Comparison Of La Noche Boca Arriba And Pan's Labyrinth

“La Noche Boca Arriba” by Julio Cortázar and the film Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro both use magical realism as a vehicle to present the impact of traumatic events in a person's perspective of life itself. In Pan's Labyrinth, The film uses enigmatic, complex, characters with a background of trauma to make the viewer question the film's ambiguous ending. Much like Julio Cortazar's story. The main character's lives are both dramatically transformed, Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Once traumatic events like Ofelia's new life in Francoist Spain, Or, the motorcyclist’s crash, The protagonists take on a whole new life, Leading them to ambiguous endings, terrifying, fantastical pursuits, and a sense of newfound strength.

The biker early on in the story experiences a life-changing crash flinging him into a dream-like state. The biker after the traumatic incident is then living between two realities, Also much like Ofelia. The moment the biker is in the crash, Cortazar describes how it happened: “Straying to the left, he braked with his foot and hand; he heard the women's shouts, and with the collision lost his vision. It was as if he had suddenly fallen asleep” (Cortazar). The detail of Cortazar falling asleep is similar to the beginning of Pan’s Labyrinth, We are unsure if Ofelia was dead, Or merely asleep. The ambiguity in both these beginning scenes highlights how trauma can alter the line between one’s sense of reality, In this case blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. The biker then experiences “dreams” of being chased by Aztec warriors, Recounting the reality of them: “But nothing tortured him more than the smell. It was as if, in absolute acceptance of the dream, something unusual had been revealed that contradicted that dream, that then later had not been part of the game. “Smells like war” (Cortazar). The war smell the biker experiences is drowned in ambiguity and the source of his trauma. It is similar to Ofelia’s sounds of the war she hears at the beginning of the