Magic Realism In Mistress Of Spices By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Magic realism is a genre of narrative fiction and art includes literature, painting, film, theatre, etc, that, while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, expresses a primarily realistic view of the real world while also adding or revealing magical elements. Magic realism is a fiction or literature with magic or supernatural element presented in the real world. Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe”.
The history of magic realism is a complicated story spanning eight decades. First period is set in Germany in 1920’s, second period is set in 1940’s at Central America and third period is set in Latin America from 1955 to the present. In magic realism the term ‘magic’ is less theorized term of the two and it refers to the mystery of life. In marvellous and magical realism, ‘magic’ refers to any extraordinary occurrences and particular to any spiritual or accountable by rational science. Magic is brought about by tricks, it gives the illusion that something very unusual has happened, but in magic realism it is assumed that something very unusual has really happened. The experiment with magic realism succeeds best when the novelists uses the technique to present a meaningful vision of life.
Magic realism is a fusion of imagination and reality. The key figures in the development of the term magical realism are the German Artic Franz Roh in 1920’s, Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in mid twentieth century, Italian writer Massimo Bontempelli in 1920’s and 1930’s. Many people have been associated with the Development of magic(al) realism. There are many confusions concerning magic realism, which is developed from the fact that it was surrealism’s contemporary but it is important to note that the magic realist writer Alejo Carpentier was influenced from surrealists. Magic realism is related to art forms; it reaches for a new clarity of reality. In magical realist writings, the variety of magical occurrences includes ghosts, disappearances, Miracles, extraordinary talents and strange atmospheres, but it does not Include magic as Found in the magic show. The characteristic of magic realism includes frequently adopted narrative mode that is it’s inherent transgressive and subversive qualities, it is this feature that led many post- colonial, feminist and cross- cultural writers to embrace it as a means of expressing ideas. Morrison claims that magical realism provides ‘Another way of knowing things’. Many writers whose cultural perspectives include varied and sometimes contradictory cultural influences are drawn to magical realism as a form of expression. The experiment with magic realism succeeds best when the novelists uses the technique to present a meaningful vision of life.
The future of magic realism: It has been so very fashionable during last few decades of the 20th century, its survival as a recognized and popular narrative mode of writing into the 21st Century is somewhat a threat as fashions change. Theme of alienation: It is one of the most important manifestations of magical realism, alienated both in social and self. Use of language: Heightened language and narrative techniques are used in magic realism. Magic realism is chiefly Latin-American narrative, prominent among the magic realists in Latin – America are the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Brazilian Jorge Amado, the Argentines Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. In Indian writing, for instance, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Arundati Roy are notable prize winning writers and all are Writers of magical realism, these writers do not constitute a movement or group in Indian Literature, because each being unconnected to the other and are located in different countries.
Salman Rushdie in his work ‘Midnights Children’ incorporates ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ elements. Midnights children are gifted with magical powers. The novel is a political allegory that deals with the events in India, before and also independence. It’s partly an autobiographical novel which tells Rushdie’s story and the history of his country. Saleem in this novel though stays at the periphery of most of the dramatic events, he is almost present at every one of them. From the close reading of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s novel ‘Fall on Your Knees’ the justification of the formal and thematic dimensions of magic realism by presenting the story of a mixed race Cape Breton family from a lesbian feministic perspective. This novel also employs many of the manifestations of magic realism which was defined by Canadian and Latin American scholars. Her portrayal of sexual, racial, and national differences focuses on the need to expand and redefine magic realism within the framework of Canadian literature.
Other works Gabriel Gracia Marquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ (1982) fantastical things are always happening in the novel. Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ other work which has magical elements. there are changes in the physical appearance in some of the characters in the novel, which are most notable forms of magic realism. Chitra Banerjee includes Magical realism in her novel ‘Mistress of Spices’.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born on July 29, 1956. She is an Indian- American author. Divakaruni was born in Kolkata; she completed her B. A in 1976 from the University of Calcutta, then she received, her M. A from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She persuaded PhD from University of California, Berkley. At present she lives and teaches In Texas, she lives with her husband Murthy and two sons Anand and Abhay in Houston. Divakaruni’s work were published over 50 magazines, her writings was also included in over 50 anthologies. Her work has been translated into 29 languages mainly fiction. She began her Writing career as a poet. She has judged several prestigious awards they are National Book Award and Pen Faulkner Award.
