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A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“A very old man with enormous wings” is a short story by Gabriel García Márquez tell us a story about an angel that was found by a couple (Pelayo and Elisenda). One day during killing crabs in a rainstorm that lasted for three days; Pelayo and Elisenda discovered a very old man with enormous wings in their courtyard. The old man was filthy, apparently senile, and speaks incomprehensible language. After asking the neighbor woman that according to the story “knew everything about life and death to see him, and all she needed was one look to show them their mistake. He’s an angel,” she told them. “He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down.” (Norton pp. 356). In this story the author shows …show more content…
This story examines the reaction to those who are dependent, weak, and different. For example, after the angle heals Pelayo and Elisenda’s child from his sickness; the couple decide to put the angle on a raft with three days’ provisions and leave him to his fate on the sea rather than killing him. Once they know that they could profit and gain money from showcase him they did not through him in the sea. Elisenda and Pelayo imprison the old man in their chicken coop, where strangers gawk at him and pelt him with rocks, and burn him with branding iron. Pelayo and Elisenda before they find the old man they were very poor after the old man healed their child and made good money; the narrator told us that “The owners of the house had no reason to lament. With the money they saved they built 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 windows so that angels wouldn’t get in. Pelayo also set up a rabbit warren close to town and gave up his job as a bailiff for good, and Elisenda bought some satin pumps with high heels and many dresses of iridescent silk, the kind worn on Sunday by the most desirable women in those times. The chicken coop was the only thing that didn’t receive any attention” (Norton pp. 360). After all, that the old man did not leave and show us extreme patience with the townspeople. Gabriel Marquez have intended to remind us with the verse from the Bible that says “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (King James, Hebrews.

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