A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Márquez Summary

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is a short story. It's a very confusing story, and by the time we reach the conclusion, we don't know who that old man actually was.

It is unknown whether this creature is an angel. He is very emphatically not a Norwegian, as some of the peasants believe. This makes perfect sense to us. However, they were unsure what to make of it in any case, despite the fact that they were far wiser than these uneducated villagers with all their wacky views.

We did not fare much better than they do. 

Thus, what is Marquez attempting to convey through this story?

To be sure, some of the ambiguity may be intended to convey the point that we do not always know what to make of occurrences in our life; they may appear to be positive, but they may not be.

This story may imply that we were unaware of what was truly happening in our life and were unable to gain sufficient perspective to determine whether an occurrence was good or negative.

We are unsure how to handle it, and sometimes we handle it poorly when it occurs, because we are not wise enough, in the end, to know how to handle these events that disrupt our lives.

Another possibility is that this extremely old man with big wings is the other, or the stranger, the outsider who enters our circle from the outside.

Therefore, consider any type of outsider to a group: Individuals with disabilities, individuals with sexual orientations that differ from our own, and individuals who practice another faith. Any group can serve as the other for us, and we project all manner of negative traits onto that other.

Thus, this angel, if it is an angel, enters their lives, and instead of being intrigued and fascinated about this unique individual, they harass, exploit, and abuse this poor creature.

As a result, we often do the same thing with people who are beyond our regular experience, attempting to impose on them what we believe they should be, rather than recognizing who they are.

A third possibility is that Marquez felt like this extremely old man with big wings as he grew in popularity as a writer. He was establishing a reputation for himself, and by the time he wrote this piece, he was fairly well-known.

And superstars are perpetually conflicted about how their celebrity affects their life, their creativity, and how they are perceived elsewhere.

Thus, the writer may feel unusual, much like this elderly man with gigantic wings, a strange monster. He may be attacked, or he may be elevated on a pedestal. People may just react appropriately to him, and similar to what I stated about the outsider, people do appreciate him for who he truly is.

Rather than that, they create all these expectations for what they believe he should accomplish.

If you are a true angel, you should be white, possess magical abilities, and be strong. But that is not the case with you. You are aware?

Thus, as a writer, you may have been told, "Wait, if you are a renowned writer, we want you to do this and that, and write in this style, and be a spokesperson for this cause, or." Whatever expectations were imposed on him, he had to say, "Wait a minute, I'm going to do my art and I want to do my work," and even if they think I'm like this really old man with big wings who is gross and strange, well, that's who I am.

Thus, another interpretation of this story is possible. Now the story itself is unusual, because none of the characters are pleasant, kind, or humane.

They are all attempting to take advantage of the elderly man with gigantic wings. They are going about their daily lives. They demonstrate a great deal of ignorance in their treatment of him and their perceptions of him.

Even the church, which is supposed to be a source of enlightenment, ends up being a source of noise and red tape with nothing useful or constructive to add, so I'm wondering if it's the reader who ends up developing and changing as we examine this story and understand what not to be.

For example, we aspire to be like those people because their perspective is so limited that they truly appreciate what they have.

This fantastic creature is present, but they make no attempt to learn more about him or deduce what he is, except with scorn, dread, and hatred.

They just state, "That was not the order." If you are an angel, you are not the type of angel we seek. And they conveniently overlook all of his intriguing characteristics.

Now he smells, he's nasty, he's got bugs in his wings, and he doesn't appear to want to engage with others or exhibit and share anything. He recoils. After all, they did confine him to a chicken coop, so it's not as if he should be pleasant to these people.

Even the child regards him with contempt. Is-We are aware of what they are, but... a youngster is no more receptive than an adult. As the reader, I have the impression that I am supposed to be unlike all of those people.

And instead of attempting to force my standards on things and people, I am meant to recognize that I should value them for who they are. And then I miss out on this new exciting thing, yeah, since I am completely enclosed.

There is much more to say about the style and symbolism. We have the angel of the sea. You know, comes in on the sea, leaves on the sea breeze, sings these sailor songs known as sea chanteys, and the sea may always be a metaphor of possibilities or an unlimited, boundless nature that is both cruel and giving.

If the angel is a present from the sea, then they reject the gift, and they have no idea what to do with the gift, which is really awkward. Finally, he was able to flee and self-rescue.

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.