Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a manner of composing that depicts events taking topographic point around him in a phantasmagoric manner. In the short narrative “ A Very Old adult male with Enormous Wingss, ” Garcia introduces a adult male with feathery wings that may be considered an angel by characters in the narrative. Garcia have seen his fatherland, Colombia, put through violent rebellions and political battles and this makes him no alien to tactics, gambits and force that is normally associated with political discord, hence he uses this background as secret plans in some of his narratives. In this narrative, human behaviour is analyzed by character ‘s violent inclinations every bit good as presentation of how authorization can damage freedom of look. It appears that his positions are political, with characters exposing inhumane behaviour and really strong charming pragmatism in his literary component, particularly in the narrative “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss. ”
In this narrative, a villager by the name of Pelayo finds an old adult male with big wings on his belongings after he went to dispose of some pediculosis pubis that had overran his pace. He and his married woman affect other small town members in their quest to happen out who or what this old adult male truly is. After it was established that the old adult male was an angel by the small town, the small town priest tried to utilize assorted tactics at his disposal to authenticate this while funny people from all about came to see the winged old adult male. Pelayo and his married woman Elisenda became rich after bear downing people to see the winged old adult male who they kept in a poulet henhouse. Peoples expected miracles of which the old adult male seems to execute some, though indirectly. Finally the wonder ebbs when a carnival comes to the small town. In this carnival was a adult female who was turned into a big spider because she went to a dance against her parent ‘s wants. Old ages passed before the old adult male with wings, who lived with Pelayo and his married woman in their new house, gained adequate strength and height to merely merely wing off in the distance one twenty-four hours.
In many literary circles, Garcia ‘s bent for construction in the life of the characters in his narratives helps readers to understand the true kernel of ‘magical pragmatism. ‘ As a kid turning up in Aracataca, Colombia, his grandma and aunts told him many narratives of local myths that seemed to take the immature Garcia to different degrees of human enterprises. His gramps besides told him narratives of the Colombian Civil War which Garcia grew to love, particularly when it appears the immature Garcia seemed to believe fantasy elements and world can entwine. In the really rubric of the narrative, “ An Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss, ” ( 319 ) readers are introduced and rather intrigued as to what this could perchance be. This is where Garcia means to present an entity that as a adult male, readers can link with, but the add-on of ‘Enormous Wingss, ‘ seems to bespeak many facets of what this adult male is, viz. an angel. Angels in some faiths are known to hold wings, the wings are normally proportionate to their organic structures – here Garcia uses “ Enormous ” which may bespeak this ‘angel ‘ has great importance, or may hold a profound consequence on characters in the narrative. This narrative is set in a small town and since Garcia grew up in a small town, most of the narrative ‘s scene is patterned after small town life ( no hustling and bustling of large metropolis life ) which contributes to readers ‘ connexion with the cardinal characters, the old adult male, Pelayo and Elisa. This connexion with the characters and the scene is foremost established here:
He had to travel really near to see that it was an old adult male, a really old adult male, lying face
down in the clay, who, in malice of his enormous attempts, could n’t acquire up, im-
peded by his tremendous wings. ( 320 )
Garcia brings readers into a universe that as the narrative unfolds ; the ‘fantasy component ‘ becomes realistic when the narrative ‘s images are reinforced with logical actions and emotions. A adult male lying face down in clay is non one of beatific grace, but normally signifies a derelict or person who may me ache, yet the old adult male has wings! In Genevieve Slomski ‘s article analysis, she indicates: “ In the concluding analysis, the text offers no rational account for the puzzling adult male. ” Garcia did non stipulate the old adult male was an existent angel, but by utilizing characters such as the neighbour who Pelayo and his married woman foremost called to happen out what the old adult male was all about: ‘ ” He ‘s an angel, ” she told them. ‘ ( 320 ) , readers are led to believe the supporter is an angel.
