There is also a change with the dynamic between Guadalupe and the narrator. Her husband’s word was no longer law, and even after the death of the guest it can be assumed that the power dynamics did not return to the way they were before. However, the guest disrupted this because the main narrator was more scared of ‘him’ than she was her husband. Before the guests arrive the husband was at the top with the most power, with his wife, children, and Guadalupe below him. The guests presence in the house changes not only the other characters power hierarchies to each other, but shifts the power of the whole house. How does the guest’s presence in the house lead to changes in the hierarchies of power? (There are at least two obvious ones) He is not necessarily fantastical or magical, but is rather slightly odd, bringing the reader into the slightly uncomfortable space that magical realism exels with.Ģ. However, there is one piece that is out of the ordinary: him. In the case of this writing the world is the normal and operates under the normal rules. This is compared to fantastic writing which occurs more often in a world with different rules to compensate for the fantastic additions. Magical realism is a genre in which the rules of the world are the same as ours, but there are one or two elements that don’t fit in. The story seems to contain more of a magical realistic theme than a fantasy theme. Do you think the story contains elements of magical realism? Describe the difference in meaning between describing a story as “fantastic” or describing it as “magical realist”.

The houseguest by amparo davila