A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Rhetorical Analysis

The Diction of Contradiction
While cruelty moreso equates to the antithesis of compassion, the two states often coexist in human nature to varying degrees. Gabriel García Márquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings satirizes this coexistence and its contradictory nature within his characters; by crafting his diction with concise intent, Márquez contrasts the concepts of cruelty and compassion, perception and reality, and the fallacies of mankind. He utilizes these concepts to convey a certain tone throughout the passages, largely that of an impassive voice telling a fantastical tale.
The turn of phrase used in the short story employs satire to show certain crucial aspects of human nature according to Márquez. Satirical diction adds humor,

irony, and exaggeration to the piece, tools which lend themselves well to Márquez’s points. The story functions effectively as a criticism of the Roman Catholic Church, with Márquez using satirical diction to portray Father Gonzaga as well as his superiors in Rome humorously. The passages generally leave the reader with a sense of ineptitude and asininity within the church, as with the metaphor of the pinhead. This concept is immediately made clear when Gonzaga first approaches the elderly angel, attempting to greet him in Latin, or what the church considered the “language of God,” and pronounced the winged man an imposter when he did not respond in kind (Márquez). The parish priest then went on to argue that “if wings were not the essential element in determining the difference between a hawk and an airplane, they were even less so in the recognition of angels” (Márquez). The irony in that statement primarily rests with the fact that Father Gonzaga and his church are so fixated on their own perception of what an angel should be, that they cannot recognize the actual creature before them as, if not an angel, then some close supernatural relative of one. The diction Márquez uses to convey this varies from significant word usage, as with Rome’s “lack of urgency” in the matter of the angel, to the pure satire of the church questioning whether or not the old man was “just a Norwegian with wings” (Márquez). Overall, the details given by the author gives readers the impression that the Roman Catholic Church approaches the existence of the angel with absurd disinterest.
The style of magical realism features often ridiculous diction that helps to paint a sharp contrast between reality and perception, and characterize important figures throughout the short story.

Because the old man’s appearance does not meet initial expectations of what an angel should look like, the villagers treat him as a “circus animal” rather than the “supernatural being” of unknown import that he truly is (Márquez). The use of ridiculous descriptions within Márquez’s short reflects the likeminded ridiculous nature of the villagers, and indicates on a grander scale the fallacy of man to overlook that which he does not understand. As with the neighbor woman, many of the characters throughout the short suggest bizarre methods of dealing with the angel, including the completely peculiar idea of feeding him mothballs. He also describes the old man as looking more “like a huge decrepit hen” as he is held captive in the chicken coop, the situational irony adding to the humorous take on the mystical and sacred (Márquez). The comical wording of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is crucial to the goal of the author in satirizing the stupidity of the villagers towards real

phenomenon.
Throughout the short story, Márquez puts significance on the underwhelming diction used to describe interactions between the elderly angel, Pelayo’s family, and the denizens of the village.

Stylistically, this diction serves a vital purposes in its failure to impress upon the reader a sense of awe for the angel; the way in which the angel himself is described, as having “huge buzzard wings,” denotes the feelings of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda towards the old man (Márquez). The lack of astonishment or wonder at the winged man sets a tone for the story, ultimately resulting in the mistreatment and disrespect shown to the poor creature. Father Gonzaga remains perhaps the most guilty party in this endeavor to keep the oddity captive, as he quickly denounced the winged man as an “imposter” and a knock-off (Márquez). Further examples are found in the unsavory descriptors attached to the angel by Pelayo and Elisenda. Both husband and wife only perceive him for his “parasites,” his “dungheap” stench, and “scarecrow” feathers (Márquez). Perhaps looking past these earthly flaws would have resulted in a greater reverence for his existence, yet the characters only seem underwhelmed by the possibility of a flesh-and-blood angel on their

doorstep.
Especially in regards to Elisenda’s views on the winged man, pragmatism exerts a strong influence on the motivations of characters in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. The chosen diction of Márquez reflects this practical approach to a mystical situation, with the resulting exploitation of the angel often leaving readers with a bitter taste in their mouths. While on some level Elisenda, Pelayo, Father Gonzaga, and other characters may believe the winged man to be an angel, it does nothing to stop many of them from seeking to profit in some way from the man. Even cripples attempt to gain something from him by ripping out feathers to “touch their defective parts with” (Márquez). And Elisenda held no qualms on charging “five cents admission” to see the angel (Márquez). Pelayo and Elisenda profited greatly from essentially advertising the angel as a sideshow, their extravagant two-story house and fiscal security testaments to their ill-gotten gains. After the profitability of commercializing him ended, the wife complained endlessly at the old man’s continued presence, going so far as to decry her home as a “hell full of angels,” despite the fact that her new lavish lifestyle was largely thanks to the old man (Márquez). Coldly pragmatic in diction, the short emphasizes the matter-of-fact way in which man and wife profit from a pitiful creature, as if exploiting a mythical creature for financial gain is a matter of practicality.
Mistreated, exploited, and eventually pushed aside with disturbing ease, the angel brought out the common evil in the villagers. By satirizing the encounters between man and myth, Márquez creates a vivid distinction between the nature of perception and reality. The diction used not only satirizes, but also ridicules the disregard and pragmatic fallacies of his characters. Ultimately, Márquez leaves his readers with an understanding that men only ever see what they want to see.