Interpretation

The story that I want to interpret is the “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Children Story”, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story is about a husband and wife who have a newborn baby who sick. The father, Pelayo, and his wife, Elisenda, are killing crabs who have come into their home because of the recent heavy rain. While Pelayo walked across his courtyard toward the sea to return the crabs, he noticed a very old man lying on the ground. The strange thing about this old man was that he had these enormous wings that were too big for him and seemed to be too heavy for the man to get up. Pelayo ran to get his wife and after a while they tried to speak to him, but the old man answered in an unrecognizable dialect, and so they asked their neighbor woman who knew much of superstitious things. The woman told them that the old man was an angel and that he had some to take the baby, but being too old, he was unable to fly in the rain. They took him and brought him into the chicken coop. While he was there the child’s fever broke and son all the people in the town were inside Pelayo’s courtyard looking at the old man with enormous wings. Pelayo and his wife began to sell tickets to see the man with wings and made a fortune. Priests, scholars and people who just want to be entertained came to see the winged man and to try to get him to do tricks and perform. Many sick people with absurd diseases came to see if this angel would heal them. A man who couldn’t sleep because he could hear the stars, a man who slept walked and undid everything he had done the day previous, and a woman who couldn’t stop counting her heartbeats and ran out of numbers, were some of the few that came to the old man wanting healing, but were disappointed. Soon after the crowd left to see this “spider-woman” who has the body of a giant spider and could talk to them and answer questions and didn’t mind doing tricks. Pelayo had made much money on the old man and had built a mansion for himself and expanded his courtyard. The only thing he didn’t renovate or make grander is the chicken coop, in which the old man with enormous wings resided. Pelayo soon got tired of taking care of the man who seemed near deaths door and released him of his cage of chicken wire to be free to do what he wanted. The old man didn’t really know what to do with himself and slept in the barn through on ef the worst winters they had. After the winter, the old man seemed to become stronger and when the cold broke away he took flight again and left them as strangely as he came.

The beginning of the story shows me that people always need hope to fall back on. This couple was trying to take care of their sick child, and was running out of answers, but then they found the old man and kept him because they thought his presence could help. They didn’t really understand who this man in rags and giant wings was, but they thought he could help their child. The child represents the innocence in this story, something they need to protect, a sort of childlike logic that the town has towards things that they don’t understand. I also find it funny that they put the old man in a chicken coop, as if he was just an ordinary bird like the rest of the chickens. He was a bird creature to them and nothing more and it was a hassle to take care of him.

The fact that the town saw this angel as nothing more than a sideshow attraction clearly shows its ability to be entertained. I think one of the main points of this story is to see the value in the people around us and not treat people who are different differently. I also sensed a strong urgency to take care of the weak and needy from this story. I thought that the old man with enormous wings was being treated unfairly, but he was still given a place to stay and warmth during winter, including food. You could say that he was being tortured, but it was better than just leaving him in the mud with the weight of his wings crashing down on him. I thought that the sick people with random diseases showed that people are always looking for someone to take their problems away and they are willing to pay for them to do it. You could say the same thing about Pelayo and his wife because they kept the angel there for the chance that his presence might be able to help their child. People who need the help the most are willing to hold onto whatever chance they can get to be able to get it.

I also thought it was weird that they kept asking the neighbor woman who knew many things about life and death. They trusted just another person who would offer their advice. People look for advice and guidance in the wrong places very easily and I thought this was a perfect example of that. My main interpretation of this story is that the message the author was trying to tell is that we should not be looking for the next attraction to take up our live, but instead fill our lives with helping and caring for others and our lives will be filled with substance and meaning.