Gabriel García Márquez enriched and popularized the writing style of magical realism in the Spanish- and English-speaking world. However, magical realism is not the only genre in which his writing can be described. Márquez wrote many books expressing various writing styles, including realism and journalistic style, reflecting life in Colombia and abroad. By the age of forty, Gabriel García Márquez had already published more than 10 books and had become a very distinguished writer. The major events of Márquez's life all had an impact on his writing and are expressed through his short stories and novels. Gabriel García Márquez's life greatly influenced and inspired his writing styles, pushing him to be the best writer in the realism and magical realism genres. Born in Colombia, Márquez grew up during la violencia, a time when the government was very unstable and at least 200,000 people were killed and millions of Colombians fled to neighboring countries. Márquez had been exposed to violence at a young age. Because his parents had difficulty finding work, Márquez lived with his maternal grandparents in Aracata, Colombia. Márquez's grandmother was an avid storyteller and gave him his first knowledge of omens, premonitions and ghosts. “I feel like all my writing is about the experiences of time spent with my grandparents” (quote). Márquez also based much of his work – including Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude – on his grandmother's stories. While he was living with his grandparents, the banana boom in Aracata ended. The resulting strike meant that one night in Aracata they were shot and thrown into a mass grave. .. half of the paper ......and it seemed. This story was based on Márquez's parents' love story because his maternal grandfather did not approve of the relationship. After several attempts to separate the couple, Márquez's grandfather allowed his daughter to marry the man she desired. Even though Love in the Time of the Cholera was about love and death, he focuses on love instead of cholera. The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is about a family who finds an old man with. wings on their property and keep it in a chicken coop. He becomes a phenomenon and the family becomes rich by paying an entrance fee to see him. Márquez uses his magical realism writing style to convey the message that people have difficulty believing what is in front of them. Everyone sees an old man with wings and people try to decipher what it could be. Sometimes what you see is what really is.