Garcia became influenced by literary greats like William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, and Ernest Hemingway, but by the clip he wrote the narrative “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss, ” in 1968, he was already an established author in the Latin American communities of the universe. His manner of composing led to him being known in literary circles as one of the laminitiss of the ‘Magical Realism. ‘ The manner he mixes imaginativeness and world in this peculiar narrative suggests a adult male whose head at least knows no human boundaries. Most of his literary parts to the universe are non like this, ironically. His works largely included political issues, societal commentaries, unknoting awful political secret plans and tactics and every bit mentioned before inhumane behaviour society sometimes demo towards each other that he has lived through. This may take some readers to inquire why he changed to the charming pragmatism that is portrayed in this peculiar narrative “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss. ” Harmonizing to an essay in Magill ‘s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition that was written by Jean C. Fulton on Garcia ‘s life, Garcia was quoted as stating “ Style is determined by capable, by the temper of the times. ” Does this stress that he may travel in a different way with each narrative he writes, because his temper may swing? This statement surely does bespeak that, and based on other narratives by Garcia that may non embrace charming pragmatism, e.g. political undertones, natural and grittiness, as portrayed in narratives like “ This Town of Shit, ” and “ One Hundred Old ages of Solitude, ” it can be assessed that Garcia ‘s head was in a phantasmagoric universe at the clip he wrote “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss. ” Garcia was good known to be intrigued with William Faulkner ‘s manner of making his childhood into fabulous yesteryear. This may hold led to Garcia composing this peculiar narrative, but the two manners do non portion a batch in common. Garcia besides has a bent for casting visible radiation on people who seemed to hold more bad lucks than success in their being:
The most unfortunate shut-ins on Earth came in hunt of wellness: a hapless adult female
who since childbearing had been numbering her pulses and had ran out of num-
bersaˆ¦ . ( 322 )
Could this be the consequence of some of the atrociousnesss he saw the banana workers experienced when he was really immature? While it may be difficult to reply, readers can theorize that Garcia manner of composing in relation to “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss ” may “ do readers to believe in footings of symbolic narrative, parable, and fable, ” harmonizing to Ronald E. McFarland in his work in Surveies in Short Fiction ; Fall 92, Vol. 29, p 551. It would look that Garcia had more in common with characters like these than people of higher position. The neighbour adult female that was one of the first after Pelayo and Elisandro found the old adult male with wings momently took attending off from the supporter “ Against the judgement of the wise neighbour adult female, for whom angels in those times were fleeting subsisters of a heavenly conspiracyaˆ¦ ” ( 320-21 ) here is a character that would that had no ‘official ‘ station ( other than being a neighbour ) but advises the twosome to make injury to the old adult male. Why? The transition indicates she believes he may be a Fallen Angel and they likely deserve no human commiseration. Father Gonzaga, the small town priest, rather perchance shared the same sentiments as the neighbour adult female for the old adult male. This is the debut by Garcia of a individual of position, one who represented faith, but doubted the belief of the people that the old adult male was an angel. The old adult male was being treated inhumanely, yet the priest did nil much to relieve his state of affairs “ He was lying in a corner drying his unfastened wings in the sunshine among the fruit Peels and breakfast leftovers that the early risers had thrown him. ” ( 321 ) Garcia ‘s commonalty here was when he was in college in his younger old ages, he wandered the streets of Bogota hanging with some societal misfits, even though they belonged to some kind of literary circle. Garcia is trying to convey to illume in “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingss ” that persons who are different are non treated the same as one would handle a neighbour, an associate or another fellow homo being from the same environment. The characters that were considered different like the old man- the acrobat with wings that looked more like a sidereal chiropteran, the carnival adult female that had the signifier of a spider, etc. , were meant rather perchance by Garcia to deviate readers inquisitiveness as to what the old adult male truly was and his existent intent.
Reading the narrative for the first clip may convey incomprehensiveness to readers because of the characters and the functions they seem to play in the subject of the narrative. Is Garcia seeking to direct a message to readers with this fable? It was already established that charming pragmatism in the mid 60 ‘s was going a norm in literary circles, so Garcia ‘s purpose when he wrote and had the narrative published was to alarm readers to pay close attending to regulations and ordinances when they are applied to happenings that may look unnatural, despite his logical thinking that his narratives reflect the tempers he was in when he was composing them.