A very Old Man with Enourmous Wings

A short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Magical realism is the approach that connects the natural and the supernatural together in a story in order to make the supernatural seem real. Marquez gives expressive details in the story that makes the supernatural hard to distinguish from the real. There are two very supernatural appearances, the old man with wings and the girl that was turned into a spider. The angel is the magical realism elect which is the very old man with wings. On the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs inside the house that Pelayo had to cross his drenched courtyard and throw them into the sea, because the newborn child had a temperature all night and they thought it was due to the stench. The world had been sad since Tuesday. (**) A vivid picture is given about the village being sad because of the raining weather for days, with a sick child. Marquez's setting makes it hard to believe that crabs were in the house and when throwing them out, Pelayo discovers a very old man with wings referred to as buzzard wings. Pelayo and Elisenda are surprised at first but soon this character becomes an annoyance just like the crabs. They were unable to communicate with the angel and agree to let him stay in the chicken coop. He is very surreal as in human form but the wings displace him from others. The people of the village try to figure him out but they are very rude and disrespectful because he is not the same as them. If only he appeared more like the fantasy we have of angles; clean, neat and cheerful people would have treated him with kindness. He is very patient with the disrespect, this seems unnatural for anyone to be treated this way and not respond. The wings would make you think that he could leave, fly away, from all the commotion but they seem to hinder him. The crowd people feel as though he owes them something as they do not get the miracles filled as they felt by the angel they began to back away. This shows how selfish one can be looking out only for their personal gain. Pelayo decided to charge a fee to see the old winged man and quickly becomes finically stable. This shows a sense of greed as they do not give any credibility to the angel. Even after they build a mansion they still leave the old chicken coop for the winged old man to live in. The home was fixed with bars so that no crabs or angles could enter it. The spider girl arrives and the attention is take from the angel as if he is somewhat forgotten about. The curious came from far away. A traveling carnival arrived with a flying acrobat who buzzed over the crowd several times, but no one paid any attention to him because his wings were not those of an angel but, rather, those of a sidereal bat. (***) With the spider girl able to communicate with the crowd and relate the crowd treats her with respect and dignity. Being one of the supernatural elements in the story she is related to in a totally different way than the angel. When the winged old man becomes sick is the only time they begin to worry about him.

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