Reading: “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” Summary
This was a short story about a couple : the man named Pelayo, and his wife named Elisenda, who had a newborn child, and lived near the shore. One moment in the rain, after Pelayo killed the crabs inside his house and threw them into the sea, Pelayo saw something moving and groaning near his house. He frightened when he encountered an old man, but with enormous wings. He called his wife, who was taking care of their sick child. They tried to talk to him but didn’t end well, for the old man spoke unknown language. They asked their neighbour, and she told them that this man is an angel.
Everyone from the village knew that there was an angel in Pelayo’s house. Pelayo put the angel in the chicken coop. After a short time, their child was healed from the fever. Because of that, Pelayo provided the angel with fresh water and provisions. They wanted to let him go, but the villagers was having fun with the angel. Soon the priest, Father Gonzaga, arrived and saw the angel. He told them, that this old man is not an angel. Father Gonzaga promised them, that the higher courts of the church will determine whether he is an angel or not.
Although the priest stated that he is not an angel, everyone was still curious and went to see the angel. Elisenda had a brilliant idea of charging a fee for seeing the angel. They were rich in no time.
The higher courts of church was coming. Father Gonzaga held back the crowds while awaiting their arrival, even though it was almost impossible. Eventually, the crowds were gone by their own, for they saw a spider girl — literally a girl that was turned into a spider — in a carnaval that arrived at town. The crowds loved the spider girl more, because she answered and responded to them. She told them how she was turned into a tarantula. Not like the old man with the wings who ignored the crowds. Therefore, Pelayo’s place became empty like the first time again.
With the money Paleyo and Elisenda had, they built a two story mansion with balconies, and gardens. Paleyo also set up a rabbit warren, and Elisenda bought many dresses and high heels. When the child learnt to walk, they forbade him to get too close to the chicken coop. But in the end, they didn’t afraid anymore, and they let him to play with the angel. One time, the angel was sick and dying. Moreover, he only had not so much feathers left. He managed to survive somehow, and he grew those wings back, but this time, it was a scarecrow. One morning, he tried to fly away, and he succeed, and the family let him go.
“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” Response
When I was reading this short story, I was really-really confused beacuse I didn’t get the story at all. I didn’t understand some of the words too. But I proceeded anyway. In the end, I knew how the story goes, even though I didn’t know the meaning or moral values at all.
“This is a pretty weird story,” I thought. So I looked on the internet about the author, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, so that I knew his background when he wrote this short story. He was born on March 6, 1927 in Colombia. He was the eldest of twelve children. He loved to listened a lot of his family stories, including his grandfather’s military stories, his grandmother’s fantasy tales, and his parents’ love story. He died on April 17, 2014 because of cancer. It happens that Márquez wrote many fiction stories because the influence of his grandmother. He wrote “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, “Love in the Time of Cholera” etc. “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” is a fiction short story too for it has an angel-like man, and a spider girl in it.
Days gone by, and I decided to re-read the short story. I understood the story then. But for me, I don’t like the story that confuses me. Even though I love fiction, I couldn’t find the meaning behind it at all, which made me frustated. Perhaps for me, it has to be added a little adventure in it so that I could like it. But it has a good part too! I love when this old man grew another wings again. But instead of the angel’s wings, this time it was scarecrow’s. For me, it was like the symbolic meaning for adaptation to a changing situation. Because of the rain, the angel fell, and couldn’t fly again. Time passed by and the angel became sick, and then his feathers fell down over and over again until he didn’t have one left. It was like he couldn’t grow his original wings back, so he made a change, to grew different wings, so that he could fly again, back to his home. That’s what I mean by adaptation.
I was thinking very hard about the meaning behind the story –the moral value. The angel that fell down to Pelayo’s house, was not an accident (for anything that happened in this world has a reason). God made him fell, so that Pelayo could find him and because of him, the family became very rich that was affected by his humiliation. I bet, this angel didn’t know about God’s plan. I bet, this angel was sad, angry to God (but even if he knew that this was God’s plan all the time, then he would be ready to be humiliated). In the end, God sent the spider girl, because He thought, that this angel’s job was done, the child was healed and the family had many money. So He allowed him to fly away.
Sometimes, we don’t realise that we are in God’s plan. We can be humiliated, tortured, etc. but because of that, we can bless the others. Moreover, we can change ourself, we can upgrade ourself so that we can adapt to our situation now. If your job is done, if you have been upgraded, God will make those sorrow things gone, and you can be happy again.
