Old Man W/ Enormous Wings Analytical Summary

Old Man W/ Enormous Wings Analytical Summary

  • Submitted By: pwilliams22
  • Date Submitted: 02/01/2010 11:54 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 586
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 1

 A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is a story of a family, Pelayo and Elisenda, who find a very old man laying on the ground moaning in their courtyard. The old man has enormous wings, and a neighbor tells Pelayo that the man is an angel. The author, Garcia Marquez, uses a different style for this story. For example, a main character is never established, and even though the angel is the focal point, Marquez never describes him into great detail. The angel was like a miracle to the people who saw him because the angel could have been sent from heaven to help someone on Earth, such as Pelayo and Elisenda’s sick child. Miracles happen everyday, and Marquez describes how miracles, no matter how big or small, can be reacted to in different ways.
The neighbor who explains that the man is an angel advises Pelayo to kill him, but he cannot, and Pelayo locks the angel in a chicken coop with intentions of setting him free to sea. While the angel is locked inside the coop, he attracts attention from people in the town. Pelayo the Elisenda start to charge people money to see the angel, and they benefit greatly. Marquez compares that to how people in life are greedy and do not take other people’s feelings into consideration. Marquez also shows the differnece between the angel and the townspeople. The angel is very calm and patient when the people are looking at him like he is the main attraction at a circus, and his patience and calmness only frustrates the people.
Marquez could be implying that patience is a miracle because so many people lack patience. Marquez also touches upon the point of jealousy. Some people believe that jealousy is the root of all evil. The townspeople are jealous of the family who have the angel. Part of jealousy, is wanting attention. Attention is a basic need because there are times when someone needs attention due to their actions or due to a sickness. The attention from the story is when a spider woman, who was once a girl, gives...

Similar Essays