The themes in her works include Indian experiences, immigration, contemporary America, History, myth and also the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world. Indian born Divakaruni brought new perspectives to contemporary women’s writings in the United States. She was positioned at the interface of various cultures. Her works allows for a variety of Reading such as feminism, transnationalism and multiculturalism, notions of exile, Post colonialism, and hybridity mixing with myth and magic. Gita Rajan states that,” Divakaruni uses mysticism to achieve her goal of making the Common place wondrous and the real extra- ordinary”. The magic included in her works is real natural and convincing.
Divakaruni’s plot is torn between old and new world values. She gives a many layered look at her characters to the readers and also the characters respective worlds, which are filled with Fear, hope and discovery through her sharp insight and skilled use of plot and lyrical Descriptions. Divakaruni says of her fiction: “It was important for me to start writing about My own reality and that of my community”. Her works: ‘Arranged Marriage’ was a first collection of stories won an American Book Award, a Pen Josephine Miles Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, this greatly Increased her fame. Her major novels were ‘The Mistress of Spices’ (1997), ‘Sister of My Heart’ (1999), ‘Queen of Dreams’ (2004),’ One Amazing Things’ (2010), ‘The Palace of Illusions’ (2008), ‘Oleander Girl’ (2013) and ‘Before We Visit the Goddess’ (2016). Her Greater parts of the novels are written for adults.
Film adaptation: The novel ‘Mistress of Spices’ was released as a film in the year 2005, the Film was directed by Paul Mayeda Berges. The script is by Berges, his wife and Gurinder Chadha. The film is of the same name ‘Mistress of Spices’ starred Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott. Awards for the novel ‘Mistress of Spices’: It was shortlisted for The Orange Prize in 1997. the Novel is the Los Angeles Times, best books of 1997, ‘In Seattle Times’ best paper backs of 1998. it’s a bestselling novel written in a unique style which blends prose and poetry, magic and reality. It was named one of the top hundred books of the 20th century by San Francisco Chronicle. Divakaruni comments, “I wrote the book in a spirit of play, collapsing the division between the realistic world of twentieth century America and timeless myth in my attempt to create a modern fable”.
“The Mistress of Spices is a dazzling tale of misbegotten dreams and desires, hopes and expectations, woven with poetry and storyteller magic” which was stated by Amy Tan. Pat Conroy states “A splendid novel, beautifully conceived and crafted”. In Los Angeles Times the novel is referred “An unusual, clever, and often exquisite first novel. . . the result is rather as if Isabel Allenda met Lura Esquivel” The chapters in the Mistress of Spices is named after different spices and the deep connection between the chapter heading and the subjects will be understood while reading the Novel. Spices has magical powers, but for that to work it has to be used correctly and carefully. The novel is spellbinding and hypnotizing, it is a tale of joy and sorrow with one special woman’s magical powers.
Divakarui adopts a more complex strategy for portraying diasporic identity. She uses fable in order to explore the various kinds of problems encountered by immigrants. Sometimes the problems of Diaspora are too complex for Tilo, the mistress of spices to deal with. Every immigrants in America, assimilates and prospers economically in the novel. The novel offers a close look at a wide spectrum of Indians writing in the Diaspora. The novel adopts a more mature structural configuration in order to discuss the Diaspora. All the chapters in the novel contains a little section about an individual and about their cultural encounter. Divakaruni’s texts are powerful and significant, particularly in mapping the contours of the New South Asian community in the United States. New Yorker review magazine says; “Divakaruni’s prose is so pungent that it stains the page, yet beneath the sighs and smells of this brand of magic realism, she deftly introduces her true theme: how ability to accommodate desire enlivens not only the individual heart but a society cornered by change”.
