A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

An Analysis of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been recognized as one of the most
remarkable storytellers of the 20th century. In 1995, he published
his first collection of short stories, Leaf Storm, which included “A
Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” Gabriel Marquez’s “A Very
Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a short story written for
children. He gave it the subtitle of “A Tale For Children.” The story
illustrates how human reacts to an appearance of the old man, a
symbol of difference, weakness, and dependence. In this story,
Marquez achieves a greater “magical realism” through his use of
three artistic tools: character, symbol, and theme.
First of all, Marquez’ characters revolve around the
appearance of one old man. The story begins with the main
character Pelayo, a man who lives with his wife and a child. On a
rainy day, after killing the crabs and dragging them to the sea,
Pelayo finds a very old man with wings lying in the mud in their
courtyard. The old man appears to be fully human except his
tremendous wings. Frightened, Pelayo and Elisenda gaze at him.
Indeed, their reaction is a typical behavior when they are in such a
situation. After a state of fear follows a state of curiosity. They try
to have a conversation with the stranger but he speaks to them with
a different language. Then, they call a woman neighbor who knows
everything to come by and help them figure out who he is. After
taking a look at the old man, she insists that he is “an angel” and
advises them to club the old man to death, but they lack the heart
to do it. Her reaction to the man with wings is indeed influenced by
what she has been taught. This is a typical example of a religious
person. Meanwhile, Pelayo does not know what to do with the man
so he locks him in the chicken coop over the night. The rain stops in
the night while Pelayo and Elisenda continue to kill crabs. Their
child awakes hungry the next morning with his fever gone. Because
Pelayo and Elisendra are grateful for their child's health, they
decide to put the angel on a raft with enough supplies for three
days.
As the readers continue the story, they better understand
Marquez’ characters through the situation that how people in the
village treat him badly. Because Pelayo judges the old man based on
his appearance, he treats him like an animal rather than what an
angel expected to be treated. This reaction shows readers the basic
of human nature. For instance, the angel is old and unattractive, so
he locks him in a filthy coop. Pelayo watches over the stranger all
afternoon with a bailiff’s club. Obviously, he is uncertain of the
angel; therefore, he decides to imprison the poor man. Father
Gonzaga, a woodcutter before becoming a priest, soon arrives,
declaring that the old man is a fake. He promises to get the real
truth from the higher courts of the church. As expected, the
villagers quickly learn about the existence of “an angel.” At first, all
of them seem to be interested in the appearance of the old man.
This illustrates the hopes and expectations of a community in which
many members have their own beliefs in angel. However, the
villagers start to grow hostile towards the old man when they
realize that he is not an angel as they expected. For example, they
begin pulling out his feathers, throwing stones at him, and burning
him with an iron. McMurray concludes that “Although García
Márquez's male characters have no monopoly on irrational conduct,
his female characters are usually stronger, more down to earth.”
Indeed, Elisenda, his wife, in order to get rich, decides to charge
people money to see the angel in their courtyard. Later, a new
carnival act comes in town to tell a story of a woman who was
turned into a spider because she disobeyed her parents. Everyone
goes to see this act because it is cheaper and the woman allows
people to ask questions. Although everyone left Pelayo's courtyard,
the married couple still has enough money to built a two-story
mansion with a high net to keep the crabs out during the
winter. This act not only illustrates the basic of human nature but it
also demonstrates how lacks of faith those people have.
Thirdly, symbols are used in Marquez’s story to convey a
special meaning to the readers. In his short story, Gabriel Marquez
uses the “old man” and “enormous wings” for both realistic and
symbolic purposes. The “wings” advance the story by creating a
central conflict and posting a question, “Is he a supernatural
creature or a circus animal?” (Janes). Angel is the symbol of good.
However, people in the village cannot see that. Instead of being
welcomed as a real angel, the stranger is considered as a disaster.
Indeed, Pelayo’s neighbor even tells him to club the man to death
because he would take his child to heaven. Besides building up the
images of an “old man” and “enormous wings,” Marquez also creates
a “spider woman” representing for people who put their self-
interested over their faith. When the news of the “angel” spreads
out, many villagers come to Pelayo’s house to see him. However,
when they realize that the stranger is not able to do anything
magically, they together flock to the spider woman to listen to her
easy-to-digest story. She disobeys her parents, so she is turned into
a spider. From this scene, Marquez points out that their faith is not
really faith at all. By using symbolism, Gabriel Marquez ironically
illustrates how the villagers at first consider the old man as an
angel but treat him like an animal in a circus.
According to Regina Janes, the story belongs to magic
realism. Marquez uses magical realism to “blend reality and
fantasy so that the distinction between the two erases” (Janes). “A
Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” tests the faith of human and
demonstrates how they react to those who are weak, dependent,
and different. Marquez creates an unexpected visitor to test the
faith of a community. The old angel is a mystery and the faith of
human is reality. Combining realistic and fantastic elements,
Gabriel Marquez “gives an equal claim to reality in the reader’s
mind” (Faulkner). As readers can see from the story, once Elisenda
discovers that they can make a profit from the stranger, they
imprison him in a chicken coop outside. During the angel's recovery,
Marquez emphasizes his own privacy. Secretly, he grows his
feathers and sings mournful shanties to the moon. When he finally
spreads his wings and leaves, Elisenda seems to feel nothing but
relief. Again, Marquez combines the miracle of a flying being with a
daily life detail of Elisenda's relief as she chops the onions. Through
magic realism, Marquez builds up a theme between natural and
supernatural. He contrasts the supernatural in the story with
natural details such as the crab’s invasion in Pelyo’s house, or the
angel's wings that are crippled by mud when he first appears.
Overall, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is one of the
typical examples of the magical realism method.
In conclusion, Marquez gives readers an interesting
story about human and angel. By using successfully magical
realism, the author leaves readers with an open ending and helps
them to understand how people are living with lack of faith. The
reactions of all the members of the community to the events in the
story reflect their inclinations as human beings. Besides all these
thing, uncertain and ambiguity are constant throughout the story,
and Marquez achieves these affects by using the third-person
omniscient point of view to reveal opinions on certain points.
Finally, Marquez has succeed in creating “a tone of equal parts
local-color story and fairy tale” by combining the family details of
Pelayo’s life with fantasy elements such as a flying man and a
spider woman (Faulkner).