A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

3 Pages 631 Words

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” uses magical realism to convey Garcia Marquez’s ideas about Catholic religion. There are two main elements of magical realism in the story: the winged old man and the girl who changed into a spider.
In this short story, Garcia Marquez shows that he thinks that Catholicism in his country is becoming more like a sideshow. The treatment of the old man by the local people shows this very well: “But when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence… …as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal.” (Page 324) Later in the text, the Pelayo family uses the old man to line their pockets, putting him on as a circus freak for people to view. Garcia Marquez must feel that the Catholic Church is using tithes they receive for their own fulfillment. The Pelayo family then uses the money to build themselves a mansion, and this statement shows that Garcia Marquez thinks that the grandiose cathedrals are too extravagant.
The most obvious use of magical realism is the old man with wings, Garcia Marquez is using this man to represent religion; more specifically, angels. This old man’s name is never given, and his use of an incomprehensible language only adds to the mystery. Despite being an old and frail-looking man, he shows a few instances of power.
The first is the enormous patience that he has to withstand all the abuse; angel or not, we would expect the man to rebel in some form. The second instance of power is his sudden awakening of violence when the people touch him with a hot iron rod. This does not contradict the previous statement since the violence is of pain and not anger: “The only time they succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers… He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic ...