A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - 1
Literary Analysis of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
“When Pelayo and Elisend first find the fallen man, they regard him as human, he is “dressed like a ragpicker”” (McFarland). Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a fabulous story about an angel in “pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather” with “Huge buzzard wings” (Marquez 294). Marquez uses magical realism to express the literary elements of the old man, in third person point of view, and with several interpretations.
In the short story, Marquez shows two major elements of magic realism. The two elements were the old man and, the girl who has been turned into a spider. The people in the story treat the old man as an oddity. He was not treated like an angel instead he was treated more like a freak of nature. The old man appears to be nothing more than a frail human with wings, and so his status as an angel is endlessly debated. “What surprised him the most, however, was the logic of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them too” (Marquez 298). Father Gonzaga thinks that he cannot be an angel because he lacks dignity and splendor. “Father Gonzaga went into the chicken coop and said good morning to him in Latin. The parish priest had his first suspicion of an imposter when he saw that he did not understand the language of god” (Marquez 295). Of course this begs the question of whether the angel lacks dignity, or whether he just lacks dignity because of the way he is treated, being imprisoned in a chicken coop. Perhaps it is the people who lack dignity, not the old man. The old man's other supernatural characteristic is his incredible patience in the face of his treatment which does not make much of an impression on the majority of the people, who are happy to exploit him until bored with him. The magic realism for Spider-Girl is a clear contrast with the Old Man;
“When Pelayo and Elisend first find the fallen man, they regard him as human, he is “dressed like a ragpicker”” (McFarland). Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a fabulous story about an angel in “pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather” with “Huge buzzard wings” (Marquez 294). Marquez uses magical realism to express the literary elements of the old man, in third person point of view, and with several interpretations.
In the short story, Marquez shows two major elements of magic realism. The two elements were the old man and, the girl who has been turned into a spider. The people in the story treat the old man as an oddity. He was not treated like an angel instead he was treated more like a freak of nature. The old man appears to be nothing more than a frail human with wings, and so his status as an angel is endlessly debated. “What surprised him the most, however, was the logic of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them too” (Marquez 298). Father Gonzaga thinks that he cannot be an angel because he lacks dignity and splendor. “Father Gonzaga went into the chicken coop and said good morning to him in Latin. The parish priest had his first suspicion of an imposter when he saw that he did not understand the language of god” (Marquez 295). Of course this begs the question of whether the angel lacks dignity, or whether he just lacks dignity because of the way he is treated, being imprisoned in a chicken coop. Perhaps it is the people who lack dignity, not the old man. The old man's other supernatural characteristic is his incredible patience in the face of his treatment which does not make much of an impression on the majority of the people, who are happy to exploit him until bored with him. The magic realism for Spider-Girl is a clear contrast with the Old Man;