In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, Marquez writes about an unexpected outsider and how people deal with that outsider or how they deal with the unknown and unexpected. In this short story, what they first assume is a “lonely castaway from some foreign shipwrecked by the storm” (51) shows up but after talking to their neighbor “who knew everything about life and death” (51), they then assume that he is an angel. Immediately the whole town rejects him, “they did not have the heart to clob him to death… before going to bed he dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop” (52). Pelayo and Elisenda, in addition to the rest of the town, reject the old man and begin treating …show more content…
After about a week, we began introducing them to each other more often and for longer periods of time. Sailor, being very energetic, playful, and honestly kind of a trouble maker, would jump over the ottomans, run around the house, bite cords, get into clothes, and start play ‘fights’ with Iver, etc. Sailor would run up to Iver, who is minding his own business, and bite his ankles or his mouth to get him to start playing. Sailor irritated Iver, which led to Iver growling and barking to get him to back off. Sailor would bite Ivers ankles pretty much everyday, so for quite a while Iver did not like Sailor and would snap at him all of the time. He would ignore him and push him around a little bit which Sailor saw as playing so he would go bite him again. Iver gave Sailor and us attitude and weird looks when we would give Sailor attention and would end up just walking away. We gave him just as much attention, but he was starting to realize that he was not the only dog in the house anymore and had to share our attention. As time went on, Iver and Sailor grew closer together and now are inseparable and do everything together, even though Iver did not like Sailor in the beginning. This example shows that even siblings, human or any other animal, can reject the new sibling or the idea of having a new sibling for a while because they were, in their minds, totally unexpected and new. This idea of rejecting or judging an unexpected/unknown idea, person, or event that is present in Garcia Marquez’ “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” reminded me of the way getting a new sibling can go, even with pets. Pelayo, Elisenda, and the people of the town, reject and judge the old man because he is different than they are. Almost everyone can relate to this theme or at least has seen this happen at some point or another, whether personally