to meet such a being in the real world.

The reader is also put into the view of the family, and that is one aspect that is quite exceptional since he or she can live fully in the unrealistic world while having a first-person view. The other creature in the story is a tarantula who was once a person. These creatures fascinate since they are more than average when it comes to reality. The angel also can fly which is quite fascinating. Therefore, in genuineness, the story takes the reader to a world that has reality, and fantasy operating on a thin line, and that is one thing that makes the reader go onto a state of suspended realism. The feeling and the world that the reader goes to, as the one in the discussion gives life a meaning. The reader further wishes to find him or herself in such a world.

Conclusion

In conclusion, many fictional books have been written. Nonetheless, some of the books take a reader into a world that he or she cannot live in but only imagine. The two stories that have been discussed above are outstanding in the way that they pull the reader’s thoughts and take him or her to a world that he or she can only but imagine. This brings forth the term suspending reality that is the only word that can explain the responsiveness that the reader feels when he or she reads the stories.

Works Cited

Kennedy, X J and Dana Gioia. An Introduction to Fiction. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2009. Print.

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