A very old man with enormous wings

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
This story, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, tells the story of a man who appears in a fishing village and is considered an angel because of its enormous wings. An angel that had nothing celestial, “He was dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenchedgreat-grandfather took away any sense of grandeur he might have had.” (Garcia Marquez) Magic realism is a genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic setting. Gabriel Garcia Marquez story is written with a technique called magic realism. This technique in the story consists on combining the fantasy of characters that are not real but presented insituations and scenarios as real as the world we live in. According to Tom Faulkner, Garcia Marques work is “a mix of reality and fantasy to create a perfect scenario.”
This story is develop into three main spaces: the physical, the social and the psychological. The physical part of the story is developed in a small village probably in Colombia, whose habitants were ignorant fisherman. This villagewas situated near the sea with poor houses that after three days of raining were stuffed with crabs. The main scenario of the story is at Pelayo and Elisenda’s house. At the beginning of the story they have, like the rest of the people, a small, poor house with a chicken coop where they kept the angel. At the end of the story, and after they used the angel as an attraction for the people chargingeverybody five cents to see the angel, they were able to rebuild their house into a bigger one. Another scenario that takes place in the story is the carnival. “A traveling carnival arrived with a flying acrobat who buzzed over the crowd several times.” (Garcia Marquez) At the beginning nobody paid attentions to the carnival until they realized the existence of the spider-woman.
The psychologicalpart of the story it is reflected in two ways: The ignorance and the skepticism of the villagers. The ignorance of the people is represented whenever they found out about the angel. At first, like everyone else, the villager where really amazed by the presence of the angel. “The most unfortunate invalids on earth came in search of health,” (Garcia Marquez) but with the pass of the days theyrealized that he was not that special. After some time a carnival arrived to the village with a spider-woman who amazed the villagers and made them forget about the angel. They were able to ask her any kind of question about any doubts they had. Amazed with the humanity of this creature, the skeptical villagers decided not to believe in the angel anymore. “Besides, the few miracles attributed to theangel showed a certain mental disorder, like the blind man who didn’t recover his sight but grew three new teeth, or the paralytic who didn’t get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers.” (Garcia Marquez) Also, another way skepticism is represented is father Gonzaga’s view about the angel. Since the beginning of the story when father Gonzaga saw the angelfor the first time, he doubted of his celestial appearance because of the way he looks. “Then he noticed that seen close up he was much too human: he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels.” (Garcia Marquez)
Thesocial aspect of the story, even though it is not written, is easy to figure out. The social aspect of the village is poorness. The village is poor and it is represented when Garcia Marquez talks about how the small houses after three days of rain are flooded and full of crabs. Also, at the end of the story, we see how Pelayo and Elisenda are really happy because of the money they were able to make...