"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the nature and meaning of faith as a theme as well as the literary technique of magical realism Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings". It concludes that Marquez seems to value innocent faith more than the authority that organized religion emphasizes and that his angel and his flawed miracles reflect the primacy of faith over organized religion.

From the Paper:

"The villagers' reaction to their celestial visitor incorporates a second layer of unreality on the angel's magical appearance. Confronted for the first time by a heavenly apparition, the villagers decide, "against the judgment of the wise neighbor woman, [that] they did not have the heart to club him to death." Instead, "Pelayo watched over him all afternoon from the kitchen, armed with his bailiff's club, and before going to bed he dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop." The villagers' initial reaction to the Old Man, like that of Pelayo, shows a definite lack of faith in his provenance and intentions."

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