Short Stories by Gabriel García Márquez: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (Study Guide) by Books LLC

Short Stories by Gabriel García Márquez: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (Study Guide) Reviews

• 
  Chris Cookie

  
  
  A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is both hauntingly sad and laced with irony.
  
  An old man is found face down in the mud. He is dressed like a "ragpicker", his wings are buzzard-like and strewn with parasites. The family that finds him, locks him 'captive' in the hen coop. There is a suspicion that he is an angel, but he doesn't look like an angel, or how those who see him, think angels should look. He is grotesque, incredibly old, dirty. The village folk throw food at him through the wires of the hen house as they would for an animal. They throw rocks to try to get him to stand up, pull out his feathers, and poke him with a hot brander.
  
  What strikes me most is that people do not know what to do with the miraculous when faced with it. The point here is that everyday miracles are not sent from above via divine intervention, clothed in beauty, light and grandeur.
  Believers in angels have a stereotype in their mind, Marquez plays with that stereotype and gives us the Very Old man with Enormous Wings.
• 
  Sara Aljaryan

  
  everything is visiting us in accident may be it’s the biggest worth to our life .
• 
  Elle Reads

  Let's dive right in:
  

  In terms of where, we are in a nameless, remote village (most likely in a Spanish speaking area since the names are Spanish) on the coast (rotten shellfish/sea), virtually trapped in the courtyard of the two main characters with the old man. I think the vagueness of the setting is a key feature of the story in that it not only provides more of a mystery, but also more credibility to the tale’s plot since it is not in modern times (i.e. developed technology would’ve easily exposed the old man’s existence rather than word of mouth – which is how his existence was spread in the story).
  Perhaps the sadness that the world is experiencing is an introspective reflection of the lack of altruism among its inhabitants, setting the stage for a change (had the inhabitants actually provided compassion rather than mutilation later on). On the other hand, perhaps the author is drafting an environment that is vulnerable, and in desperate need of something magical. The narrator describes the surroundings as bleak, one portion blending into the next, forming an abyss to which we can discriminate little. This bleak, mundane, and miserable setting is the perfect contrast to the unique, exciting “creature,” that is to be discovered. When the old man is discovered with wings, the village is finally, at least in some ways, “woken up,” and freed from this pit of nothingness, although how they respond to this beautiful opportunity is unsettling to say the least. Now, why does the author anthropomorphize the weather/world? Well, I find it strange that the world/weather possess more emotion than most of the characters do. This strangeness sort of adds to the magic of it all though. I think one of the themes of this piece is the synchronicity of brutality and empathy. The creature staying around despite the cruelty that was inflicted upon him demonstrates his compassion, whereas the two main characters essentially prostitute him to the town as nothing more than an object, not an individual, and thus illustrate brutality. I could argue for the compassion of the family, but I’d not only be deluding you, but myself as well. Most of their “compassion,” is only derived as a perceived reciprocation of sorts. When they “don’t have the heart,” to kill him, I see this as not compassion for the creature, but of their own sense of discomfort in doing so. When they conclude that sending him on a raft is a more viable plan, this is also not done out of genuine compassion, or as stated, “magnanimous,” doing, but was in response to their son’s recovering health. These “compassionate,” acts aren’t even all that compassionate to start, and the conceiving of them is done with a selfish nature as well. There were endless opportunities for the couple to express any act of kindness throughout the tale, and in each scenario they only exposed their own self-serving practical thinking instead. Everything about the old man radiated vulnerability (his physically weakened/impaired state, his lack of ability to communicate), to which the village took advantage of. The gawkers are equally disturbed, with their most “merciful,” only throwing stones to force the man to stand up, this being relative to the harshness imposed by the less merciful gawkers. How pitiful that the most compassion from the gawkers, again, is not compassion at all, just lacking in magnitude to the brutality of others. The old man with enormous wings, although referred to as an angel by some (this could be due to the religious context of the piece), may be a number of things, mythological, religious, etc. I think the importance though lies in what he represents – innocence and vulnerability. Without knowing what he is, we can’t really suggest where is going, maybe to another home with another sick child, to another universe, another realm. In discussing what he represents, humans have been taking advantage of the weaker since the dawn of time. Think of our celebration of the genocide we coin Thanksgiving, the stereotypical bully (picking on those who are defenseless), factory farming (which is harming ourselves as well, clim change), the observer effect, slavery, etc. If you contemplate the concept that a lot of popular literature (The Giver, Divergent, The Hunger Games, so many more) bases itself in the plot of a great injustice/abuse of a population in desperate need of a change/hero/revolution, you can clearly see how significant this central idea is. In our tale though, we can determine that the old man is actually the hero of the tale, despite maybe not entirely filling our preconceived idea of a hero. The old man was the only source of compassion throughout the tale, exemplifying extreme patience despite the torture he endured. And for what? I will speculate that his presence was for the sick child, which may have influenced the way that time was discussed (when the child got teeth, etc), as a binding/connection that put the old man and the child together. In addition to this though, towards the end of the story, we see where his presence had (although minor) an impact on the couple, with the wife watching him leave while feeling relief not only for herself, but for him as well. I think the spider lady is an adequate illustration of how swiftly we dismiss our standings when given an alternative. This aspect applies to all realms of life, but I think this is especially so with religion (again due to the religious context of the piece). They also easily abandon all worth/value that was at once attached to his presence, making him no more than an annoyance, despite him still being a supernatural being.