Tilo, a titular character was a young Indian woman in an old Indian women’s body. She has been trained in the power of spices. This special power leads her to Oakland, California. She uses the power to help the local Indian community; she opens a spice shop, where, she not only provides for cooking but also administers spices as curatives for the alienation and home sickness that the Indian immigrants in her shops experiences. The novel is a story of a girl who is born to poor parents and she was regarded as the one who will again put her parents in misery because they will have to pay dowry. They only know little about her that she is born with supernatural powers of foreseeing future at the time when she was born. One day pirates hear about her fame and they abducts her, but she was powerful enough to overthrow the chief and she became the queen of pirates. But she was not satisfied in the island. Then later she comes to an Island there she becomes the mistress of spices under the robust training of her first mother. The first mother thought about spices later these spices are to be used to cure other peoples’ m sery, given to them with the magical chants. Tilo can see people’s mind and heart; the main rule of the mistress’s is to keep herself away at a distance “not too far nor too near, in calm kindness poised”. She should also never use the power for herself but only to help others. But Tilo cannot obey the rule and she becomes emotionally attached to the customers on seeing their struggle with the demands of their family. The struggles of her customers were the clash of the old way versus the American way, racism, abusive husbands and most of the complexities of living in the modern world. Tilo involved herself to an American man named Raven; Tilo could not read the innermost thoughts of him. She violated her spice mistress vows with her complex and passionate relationship with her customers and Raven. She also seeks customers outside her shop, which was other forbidden rule. This results in spices inflicting punishment on her and also for those she cares.
D. B Gavani commented that: “for the second generation Indian like Geeta, the question about identity is differently poised. She challenges continuous identification with patriarchal traditions which she associates her grandfather. Tilo empathizes with Geeta, tries to assenge their pain and the novel tell us that she succeeds in storing within the family”. Tilo now finds herself forced to choose between magical of the immortal and the vicissitudes of the real world. Divakaruni presents it as a possible solution for Tilo’s dilemma of cross-cultural identity formation. Tilo is thrust in to the chaos of American life and she must adapt to the newness of culture. Tilo in her diasporic journey finds a many and does not feels the loss of home. First mother, is a figure who foreshadows the paradoxical identity that Tilo soon find herself grappling with. First mother is also outside the boundaries of conventional culture, because she lives on an isolated island and possesses magical powers. Tilo is transported to America by ‘Shampati’s’ fire, it is a giant bonfire she steps into it and disappears. It is a symbolism in which the present physical form is destructed and reduced to ashes that are scattered to the four corners of the globe. The memories are with her night and day though she lives in California. “The spice’s silence is like a stone in my heart, like ash on my tongue. Trough it I can hear back to long ago, the old one laughing bitter as bile. I know what she would say were she here” “Tilo often dreams of the island, and even engages in a silent mental dialogue with her First Mother across the expanses of space Time”.
Tilo has the deepest vision for the innermost selves of all others, but she is not capable of perceiving herself. Vijay Prashad observes, South Asians have been “Confusedly named and renamed both as ‘whites’ and as ‘minorities throughout the twentieth century,” and “White Americans have been unable to decide how to identify Asian Indians in terms of Race”. Tilo herself falls prey to a sort of reverse Orientalism, she begins to view Raven as a representation of American culture. When she first met him, she refers to him as ‘the American’. At the end Tilo calls herself as Maya where a name has a magical tinge to it. Tilo breaks gender stereotypes in the book which makes the readers see the reality because she is an embodiment of a new age women who wishes to fulfil her desires.
Magic realism in the novel gives the strong underlying themes, that it is the ability of the characters to change identities or for Tilo to able to converse with spices. She was also vibrant, vivacious, headstrong and daring. She wants to save Raven from the victim of the spices’ magic, so she decides to leave him. She accepts the Punishment on herself, the result of which store being destroyed. In the end she survives, Tilo and Raven reconcile and they both helped to rebuild the city.
