The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami, 100 Years...

Magical realism, as described by Michael Woods, is not a style of writing, just a modest fidelity to the magic of reality in places where we are not. Woods goes on to tell his audience of the allure of magical realism by explaining that reality in foreign places are more enchanting and exciting than probably anything a reader could think of. Woods sets out vague principles of what magical realism rarely resorts to. His list includes: dates, recognizable city streets, historical personages, diaries, gritty descriptions, invitations to look things up in the newspapers†¦. Late night settings, promises of much strangeness, aghast and/or terrified audience of listeners within the tale. By Woods standards he tells what does†¦show more content†¦Although Nutmeg mentions her job and work through the latter half of the novel it is never clear what she does and how Toru helps her. Why was the well dry? Who was that faceless man? Although the author gives a general idea about the answers to the questions, it is still left unclear of the correct answer and is up for interpretation. Dante’s Inferno also leaves the reader with more questions than answers. In Inferno, symbolism is extremely obvious yet Dante still leaves certain questions unanswered. The story never reveals why those in Hell are only punished for a single sin rather than more than one sin or why he only cares about those suffering in Hell who are from Florence and choses to ignore those some while he talks to others. Dante stays predominantly compliant to Woods’ list of things that a magically realistic rarely does. Even though Dante makes reference to â€Å"historic personages,† he makes note of them for their reason in Hell from their past. To a reader of present time, the dates (Good Friday to Easter Sunday of the year 1300) seem almost irrelevant and one would find it rather difficult to find a newspaper entry on something from the fourteenth century. A component of In ferno is that while Dante is experiencing and traveling through Hell, he finds none of this out of the ordinary. In fact, he wonders why he was picked to participate in this shamanistic journey. Woods tells, â€Å"Hell is real or imaginary, strange or all too