Examples Of Xenophobia In A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

Xenophobia in "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" Gabriel García Márquez's story "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings'' is a tale of a family who lives in a small coastal village and one day they happen to find an old man with wings lying in mud in their courtyard. They keep and feed this old man in the yard in a chicken pen and he becomes an attraction for the townspeople as well as people all over the world. The story takes place in a world full of mythical creatures like this old man. In all cases of these creatures being mentioned in the story, they are held captive by people and put on display for spectators to torment. Throughout the story the old man is harassed by people assuming he is an angel and by that he is obligated to help them

Its roots are from the Greek words "Xenos" (stranger) and "Phobos" (fear), and it can affect anyone who feels different or threatened by others. This has been an issue amongst people throughout history and has led to the destruction of entire civilizations. An example of it in history is that a major reason for slavery and later segregation was that whites were afraid of what black people could achieve because they didn't understand them and their appearance and culture were foreign. In the case of "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings '' the old man and other creatures in the story are treated poorly and are held captive by people because they were "strange" and "foreign" to the humans. People almost immediately begin to treat the man poorly. As soon as the man is found the "wise" woman of the town assumes he is an angel and "angels in those times were the fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy," she also wanted the townspeople to kill him but "they did not have the heart to club him to death." (Márquez). Here the wise woman shows symptoms of xenophobia by coming up with her own reasoning as to why the man came and suggesting violence out of fear and confusion. The family locks up the old man in a chicken coop and the following day the yard is full of neighbors harassing the old man "tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren't a

This is the idea that if "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings' ' was written from another point of view it wouldn't have properly projected the people's reactions to the old man arriving. The Explicator supports this claim with the statement "In fact, the stories would have failed if written from different points of view." (Explicator). The Explicator argues that "García Márquez utilizes in "Enormous" the standpoint of an outside party witnessing the events so as to not focus on the internal journey of any single character." which is best (Explicator). Without this outside party's point of view, the story wouldn't be able to capture the reactions of the townspeople and the rest of the world to the old man arriving at the village. The display of xenophobia in people would not have worked as well if the point of view was from the perspective of the old man or of a person in the story. If it was in the eyes of one of the people then we could feel attached to that person and possibly excuse their behavior. If the story was in the view of the old man I think it would do better in the eyes of the people but I think that his possible thoughts of malice or anger with the people could