Despite being a literary style for more than half a century, magical realism is an enigma that is difficult to define. While the term is seamlessly associated with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, magical realism’s loose definition has led critics to question its value to the progression of literary studies. To help remedy magical realism’s obscure definition, this thesis will be expanding on Kenneth Reed’s definition of magical realism, which he argues must use the neo-fantastic (the naturalization of magical elements in a text) to recast history. However, I argue magical realism must have a third characteristic, an identifiable deliberative purpose, inducing the audience to take social action.To support this claim, I will divide the thesis into five parts. The introduction will provide a brief outline detailing my definition for magical realism, as well as providing a detailed outline for the work as a whole. The first chapter will act as an overview of magical realism, detailing magical realism’s socio-political power, how that deliberative potential was lost, and the historical actors responsible. The second chapter will include a case study of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, which will cover how the Colombian journalist combined the deliberative function of testimonio literature with the neo-fantastic and recasting of history to restore magical realism to its original definition. The last chapter will focus on Toni Morrison’s last book God Help the Child, where the author used my definition of magical realism to bring attention to Tarana Burke’s “me too.” movement, which was marginalized by the social media #MeToo movement after the book’s publication. The conclusion will consider the implications of this new definition and examine where magical-realist studies should focus going forward.