Part of Your World

Part of Your World often incorporates magical realism into the plot, insisting that the town of Wakan in particular is a magical place. The motif of magic in Wakan emphasizes what the town means to Alexis, Daniel, and their relationship while also showing the characters what they need most in life. When Daniel feels distraught over Alexis leaving Wakan, Popeye tells him, “The town! It’ll get ’er back! It picks who it wants” (82). Popeye’s suggestion that Wakan keeps those it needs and releases those it doesn’t forms the foundation of the town’s magic and underpins the elements of magical realism. When Alexis’s friends are cruel to Daniel and treat the town with disrespect, hundreds of acorns from the trees above the Grant House hail down on them, hard enough to cause bruises. When Alexis is trying to leave Daniel and Wakan for good, a tree branch falls in front of her car and Daniel refuses to touch it, believing it is a sign from the universe telling her to stay. At the end of the novel, when Daniel and Alexis’s relationship is flourishing, the trees around them begin to blossom and flowers fall like snow.