  
  

  From my perspective, I see the title as a regard for the ignorant. Children are innately naïve and absorb what they are taught by those around them (in this village – suspicion, cruelty, selfishness, etc). Therefore, I think the subtitle is referring to the ignorant, not necessarily children. I think it, much like Byatt’s tale (The Thing in the Forest), is a fairytale for adults. Although not as deranged and dark as Byatt’s, this piece was twisted in its own way, by elucidating the plight of malice coexisting with compassion.

  
  

  This short story is filled with powerful symbolism and imagery, with themes that resonate. I've always had a predilection for Marquez and his magical realism, so naturally this work is one of my favorites. It is moving, profound, and transcendental.

  
  
• 
  Barbara

  Read:
  
  A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings - 4/5
• 
  Scotty

  Gabriel García Márquez is not well known as a children's writer and is probably better known for his more adult works such as 'A Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Memories of my Melancholy Whores,' however, without really changing his writing style, he has produced a great short story aimed at children as well as adults.
  
  'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' begins when Pelayo discovers the man lying face down in mud in his yard during a rainy day. He is wary of the creature being around his young family, especially as his infant child was ill and close to death. Pelayo and his wife Elisenda invite over an old neighbour who knew everything about life and death and she declares that he must be an angel who had come to take their ill child away, but was so old that he had been knocked down in the rain. They lock him in the chicken coop but when word spread that there was an angel, everyone came to see for themselves. The family have the idea to erect a fence and charge 5 cents to see the Angel. Despite the old man refusing to do anything, people came from far and wide to see him; but these people were also mean and threw stones at him and burned him with a branding iron. Eventually, another travelling circus comes to town with a girl who was turned into a spider for disobeying her parents and the interest in the angel ended. The family didn't mind; they had made enough money to rebuild their house and their child had recovered.
  
  The old man continued to live with them for several years but the family only treated him like a pet; he slept outside in the shed and when he came into the house he was chased out with a broom. However, one Spring the old man's feathers start to grow again and he becomes slightly stronger until he is able to clumsily flap his wings and takes off. Elisenda watches the old man from the kitchen and is relieved as the old man becomes a dot on the horizon.
  
  The book would be perfect for able readers in upper KS2 and Márquez's ability to write about magical events like they are real and everyday occurrences translates well into children's literature. As you would expect, the tale is beautifully written and also has its more amusing moments such as the ironic miracles attributed to the Angel: the blind man who didn't regain his sight but grew 3 new teeth and the paralytic who didn't walk again but nearly won the lottery. The language is undoubtedly challenging; words such as 'ingenuous' 'catechism' and 'iridescent' would challenge many adults, but the story is still readable and perhaps it is sometimes good to push more confident pupils. The way that the family and the wider public treated the old man is certainly an interesting topic and highlights how we are capable of treating things that we don't understand rather badly; perhaps this could be used to open a discussion about cultural differences.
• 
  Gunjan

  It's an outlandish type of story. I really didn't understand the motive to write it like this.
  It was short and though not boring but incomplete, what I feel.
• 
  Doug

  I read other reviews to try to discover what I'm missing in this story.
  
  "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" is an extremely short story, and available online. It would probably take you 10 minutes to find and read through, if you wish to try to convince me.
  
