Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Summary by Gabriel García Márquez Class 12 English
Summary
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) was Colombian-born Spanish American journalist, novelist, and shortstory writer. He is regarded as the literary volcano of the nineteen sixties and an exponent of a new narrative
style known as magical realism.
His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is taken as a classical example of magical realism. Marquez is
one of the best novelists of world literature and perhaps the best in Spanish literature. For many readers, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez and magical realism as synonymous with each other.
Magical Realism is a mode of narrative in which real and fantastic, natural and supernatural, are coherently
represented in a state of equivalence. Marquez’s other best-known novels are No One Writes to the Colonel
(1961), Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), and Memories of my Melancholy Whores (2004). The story ‘A
Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ was first published in 1955.
‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is a magical realist story that examines the human response to those
who are weak, dependent, and different. The story shows human nature-related curiosity, greed, and cruelty.
Main Summary
This is a story about a husband and wife named Pelayo and Elisenda who live near the ocean. They are proud
parents to a newborn child, though the child is sick.
After a bad storm, they notice an old man with wings near their house and keep him in the chicken coop. The
townspeople are curious as to what the man is and it is determined that the old man with wings is an angel.
Father Gonzaga, the town priest, visits the old man with wings, but after speaking with him, the Father doesn’t
believe he is an angel.
Despite his doubt, he still writes a letter to the bishop for orders on what to do. Meanwhile, Pelayo and Elisenda
begin charging people money to see the old man with wings and they become very wealthy.
To capitalize on the popularity of the old man with wings, a woman-spider arrives and impresses the crowd,
which results in fewer visitors for the old man with wings.
Pelayo and Elisenda build a new, bigger house and raise their son as the old man with wings continue to live
outside. The old man with wings begins to get sick and loses his wings, but survives the tough winter.
In the end, the old man with wings grows new feathers on his back and eventually flies away.
Analysis
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is a very confusing
story, and when we get to the end, we do know that we have learned anything or that any of the characters have
learned anything.
It is not certain whether this creature is actually an angel. Certainly, he is not a Norwegian, as some of the
villagers think. That does make sense to us. But they were not sure even what to make of it anyway, even
though they were so much wiser than these ignorant villagers who had all these crazy ideas.
We were not much better off than they are. So, what is Marquez trying to say with this story?
Well, some of the ambiguity may be the message itself, that we do not always know what to make of events in
our lives, and they look like good things, but then maybe they are not so good.
This story may suggest an idea that we were not certain what really was happening in our lives, and were not
actually able to get out of our own lives to have enough perspective to know whether an event was good or bad.
We are not sure how to treat it, and perhaps we treat it badly when it comes, because we are not wise enough,
really, to know how to treat these events that intrude on our lives.
Another idea is that this very old man with enormous wings is the other, or is the stranger, the person who
comes into our circle from the outside, an outsider.
So think of any kind of outsider to a group: People with disabilities, folks with different sexual orientations than
our own, people who are from another religion. Any group might be the other for us, and upon that other, we
project all kinds of bad things.
So this angel, if it is an angel, comes into their lives, and instead of being interested and curious about this
different person, they persecute it, they exploit it, and this poor creature is treated cruelly.
So, We tend to do that ourselves, with folks who are outside of our normal experience, and we try to
impose on them what we think they should be, instead of appreciating who they actually are.
A third idea is that Marquez himself felt like this very old man with enormous wings as he was becoming a
popular writer. He was making a name for himself, and when he wrote this story, he was pretty famous.
And celebrities always struggle with how their fame is affecting their lives, affecting their creativity, and how
they are received out there.
So perhaps the writer feels like an oddity, like this very old man with enormous wings, a strange creature. He
might be attacked, he might be put on a pedestal. People just can react to him in the right way, and sort of like I
said with the outsider, people do appreciate him for what he really is.
Instead, they make up all these expectations that they think he should achieve.
If you are a real angel, you should be white, and you should have these magical powers, and you should be
strong, Nope, thats not what you've got. You know?
So maybe as a writer, people were saying, wait, if you are a famous writer, we want you to do this and that, and
write like this, and be a spokesperson for this cause, or. Whatever expectations were pushed on him, he had to
say, well, wait a minute, I am going to do my art and I want to do my work, and even if they think I am like this
very old man with enormous wings and I am gross and I am weird, well, that's who I am That's who I have to
be.
So that is another idea of how to interpret this story. Now the story itself is rather strange because none of the
people are nice, none of them are compassionate or humane.
They all just exploit the very old man with enormous wings. They are in their little lives. They show a lot of
ignorance in how they treat him, and their ideas about him.
Even the church, which might be a source of enlightenment, turns out to be more noise and red tape, and doesn't
have anything effective or constructive to contribute, so I feel like maybe it is the reader who ends up growing
and changing as we look at this story and we see what not to be.
Like, we want to be like those people, because they have such a narrow perspective that they do appreciate what
they have.
This fantabulous creature is there, but they go to any trouble to learn more about him or figure out what he is,
except with derision, with fear, with cruelty.
