A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS

superiors in the church. As he waits for the Vaticans reply, he does his best

Gabriel Garca Mrquez

to restrain the enthusiasm and credulousness of the crowd of onlookers.

I.EXPOSITION
SETTING - The entire story takes place in Pelayo and Elisenda's courtyard.
CHARACTERS:
The Old Man - An old man with wings who appears in Pelayo and Elisendas
yard one day. Filthy and bedraggled, the old man speaks a foreign language
that no one can understand. His wings and unintelligible language prompts

The Neighbor Woman - Pelayo and Elisendas bossy neighbor. The

supposedly wise neighbor woman actually seems more like a silly know-it-all
than a true counselor and is the first to suggest that the old man is a crippled
angel. She tells Pelayo to club the old man to death to prevent him from
taking Pelayo and Elisendas sick baby to heaven.

some people to believe that hes a fallen angel and the church to believe

The Spider Woman - A freak-show attraction who visits the village.

hes a Norwegian, even though he seems oblivious to nearly everything that

Punished for the sin of disobeying her parents, the spider woman now has

happens around him. By the end of the story, the old man has recovered

the body of an enormous spider and the head of a sad young woman. The

enough to fly away, exiting Pelayos and Elisendas lives as suddenly as hed

clear moral of the womans story draws gawking villagers away from the old

entered.

man, who is unable to offer the crowds such a compelling narrative.

Pelayo - Elisendas husband and the discoverer of the old man. Pelayo is an
ordinary villager, poor but grudgingly willing to shelter the winged old man in
his chicken coop. Pelayo guards the old man from harm, humbly consults
the village priest, and has the sense to resist the more extravagant advice
he receives from the other villagers. Pelayo, however, does not want to take
care of the man indefinitely and doesnt feel bad using the old man to get
rich.
Elisenda - Pelayos wife. Elisenda convinces Pelayo to charge villagers to
see the old man but later considers him to be a nuisance. A practical woman,

II. RISING ACTION

Elisenda decides to start charging admission to see the old man, because
there's a big debate in the community about whether or not he's an angel.
The conflict comes from the way that something so magical and out-of-thisworld is turned almost immediately into a money-making scheme that
ignores and erases that beautiful, fantastic aspect of the old man.

III. CLIMAX

she primarily concerns herself with the welfare of Pelayo and their child and
is therefore relieved when the old man finally leaves.
Father Gonzaga - The village priest. As an authority figure in the
community, Father Gonzaga takes it upon himself to discern whether the old
man is an angel as the townsfolk believe or just a mortal who just happens
to have wings. Father Gonzaga is skeptical that the dirty old man could
really be a messenger from heaven, but he dutifully reports the event to his

As Elisenda and Pelayo count their money, the crowds mistreat the angel,
poking, plucking, and pelting him with rocks. When they finally burn him with
a branding iron the angel panics, scaring everyone with his reaction to the
pain. We'll consider this the crisis, because it is the moment when the
"angel" is getting the most attention, and making Elisenda and Pelayo the
most money, and letting the community most blatantly shows its cruel side.
IV. FALLING ACTION

Pelayo and have grown really wealthy from the admission fees Elisenda had

stretches his wings and takes off into the air, and Elisenda watches him

charged. Pelayo quits his job and builds a new, larger house. The old man

disappear over the horizon.

still says with them for several years, as the little boy gets older. When the
chicken coop collapses, the old man moves into the messed up shed, but he
sometimes go from room to room inside the house, and it starts to annoy
Elisenda.
V. CONCLUSION
The Angel starts to regain his strength. His feathers grow back and he
begins to sing sea chanteys to himself at night. One day the old man

VI. EPIPHANY