A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Literary Analysis
1082 Words5 Pages
Cruel but True: Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s View On a Truth of Life
Many wonder what our society is like. Some have good views, others may not. There are truths to the life here on this world and one of them is the everyday discrimination and greed. In A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses mysticism, vivid description, and symbolism to prove his point that humanity is oblivious to greed and judgment.
By applying mysticism to this short story, Marquez was able to introduce supernatural and mythical characters such as the woman with the body of a spider and the main character, the old man with wings. Using mysticism to create inhuman characters, Marquez was able to have these characters stand out in the story, them…show more content… Marquez stated that the doctor was surprised about the wings because, “they seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he could not understand why other men did not have them too” (223/224). The wings were “natural” that it’s as if it was considered as part of the human anatomy, so with or without the wings, the old man is still “completely human.” But because he is different, he is the social outcast in the town. Near the end of the story, while everyone no longer paid much attention to the old man or miracles, he grew healthier with feathers on his wings and finally he was able to fly away. This symbolized that without the harsh treatment that people gave, he was free. The way people treated him affected who he was and when the folks of the town couldn’t care less about him, he felt free and that’s how him flying away in the end symbolize his freedom. Every human being is different and Marquez was trying to state that in his story by using the old man and the town. The old man had wings, which no one else in the town had. He was a foreigner that received no hospitality. He had wings and nothing could change that but no one would accept that he was normal. This symbolized judgment by someone’s appearance, an act that everyone does but are still