A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

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God performs his divine acts in many ways. Jesus could perform miracles of healing and create food from nothing. These are the more conventional ways we see divine intervention at work. Almighty God, however, does not prefer these standard methods. Instead, he prefers to act in ways we humans can only begin to understand. This is very much true for the short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Within the story, a winged man falls from the sky with no meaning or purpose. The man is shrouded in mystery. Nameless and unable to communicate with the native villagers, he lives among them. His intentions are never truly known to either the reader or to the villagers. However, the biblical parallels throughout the story help us unravel the mysteries behind this strange old man. By analyzing the significance of these allegories, we can better understand the old man’s purpose while, at the same time, learning more about hidden moral teachings and criticisms in the story. When they first find the old man, the villagers claim that “he’s an angel” (Marquez 1). There is no denying the man’s divinity but he seems to represents much more than your average angel. In fact, the old man doesn’t resemble the typical image of an angel at all. Rather than being a young and pure angel, he is “much too human” with his “unbearable smell”. His angelic wings are even “strewn with parasites” with mistreated feathers (2). This contrasting imagery, however, doesn’t completely undermine the old man’s divinity; rather it draws attention to his lackluster appearance. The disappointments we feel towards the old man along with his particular characteristics make him remarkably similar to the one of bible’s tragic heroes; he is th... ... middle of paper ... ...h to make Elisenda realize how grateful she should be to the old man. It is almost saddening to realize how corrupt human nature has become. In order to remedy this, we learn that we must all become more humble to improve the human condition. The biblical parallels in “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” are essential in understanding its themes. Though it is true that the themes of this short story can be figured out without using biblical connection, their significance would not be the same. All the biblical parallels allow us to deepen our understanding the themes. The story itself is one entire allegory and without incorporating this fact we would not be able to completely recognize the overall meaning of the themes. By looking past the story as a singular work we can see how it connects to endlessly more lessons and reasons why we should better our lives.

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