A Look At Modern Religious Views:

7 Pages 1635 Words

A look at modern religious views:
Based on “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez constructs an intriguing story which includes more than one clear message. This story is meant to be a satirical look at modern religious views.. First and foremost the issue of the duality of the so-called Christian characters arises. Another meaning is how ungrateful the main characters, Pelayo and Elisenda act throughout the story. Third it conveyed a message of decline in religious faith through the characters misunderstandings of what was happening
The story opens with Pelayo and Elisenda nursing their young, sick child during a great rainstorm. It had been raining for the last three days. Pelayo looked out the windows; he finds he is staring at a strange entity. “He had to get very close to realize to see that it was a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who, in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn’t get up, impeded by his enormous wings”(233). We would suspect Pelayo and Elisenda, being a good Christian couple, would take in the old man and care for him. Unfortunately this was not the case.
The normal Christian reaction would be to help someone in trouble. Instead they ask the wise old neighbor woman what he is and what they should do with him. “ ’He’s an Angel,’ she told them. ‘He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down’ ”(234). Then she told them that they must club him to death. This is our first glimpse of the duality that embodies these people. Pelayo and Elisenda disregard the old neighbor women’s advice. Instead then put him in the chicken coop with the rest of the feeble birds they kept. A good Christian person would have, but the angel up in their own home and the last thought in their minds would have been for their own comfort. The difference between a good Christian and these people is the difference ...