"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"
: Was The "Angel's" Intent For Him to be Profited From?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, born in 1928 in the town of Aracataca in the Magdalena province of Columbia, is a writer who does not use real events to create his stories, rather images and fantasy-like magical realistic notions. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982, which reflected the extent of his magical talent to write. He was the oldest of twelve children and was born into a poverty-stricken family. Despite his poor childhood, Garcia Marquez went through schooling and went on to graduate. After his graduation, he went on to study law (Gonzalez). But law was not where his "magical" talent lied; his gift was found in ...
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world, which in turn ultimately enriches the main characters in the story, Pelayo and Elisenda. The author does not portray the divine as one might think. When a person thinks of an angel they think of a very elegant, beautiful figure usually clothed in white with a spiritual presence. Garcia does not portray angels in this typical way. In this story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," he describes the angel as being, very old, foul smelling, and having unusually enormous wings, but lacking the ability to fly. By taking the "real" and making it "surreal," Garcia Marquez expresses the notion of "magical realism." This style of writing is what made the author what he is today (Gonzalez).
The author portrays the villagers as being very simple people, which has a big effect on how they eventually treat the angel. When the villagers encounter the unusual angel, they are curious as to where exactly he/it is and came from; but not long after that the town's people start to lose ...
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of the angel; so in turn they turn their backs and ignore him. Because the angel does not speak, it is even harder for the town's people to accept him.
To Elisenda, the old man with tattered wings was an annoyance and irritation, but still she allowed him to stay there, maybe subconsciously knowing what the angel was going to bring to her and her family in the future. When the angel's doddering presence becomes too much for her, she shouted, "it was awful living in that hell full of angels" (575). Elisenda, like her husband and their neighbors, could not see beyond the obvious. Because their isolated culture bred ignorance among them, their religion taught them to be fearful and ...
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""A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"." Essayworld.com. April 29, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Very-Old-Man-Enormous-Wings/82869.
""A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"." Essayworld.com. April 29, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Very-Old-Man-Enormous-Wings/82869.
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