Man With Enormous Wings Allegory

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, describes the spectacle of an angel that falls into the yard of a village family. Told by a third-person narrator, a unique character is discovered outside of Elisenda’s and Pelayo’s home. They precede to place him in a chicken coop on display for all of the village to see. The old man is an attraction that people travel near and far to observe. The atrocious conditions in with the decrepit angel lives in are a direct result of the village peoples’ scorn for oddity. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is an allegory for the nature of humans to react to others’ strangeness differently. Because short stories provide little time for complex character development, main characters

Marquez creates confusion over the identity of the old man in order to present the human nature to react to differences to the reader. The village people are determined to ostracize the man as they “dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop” (Marquez #). Many theories of his identity are discussed throughout the citizens creating a confusing atmosphere. Eventually, “No one paid any attention to him because his wings were not hose of an angel but, rather, those of a sidereal bat” (Marquez #). Once the old man is no longer an object of obsession, he becomes a part of the past. Marquez’s deliberate attempt to create confusion convey that there is not always a solution to rid a community of differences. The differences in individuals in a community create diversity. Marquez’s short story is an example of how society discriminates differences of individuals instead of accepting

The story, up through the climax, displays the consequences of irrational actions. “The winged old man is viewed as an object” by the community as they search to find an explanation for his existence (Pelayo 84). First trying to rid the old man at sea, Elisenda and Pelayo attempt to act on their irrational ideas. They then involve the neighbor woman, priest, and village people to solve this confusing situation (Marquez #). None of their actions are effective as they are irrational, uncomprehensive thoughts. The man only flies away upon Elisenda’s realization that he is a burden in her life. It is not until the climax and falling actions that the old man flies away signaling the success of rational