Dana Gioia's The Angel With The Broken Wing

In Dana Gioia’s “The Angel with the Broken Wing the thoughts of an angel statue that is lamenting about its distance from God and its brokenness. The language use introduces a truth about distance from God and brokenness: it is only in the presence of God that brokenness is able to be acknowledged. The language is an evocation of longing for a time where nothing was broken and anything could call out to God and be heard. The angel contrasts its current location in the “air-conditioned tomb” with when it stood near “a gilded altar,” longing for interaction with the miserable people at the altar rather than the crowds that admire the brokenness of the angel (lines 4 and 11). The lack of freedom that the angel experiences leaves it wanting be
The ones who most acknowledge the angel’s esteem and revere it accordingly are the vandals who desecrate the chapel where the angel formerly resided. There is no mention of anything the vandals say inside that chapel, and the closest thing to speech is when they hit the angel “almost apologetically" (20). The angel could acknowledge the mourning women, and the vandals felt regret as they broke the angel because God was there to observe; the museum goers praise the beauty of the broken angel because they are removed from God. If the museum goers instead saw the broken angel inside of a chapel by an altar, as it originally was, they most likely would not be praising its quality and instead would mourn over the brokenness. If the vandals broke the angel inside of the museum instead of the chapel, they might regret it, but the extent would pale in comparison to what they felt in the chapel. How do we acknowledge our brokenness and still reach God, if the text is right in saying the cries of the condemned cannot reach