  It's difficult for me to collect the reasons why I felt so underwhelmed and disappointed by this story. If Marquez handed me this story to critique, I'd say something like, "Great outline. I'm excited to see what you do with this and that." Similarly, if someone else would've handed me this story asking for a critique, I'd say, "Don't be unfair. There's no way I'd critique an incomplete story." However, neither of those are the case.
  
  "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" is all tight, telling exposition--a lot of "this happened, then this happened, and all the while this was happening in the chicken coop." I kept waiting for the moment of flourish; some drama cue when the author would switch from telling to showing, when I'd know I'd reached the substance of the story. As it happened, I feel like the story began and ended without consequence.
• 
  Ryan Lum

  WOW, this very short story is about an unfortunate couple whos first born baby is extremely sick. Down on there luck, they can't tell how it might get any worst until their cries are called in a way. A supposed angel falls from the sky and lands in a chicken hen. This isn't any normal angel though becuase he's old and all ugly looking. Any how, these couples take advantage of this angel and treats it like crap. This makes you question the couples faith because they're suppose to be religious and an angel is something to be crapping your pants about. Any way, the couple decides to make a profit off the angel and charges people to see it. With all this, they eventually make a mansion and their child eventually gets better with time. In the end, the angel flys away though and the baby gets better.
• 
  Janelle Harris

  Wow! So I've gone back and re-read this a few times now to see all of the different elements in the story. The style is magical realism that exemplifies the greed of us, as humans...but does so in a magical way, by use of a disheveled angel and a girl turned into a giant spider by her parents. I don't want to give too much away. This is great short story with a lot of depth, insight, and an interesting dose of reality. I highly recommend this to insightful readers.
• 
  Maria Jose Valera-Brush

  I read this for an essay, and the first thing to pop in my mind was 'The man was not an angel'
  
  
  The title says 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings'and it never says it was an angel, heck, the man doesn't even fit well with the description of an angel. The first thing that popped into my mind was a giant bird, and he only ate what... eggplants? There you go. Explains everything about his description
• 
  Lizette

  I did like this story because, I found it really fascinated that the arthor used different religious beliefs and the way of thinking. Especially when confronted a situation that test their humanity and their morality. I think that it is very curious that if a mythical event occur, they would always turn to someone who is spiritual or religious. And what ever their opinion have in that current time, everyone else will agree.
  
• 
  Kylie

  Favourite lines:
  "At first they tried to make him eat some mothballs, which, according to the wisdom of the wise neighbor woman, were the food prescribed for angels. But he turned them down, just as he turned down the papal lunches that the pentinents brought him, and they never found out whether it was because he was an angel or because he was an old man that in the end ate nothing but eggplant mush."
  
  Disliked ending.
• 
  Ayun

  I didn't have high expectations for the Eréndira story; but i loved it (except for the ending, I didn't like that at all). It was really good written and it was entertaining. My only complain is the lenght about that specific story. I would've liked it to be longer, or to know more about the Grandmother and her past. Well, now I'll read it again and again until the test.
• 
  Mona Alebrahim

  I studies this short story in one of my intro. classes and I love it! It shows a great combination between the world of reality and the world of fantasy. I enjoyed reading it; most of my friends hated it though.
• 
  Jason Miller

  Loved the imagination and imagery through these shorts.. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings being my favorite and making an impact where as I did a 10 ft by 5 ft painting with a "very old man with enormous wings"
  
• 
  Andalee

  meh I thought the overall idea of the human tendency to destroy beauty or disvalue things that are not beautiful was a great point but it reminded me too much of metamorphosis
• 
  Franchesca

  Magical realism.
• 
  Shoushanik Arshakyan

  ինչպես միշտ Մարկեսը իր բարձունքի վրա էր...
• 
  Pepe Valdivieso

  Amazing!
• 
  Mimi Perez

  Magical realism at its finest.
• 
  Hannah Keziah Dela Cerna

  it was sort of funny. but it was really ironic. i love satires so i eat up things like this. but i hope for another ending (although i love subtlety)
• 
  Claudia

  A good magical realism short story. It is, however, quite unlikely that kids would understand it well. Lost stars for its expression difficulties. It could have been a lot better.
• 
  Zainab Abo Elfotoh

  a total waste of 15 minutes!
• 
  CT D'Alessandro

  This review is for A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings:
  
  This is a prime example of magical realism for the great master of this genre. The narrator describes the arrival of an elderly angel that puts less emphasis on the strangeness of his appearance as on the behavior of the villagers around him. It is a well-wrought story that is worth studying for its execution.