A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings response paper

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” begins immediately with a sentence which seems to come straight out of the bible “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…” (Marquez 387). This first sentence sets the tone for a story laden with biblical imagery, and examples of human nature and how we relate to faith. Marquez seems to give the earth many human qualities, saying that it “had been sad since Tuesday” (Marquez 387). This helps the reader to identify with the setting of the story, by relating human emotions to inanimate objects.

When Pelayo comes across the old man lying in the mud, he is described as a nightmare, and before even trying to help this being, who is obviously in great pain, he runs home to seek consultation from his wife. This is our first example of human fear of the unknown, and that people how to feel safer in groups. The old man’s description is somewhat negative, and gray, giving us a sense that this is not an angel, which would normally be described with much grandeur, and magnificence. Because societies vision of an angel is clean, white, and

As word around town gets out of the angel, more people come to see it. The angel becomes just another freak circus-type attraction. Marquez portrays him as a raggedy stranger, with strange wings, nothing like an angel. Because of his inability to perform any type of miracle (that the people notice) any respect the people may have had for him is gone. When Pelayo and Elisenda begin charging a fee to see the angel, they fail to actually see the blessing that has been bestowed on them. “For in less than a week they had crammed their rooms with money, and the line of pilgrims waiting their turn to enter still reached beyond the horizon.” (Marquez 390). The couple sees their chance to profit from their (mis?)fortune, this is a typical human reaction; profiting from religious oddities. We see this even today with all sorts of mystical healers, and even religious paraphernalia. When a new attraction comes into town, in the form of a girl who has been changed into a spider, the townsfolk immediately lose all interest in “a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals.” (Marquez 391). Though hundreds if not thousands of people came to see the man, no obvious miracles came about from his presence; (except in the case of Pelayo and his family whose child was cured, and soon became very wealthy.) Only strange happenings like sunflowers sprouting out of the leper’s sores could be attribu

Some topics in this essay:
Pelayo Elisenda, Tuesday” Marquez, Enormous Wings”, imaginary dot horizon, “on third day, , third day, “a enormous wings”, enormous wings”, imaginary dot, dot horizon, kept watching, “on third, “a enormous, marquez 387,