Name: David James F.

Leones Grade & Section: G12 – Descartes 22/10/2022

Critique Paper

Psychological approach, because I assume what the words of the author mean
through his lens in my own understanding

“A Very Old man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children” by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez

The story talk about an angel who isn’t what an angel would look like, with the
only recognizable feature of an angel is his wings. The angel was encountered with
Pelayo and Elisenda, a married couple with a new-born child. They were very surprised
by the unexpected encounter of the poor conditioned angel. What comes after is how
the people of the village and beyond that treated him, which was very poorly and
unkind. He eventually flew off to the horizon, while the people of the village continue its
life regardless of his absence.

The story for me was difficult to understand, it was ambiguous and made no sense to
me, yet the sense of not knowing pulled me closer to the story. The angel was found in
the rear courtyard, the position ‘rear’ perhaps symbolises the opposite of what an ideal
front yard would be, presentable, which the angel was not. It was mentioned that they
found him ‘familiar’, maybe it is the feeling of which an angel emits. They also assumed
that the old man was a lonely castaway even though he had wings and the neighbour
that knew everything about life and death; both points making me assume that these
people have seen something as unusual as an angel.

Father Gonzaga arrived before seven o’clock, alarmed by the strange new of an angel.
Seven o’clock, the number of god. People in the village were making conjecture of him
upon seeing the priest; this makes me wonder if these people are disconnected from
the open world and close-minded of what the outside world holds beyond their village.
The language or dialect from whens’ he came was unknown to the priest and people.
The priest talked in Latin, assuming it was the language of the angel, yet it was not. This
made me question what we know about angels and made me wonder if he was really
an angel or was he just an undiscovered endangered species that got lost and injured.

When the priest saw the angel, he was distraught of what he saw in the hen house.
The angel was not the ideal angel he thought it was. Nothing about the angel measured
up to the proud dignity of angels. He was so disappointed by what he saw, that he
thought the angel was the devil imposing as an angel. He had a brief sermon after the
encounter with the assumed angel and argued that if wings were not the essential
element determining which is which, then they were even less so in the recognition of
angels. The priest doubted the angel he saw, due to the state it was in. He simply
judged the angel of his looks and language without offering any kindness to the poorly
conditioned old man.

He wrote a letter to his superiors, causing the information of the angel to spread. The
people’s curiosities to the supernatural lead them to travel to the angels’ location
regardless of the distance. A carnival came with an acrobat with fake wings, but no one
paid attention, possibly because the angel in the hen house was real and the acrobat
was not, an angel, who everyone though was a myth came to reality, rather than an
acrobat filling our imagination with fantasy. They did not come for the old angel to help
him, but to hope that they can make use of the angel to their health. They didn’t see the
angel for what he is; rather they see him as a tool which they can use for their own
benefit.

Elisenda and Pelayo also took advantage of this and fee’s everyone who sees the
angel. The fees made them rich enough to build a two-story mansion with balconies and
gardens and high netting so that crabs wouldn’t get in during the winter, and with iron
bars on the window so that the angel wouldn’t get in. The owners had no reason to
lament for the angel give that they were living life lavishly, while the angel still lived in
the old untouched hen house. They still treated the angel poorly even though the
angel’s presence brought them fortune. Nevertheless, the angel tolerated and was
patient with them, only reacting passively to pain. He was no devil, just an old man with
wings trying to live in his own way without bothering anyone, or so that’s what I think of
it.
The angel and the new-born child came down with the chicken pox at the same time, as
if the angel’s suffering is reflected by the child’s own pain. Similar to when the new-born
child was ill and the angel was in a poor condition as well. Yet he was like a phantom
when the child was good enough to go to school. Like a stray of dying men he dragged
himself wherever and was almost at the same place at the same time. It was the only
time Elisenda and Pelayo was bothered and concerned, not for the angel, both for
themselves. Out ‘charity’ they let him sleep in the shed, hoping he would stop coming
into their house. At night they noticed him with a fever, yet the child was not mentioned
to be sick, perhaps it had something to do with his biology. It was mentioned that the
angel had a whistling heart and so many sounds within his kidneys, so perhaps angels
have a different biology compared to humans. The doctor mentioned that the wings
attached were logical and natural, as if it was a missing part of a human body.

He survived the winter and improved with the first sunny days. Stiff feathers began to
grow on his wings, the same stiffness he was treated by people. This happened in
December, the month of Christmas, the month where Jesus was born, and perhaps the
month angels take flight. Elisenda caught the angel in his first attempts of flight, It was
clumsy, yet he managed to take altitude and fly away onto the horizon away from the
village. Elisenda was relieved of that the angel was gone, the angel was an annoyance
to her, and regardless of the fortune the angel brought to them.

With all that said, it left so many questions to answer. Why was the angel there in the
first place? Was it there for the ill new-born child? Was it there simply because of
coincidence? Or was it sent by god to see how one would treat an ally of god. Was the
poor condition it was in represent our sins that he suffered for? Or was it simply brought
by old age. So many questions, yet all we can do is assume why. The treatment of the
people to the angel was unfair and unjust; perhaps that’s why he left. People shouldn’t
have treated him cruelly simply because he was disgusting and useless. I think the
moral here is if you don’t treat things with care and kindness, then that certain thing will
leave you. It talks about how people come and go, when you don’t treat them right. It is
hopefully a lesson on how we shouldn’t alienate different people simply because of their
difference.