They simply say, well, that is not what we ordered. If you are an angel, well, you are not the kind of angel we
want to have. And they just overlook all of the interesting qualities about him.
Now he is smelly, he is gross, he has bugs in his wings, and he does seem to engage with people or want to
show and share at all. He pulls back. But, after all, they did throw him in a chicken coop, so hey, it is not like he
should be nice to these people.
Even the child, treats him with indignity. Is-We does know what they are, but... the child is not any more openminded than adults. I feel like, as the reader, I am supposed to not be like all those people.
And instead, I am supposed to realize that I should appreciate creatures and people for who they are instead of
trying to impose my standards on them. And then I miss out, uh, on this new interesting thing, because I am all
boxed in.
There is more to say as far as the style or the symbolism. We have the angel, associated with the sea. You know,
comes in on the sea, leaves on the sea wind, sings these sailor songs called sea chanteys, and the sea may
always be a symbol of the possibilities or the endless, boundless nature that is both cruel and giving.
If the angel is a gift from the sea, in a sense, then they reject the gift, and they do know what to do with the gift,
and it is very awkward. And finally, he was able to leave and kind of rescue himself.
Did he actually cause the miracles?
Well, the lady who says she is an angel does have a lot of credibilities, because she says all kinds of crazy stuff.
But then the narrator tells us he is an angel and talks about lunar dust and some other things that imply that he
really is an angel.
So maybe the problem is that when God, or the Divine, does erupt into our lives, we do know what to make of
it, and how to treat it, and we do not even recognize it for what it is.
He is mysterious, and maybe that's part of the message, that when the mystery comes into our lives, we try to
just explain it away, and we do enjoy the deliciousness of something mysterious, something we do understand.
But we can certainly see that, when faced with things we do understand, human nature says, let's just be afraid
of it, let's stick it in the chicken coop. Maybe that is how we are with the mysterious in our lives and in the
world.
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Summary
The short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings tells the story of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda, who find
an old man with wings in their courtyard after killing crabs in a rainstorm. Pelayo gets his wife, and they try to
communicate with him unsuccessfully. They eventually get their neighbor woman, who informs them that the
old man is an angel. She tells them that it was on its way for their sick child.
They put the angel in the chicken coop, and during the middle of the night their child's fever breaks. They
decide to let him go, but when they return to the courtyard at dawn the entire community has arrived to see the
angel. Father Gonzaga soon arrives, declaring that the old man is a fake. He promises to get the real truth from
the higher courts of the church. The news of the angel spreads like wildfire, and the courtyard soon resembles a
marketplace. Elisenda then has the idea of charging a 5 cent admission fee for seeing the angel; they are soon
rich. Rome takes it time deciding on whether the old man is an angel, and while waiting for their verdict, Father
Gonzaga works desperately to restrain the crowd.
The crowd leaves on its own, however, when a carnival boasting a Spider-Girl arrives in town. Spectators are
allowed to question her, and she tells them how she was turned into a tarantula one night for disobeying her
parents. This appeals to the masses more than an old winged man who ignores the people around him. Thus, the
curious crowds soon leave the angel for the spider, leaving Pelayo's courtyard deserted.
Pelayo and Elisenda build a mansion with all the money they have accumulated. They neglect the angel and
prevent their child from getting to close to the chicken coop. He soon becomes a part of their life, and they no
longer fear him. The child visits him often. After a while the chicken coop breaks, and they allow him to move
around their house, although it causes Elisenda much distress. He gets increasingly frail and sickly, and they
fear that he will die. He recovers, however, and one day Elisenda watches him fly away, to her great relief.
Glossary
compress (v.) squeeze or press
stupor (n.): a state in which a person’s thoughts are not clear e.g., drunken stupor, feverish stupor
castaway (n.): ashore as a survivor of a shipwreck
celestial (adj.): belonging or relating to the heaven
magnanimous (adj.): a generous or forgiving towards enemies or less powerful rivals
reverence (n.): deep respect for someone or something
conjecture (n.): an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information
catechism (n.): religious instruction, especially in Roman catholic
decrepit (adj.): ruined because of age or neglect
impertinence (n.): lack of respect
antiquarian (adj.): relating to the antiques (old and rare things)
imposter (n.): a person who pretends to be someone else
ingenuous (adj.): innocent and unsuspecting
Supreme Pontiff (n.): The Pope (Roman catholic)
befuddled (adj.): utterly confused
sacramental (adj.) related to Christian religious ceremony
pentinent (n.) : person who repents of a sin
cataclysm (n.): a large scale and violent event in natural or cultural history
Aramaic (n.): a language
providential (adj.): occurring to a favorable time
tribulation (n.): a state of great trouble
outlandish (adj.) that looks or sounds unfamiliar
thunderclap (n.): a crash of thunder
creolin (n.): a kind of disinfectant
myrrh (n.): a fragrant gum resin obtained from certain trees and used, especially in
perfumery, medicines, and incense
standoffish (adj.): unfriendly
exasperate (v.): irritate/worsen