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

760 Words4 Pages

A guardian angel is a spirit or person that watches over and protects people and places. According to the Bible, “for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (Psalms 91:11). In other words, we have angels that are sent here to protect us as we go about our daily tasks. Many people do not believe that angels exist or that they are sent here to protect us. Normally angels are not seen but felt by the people who do believe in them. Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is an illustration that portrays the expected role of a guardian angel. Marquez’s story also shows that the characters in his story have a lack of sympathy, along with being cruel, and abusive towards the old man. …show more content…

Once they discovered him, they should have taken him into their home and at least made him comfortable. Marquez shows abuse in this story when the other characters/towns people toss food at the old man like he is some kind of animal or carnival freak. Pelayo used the old man as a form of monetary gain by charging the other characters in the story a fee to get a glimpse of the “angel”. This demonstrates how the character was selfish and only thinking of himself and how it would benefit his situation. The characters should have been grateful that the “angel” showed up when he did because their circumstances changed. Once the angel appears they are able to “build a two-story mansion with balconies and gardens” (Gwynn 170).
The “old man” also experiences pain from those who would show mercy to the most deployable creature “even the most merciful threw stones at him, trying to get him to rise so they could see him standing” (Gwynn 169). The world as a whole can be shallow and selfish because they judged the old man for his appearance of having a bald head and few teeth in his mouth where if they would have paid more attention they would have realized that he was an

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