A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

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"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (Spanish: Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes) is a fictional short story by author Gabriel García Márquez written in 1955. It falls within the genre of magic realism, and is one of the short stories included in the book Leaf Storm.

Plot summary

"A very old man with Enormous wings" begins with a husband and wife, Pelayo and Elisenda, who find a very old man in their courtyard one stormy afternoon. Amazed, they gaze at the enormous wings attached to the body of the old man as he struggles to get up from the mud. After it rains for three days, the main characters Pelayo and Elisenda, pick him up among the stench of the mud. The couple attempts to communicate with the old man, but are unable to because he speaks a different language (which is never identified.) A neighbor comes by and lets them know that the old man is an angel who has come to take their sick child. Unsure of what to do, Pelayo decides to lock the angel in a chicken coop overnight. Early the next morning the local priest, Father Gonzaga, comes to the home, followed by the rest of the community, to test the old man and determine whether or not he truly is an angel. Ultimately, Father Gonzaga finds many reasons why the man cannot be an angel, such as the fact that the old man cannot understand Latin, and also because he has too many mortal characteristics. Elisenda, tired of having so many people at her house, decides to charge an entrance fee to see the angel. The family becomes rich and builds a mansion with the money they have collected. The Old Man then lives with the family in the chicken coop for many years to come.

The crowd soon loses interest in the angel because another freak has risen to fame. The new attraction is a woman who disobeyed her parents when she was young, and has since been transformed into a tarantula. In order for her to continue telling her story, the people of the town toss meatballs into her mouth, which was "her only means of nourishment." Meanwhile, the angel's health has declined, and it seems he is on the verge of death. Years pass, and he is still trapped in the coop, treated poorly by Pelayo and Elisenda. However, he suddenly becomes more healthy, grows a few new feathers, and is able to get out of his cage. At first, he roams around the house, but Elisenda keeps shooing him out of the rooms with a broom. One day he leaves the house, and begins to attempt to fly. After much effort, he is able to fly off into the distance, and Elisenda is relieved to have the "annoyance" gone from her life.

Character Summary

Pelayo-

The Old Man landed on Pelayo and Elisenda's property. Pelayo is the husband to Elisenda. He discovered the Old Man in his backyard. During the whole story, he is very eager and willing to help others. Because of his helpful nature, he protects the Old Man and cares for him, especially from the priest and the crowds. He believes that the Old Man is a sailor. Pelayo doesn't necessarily want to house the Old Man, but he does want to keep the revenue.

Elisenda-

Elisenda first comes up with the idea to charge people to see the Old Man. She is very family oriented throughout the story. It bothers her though, that she has to clean up after all the crowds from coming to see him. Near the end when the Old Man begins to come in the house, she gets annoyed because she has to clean up after him.

The Old Man-

He appears in the backyard in the mud. The family is first hesitant about what he is, so they make him live in the chicken coop. He is very dirty and he speaks a weird language that the people cannot understand. When the crowds first start to come around, he is absentminded and patient about whats going on. The crowds come from all over the world to see him so he becomes a celebrity. Later, the crowds burn him with a branding iron and he becomes angered. In the end, he grows all of his feathers back and he flies away.

Father Gonzaga-

Father Gonzana is the priest and the authority figure of the town. He takes on the responsibility to figure out what the Old Man is. He was a little perplexed about what the Old Man was, so he referred to his superiors. He later says he thinks that the Old Man is an imposter, or a phony. He also had a calming personality, primarily when the crowds were flooding.

The Neighbor-

The Neighbor was known for being wise, intelligent and helpful. She thought that the Old Man was an angel and fell from the sky to take Pelayo's son away. While her advise for clubbing the Old Man wasn't used, she still attempted to help her neighbors Pelayo and Elisenda.

Spider Woman-

The Spider Woman essentially comes and takes the Old Man's fame. She is a troublemaker who got kicked out of her parents' home for disobeying. After disobeying her parents, she got turned into a tarantula with the head of a woman. The people then forget about the Old Man and focus their interests on the freak show named Spider Woman.

The Child-

The child of Pelayo and Enlisenda is ill when the story opens. The Neighbor tried to tell the family that the Old Man came to take the child to heaven. Sometimes during the story, he is found playing with the Old Man.

References

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." The Story and Its Writer. Eighth Edition. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 446-452. Print.

External links

• list of short stories in Leaf Storm
• Film Un Señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes, Internet Movie Database.
• http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_biography.html The Modern Word
• http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12287 Literature, Arts and Medicine Database
• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-bio.html NobelPrize.org

v t e Works by Gabriel García Márquez Novels In Evil Hour One Hundred Years of Solitude The Autumn of the Patriarch Chronicle of a Death Foretold Love in the Time of Cholera The General in His Labyrinth Of Love and Other Demons Memories of My Melancholy Whores Short stories Leaf Storm No One Writes to the Colonel Big Mama's Funeral Innocent Eréndira Strange Pilgrims The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Non-fiction The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor Clandestine in Chile News of a Kidnapping Living to Tell the Tale Speech The Solitude of Latin America Magic realism