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A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

658 Words3 Pages

A Vulnerable Faith and Values Faith is a gift that many people claim to have but only few authentically possess. When an individual face battles of believing without seeing, they hesitate to trust the unknown. “Faith is being sure of what you hoped for and certain of what you do not see.” (NLT Bible Hebrews 11:1). Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” is a magnificent illustration of individuals deficiency. The story goes when an unexpected visitor comes down from the sky, and intend to investigate the faith of a community. The villagers had a hard time figuring out if the old man was an evident of an actual angel. The story essentially focuses on individuals lack of values, judgements against the visitor and the inconsistency of faith. Marquez introduce his story by exposing the characters not aware of their current setting. “The light was so weak at noon that when Pelayo was coming back to the house after throwing away the crabs, it was hard for him to see what it was that was moving and groaning in the rear of the courtyard” (Marquez 354). Ridiculously, the light is “weak” at “noon” when, in fact, …show more content…

One of the quote that contribute this is “In the midst of that shipwreck disorder that made the earth tremble” (Marquez 356). This statement is not meant to be taken literally. The disorder did not make the earth shake but rather display the immensity and disturbance occurring between the villagers and the angel. The shipwreck is being compared to the chaos. Just as a shipwreck has many spread out and unattached pieces, so does this turmoil happening at the house. Evidently, the villagers lost their values and drained their faith, despite the fact that they are religious, they act precisely the opposite as their religion

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Each time, he describes an angelic figure, or even God himself, to be the source of the noise. This possibly symbolizes an intervention attempt of a higher power or a guilty conscience. Whenever he has reached the “depths,” of his house, there will always be some force that odes him to make the correct choices. In conclusion, Soto retells an event of his past youth that aided in a greater understanding of morality, guilt, and sin.

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Likewise, Gabriel Marquez portrays the being of an angel in deplorable conditions in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children. The angel, albeit an uncommon sight, is not a wholly unnatural creature discover. The short story instead concentrates on the old man’s treatment and exploitation, describing that “his only supernatural virtue seemed to be patience” (Marquez, 8). Despite his heavenly origin, the only thing accounted for as being impressive is his ability to withstand the constant abuse by others. Marquez accentuates on what is considered mundane and dismisses any real phenomenal traits attributed to his form as a way to berate the people around him.

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With this, there is a transformation in the behavior of the villagers that was observed. We also noticed that the villagers in the story did not have names implying that they are not really important. However, when Esteban came into their village, they became known to other villages and in a way, they have created a name of their own through the presence of Esteban. Speaking of transformation, as the class went on, our instructor then shifted the lesson to a more concrete and up to date example.

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