Gabriel García Márquez's A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

Once upon a time, there was A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings who lived in a world where the mystical is not outright outrageous. It’s as if there was always a chance of an old angel falling out of the sky. People react as if this is more unusual, rather than improbable. For a children’s story, such as this, makes the strange seem normal. Gabriel García Márquez, famous for his blend of magic and realism, created a children tale to warn the every one of the dangers of being ignorant of everyday life.
Before going any further, note that this story has been translated from Spanish into English by Gregory Rabassa; meaning that it is not in Marquez’s own voice. The nuances of his text are not fully portrayed when reading, leading to the story being stiltedly but proficiently written. But without further ado, here are the main points.
Throughout the story, the old man, or the angel, is a victim of Pelayo

and Elisendas’ greed. Unfortunate events are caused to the angel, but “The angel was the only one who took no part in his own act” (310). It is within the actions of the other characters is where the story truly plays out. People’s reacted mundanely as if the mystical does not appear strange. In Pelayo and Elisenda’s views, “That was how they skipped over the inconvenience of the wings and quite intelligently concluded that he was a lonely castaway from some foreign ship wrecked by the storm” (308). They made conclusions based on their values instead of reality. Father Gonzaga needed advice for higher power while Pelayo and Elisenda just used the old man for a quick cash. They did not bother to help him at all in the chicken coop. Misery and human torture in a tale are underrated. The characters appear relatively fine after all the things that they have been through in the end. Like children’s story, this ends on a bittersweet note of the old man flying away free, leaving the family unharmed. The family does not learn a lesson from this encounter, but they are now better off. Though there is evidence at every corner of the old man being an angel, Pelayo, Elisenda and Father Gonzaga failed to see it.
Marquez does not attempt to explain the background behind the story, and the human characters seem to share his same nonchalant views. The style he writes is called magical realism, which mainly describes Latin American writing and deals with the absurd being normal. Magical Realism stories come mainly from the perspective of South America, postcolonial era, where it is common to write stories of the fantastic elements invading the world of normal people. In the subtitle of being called “A Tale for Children”, it is concluded that it does not need analyzing nor does it need to make sense in any context. A children story can hold up within its own universe and has its own rules. The answer to why the old man wing’s feathers turn black, or why he seems to stay with Pelayo and his wife for a certain time doesn’t matter within the context. The moral of the story is to show people to not be ignorant of the world around them.
The old man is “no longer an annoyance in [t]her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea” (313) for Pelayo and Elisenda. The angel’s presence was a sudden nuisance for the couple, as they did not bother to give or ask about the angel’s name. The act of naming is a very human characteristic, as no other animal show the instinctive ability to do so. Having no name, makes the angel seem less human and connected with people, in contrast with Pelayo and Elisenda, and father Gonzaga are the most human behaving character in the story. The neighbor, who tells the couple, “He is an angel”, is nameless. The more human a person, the less they believe in the supernatural. Marquez shows that human beings do not understand the world outside their own.
Marquez’s grandmother is a storyteller and based many of his stories off her tales. Her oral tales eventually led to Marquez’s stories written on a page. In a statement made by Joel Hancock, “Originating in the oral tradition, the old folk stories--once the main staple of entertainment for adults -- are now published in sumptuous volumes with beautiful illustrations and directed to a younger public” (43). In modern lives, more stories are being written rather than told. And though “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” seems like a tale for children, the story has a darker theme. Uneducated people believe in myths and they tell their own children these myths. Like children, they uneducated accept things in life, never questioning and applying the ideas.
Poverty leaves people uneducated, as humans are not born knowing how to understand. As with the case of Pelayo and Elisenda who are poor, but have the most basic human needs, a family and a home. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the story, they were close losing the need since their child had a fever and their homes were infested with crabs due to the storm. The encounter with the old man brought them luck and joy, as their son’s fever broke and the rain ended. But they did not give the angel anything except for pain, sadness, and grief. The poverty Pelayo and the Elisenda, caused them to only think of the present and how it would profit them, which in turn is making money off of someone else’s misery.
Tony Miksanek states,” People wouldn't recognize a miracle even if they saw one.

Patience pays off. Appearances are deceptive”. The angel does not seem who he appears to be, he acts nothing like an angel nor does he give off the glamour of something better. They found the angel too beaten and human to their liking. People hate each other they find someone who is too much like them they would automatically despise them. In this case, the angel appears to be too human yet not human enough. The angel smells and looks normal, but he neither speaks their language nor does he tries. In comparison with the spider woman, a human girl head with a large spider body, she is considered more human than the angel himself. Her story of misfortune made people relate and pity her. Because of her, the angel lost his popularity within the town, but Pelayo and Eslinda had more than enough to live. With their mansion, they left the angel alone, not bothering themselves with the angel any longer. They were too human for their own good, as they never looked a gift horse in the

mouth.
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings tells a tale about an old angel, and a couple whose lives intertwined and eventually part ways. Though not much is explained in the story, the overall theme and writing of Marquez make this something comprehensible and understanding to the human soul. The moral of the story is that human beings need to be made more aware of things that are outside the human bubble. The child of Pelayo and Elisenda will grow up and too become ignorant like his parents. In the end, the angel flies away knowing he is no longer needed. The annoyance of Pelayo and Elisenda life is over, but their ignorance about the angel still lingers.