A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Characters:
Major Characters of the Story:
Pelayo – A poor man who discovers the old man with enormous wings in his muddy courtyard
Elisenda – Pelayo's wife who is frightened by the old man at first but later becomes greedy and earns money from visitors
The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings – A mysterious old man with large wings who may be an angel
Father Gonzaga – The village priest who doubts that the old man is an angel because he does not fit the traditional image of a heavenly messenger
The Wise Neighbour Woman – An old woman who believes the winged man is an angel sent to take Pelayo and Elisenda's sick baby
The Spider Woman – A woman who was transformed into a giant spider after disobeying her parents
Themes:
• Human Cruelty – People treat the old man with violence, disrespect, and abuse instead of kindness.
• Greed and Exploitation – Pelayo and Elisenda make money by charging people to see the old man.
• Faith and Religion – The story questions how people judge faith and religious miracles.
• Appearance vs. Reality – The old man looks ordinary and dirty, but he may be an angel.
• Human Curiosity – People gather to see the old man because they are curious about the strange creature.
• Prejudice and Discrimination – The old man is rejected and mistreated because he is different.
• Magical Realism – The story blends magical events with ordinary daily life.
• Selfishness – Most people care only about their own benefit rather than helping the old man.
• Compassion and Kindness – The story highlights the importance of treating others with empathy and respect.
• Freedom and Hope – The old man finally regains his strength and flies away, symbolizing freedom and hope.
• Human Nature – The story reveals people's fear, greed, curiosity, and lack of understanding toward the unknown.
• Suffering and Endurance – Despite years of pain and mistreatment, the old man patiently survives and eventually escapes.
Summary of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is about how people treat those who are weak, dependent, and different. The story discloses human nature-related curiosity, greed and cruelty.
The story begins after three days of heavy rain. Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, have a sick baby with a fever. Their house is full of crabs because of the storm. Pelayo spends his time throwing the crabs into the sea.
One afternoon, while returning to the house, Pelayo notices something strange moving in the muddy courtyard. When he goes closer, he sees a very old man lying face down in the mud. The old man has huge wings, but he is too weak to stand up. His clothes are old and dirty. His wings are muddy, broken, and missing many feathers.
Pelayo quickly calls Elisenda. Both of them are shocked by what they see. They speak to the old man, but he answers in a language they cannot understand. At first, they think he is a sailor whose ship was destroyed in the storm.
Soon they ask an old neighbor woman to look at him. After seeing the old man, she says he is an angel. She believes he was coming to take their sick baby to heaven, but the storm made him fall into the mud.
The next morning, news spreads through the village that an angel has been found. Many curious people gather outside Pelayo's house. Instead of treating him with respect, they laugh at him and throw food at him as if he were an animal in a cage.
Pelayo locks the old man inside a chicken coop. During the night, their baby suddenly becomes healthy again. Pelayo and Elisenda think about putting the angel on a raft and sending him away, but before they can do that, even more people arrive to see him.
Soon, Father Gonzaga, the village priest, comes to inspect the strange visitor. He speaks to the old man in Latin, but the old man does not understand him. The priest notices that the old man smells bad, has parasites on his wings, and looks too human to be a real angel. He tells everyone not to believe too quickly. He decides to write to church leaders in Rome and wait for an official answer.
However, the villagers do not wait. More and more people come every day. Elisenda realizes they can earn money from the visitors. She builds a fence around the yard and charges everyone five cents to see the winged old man.
Thousands of people visit the house. Some people come hoping to be healed from diseases. Others simply want to see the strange creature. In only a few days, Pelayo and Elisenda become rich.
The old man never asks for money or attention. He quietly stays in the chicken coop. He hardly eats and accepts only a little eggplant mush. Many visitors treat him cruelly. Some pull out his feathers. Others poke him with sticks or throw stones at him to make him fly.
One day, people think he is dead because he does not move. They burn his side with a hot iron to wake him. The old man cries out in pain and flaps his wings, creating a powerful wind. After that, people stop bothering him so much because they realize he can still react.
Meanwhile, Father Gonzaga keeps waiting for a reply from Rome. The church leaders ask many strange questions about the old man, but they never give a clear answer about whether he is really an angel.
Soon another attraction arrives in town. It is a woman who has been turned into a giant spider because she disobeyed her parents. She tells everyone her sad story. People find her easier to understand than the silent old man. They stop visiting the angel and begin paying to see the spider woman instead.
As time passes, Pelayo and Elisenda use their money to build a large new house with balconies and beautiful gardens. They also put bars on the windows and strong fences around the property. The chicken coop remains dirty because the old man still lives there.
Their little son grows up. He often plays near the old man. The angel never hurts the child. They even become sick with chickenpox at the same time. A doctor examines the old man and is surprised that his wings seem completely natural, even though the rest of his body is human.
Years pass. The old man becomes weaker. He slowly walks around the yard and often gets in the family's way. Elisenda becomes tired of having him around and wishes he would leave. During the winter, everyone thinks he is about to die because he becomes very ill.
But when spring arrives, something changes. New feathers begin to grow on his wings. Little by little, he becomes stronger. He secretly exercises his wings while no one is watching.
One morning, Elisenda is cutting onions in the kitchen when she hears a strong wind outside. She looks through the window and sees the old man trying to fly. At first, he struggles and almost crashes into the house. After several difficult attempts, he slowly rises into the sky.
The old man flies higher and higher until he disappears over the sea. Elisenda watches him until he becomes only a tiny dot in the distance. She feels relieved because he is finally gone, and the strange visitor is no longer a burden in her life.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.a. How does the narrator describe the weather and its effects in the exposition of the story?
The narrator describes the weather as rainy and dreary. The rain caused Pelayo and his wife to have many crabs inside the house, and their courtyard became drenched (soaked or very wet) and muddy. Pelayo threw the crabs into the sea because the newborn child had a fever all night, which they believed was due to the stench.
b. Describe the strange old man as Pelayo and his wife first encounter him in their courtyard.
When Pelayo returned home after throwing the crabs into the sea, he saw a very old man with enormous wings lying face down in the mud in his courtyard. Despite his great efforts, the old man could not get up because his enormous wings hindered him. He was dressed like a ragged (worn-out) man, with only a few faded hairs left on his head and very few teeth in his mouth. He was filthy and spoke an unintelligible language.
c. Why did Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop?
Pelayo and Elisenda imprisoned the old man in the chicken coop out of fear and uncertainty after encountering him and hearing the neighbour's claim that he was an angel.
d. Why was Father Gonzaga not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger?
Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger because he did not understand Latin and looked too human.
e. Many people gathered at Pelayo's house to see the strange old man. Why do you think the crowd assembled to see him?
I think the crowd assembled to see him because they heard the news of the captive angel and hoped that he could perform miracles or heal their illnesses.
f. Some miracles happened while the crowd gathered to see the strange man. What are these miracles?
The miracles include a blind man growing three new teeth, a paralytic almost winning the lottery, and a leper's sores sprouting sunflowers.
g. State the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man.
The crippled pulled out his feathers to touch their defective body parts. The merciless people threw stones at him, trying to make him stand up. The crowd even burned his side with a red-hot branding iron to check whether he was alive.
h. How and why was the woman changed into a spider?
The woman was changed into a spider because she disobeyed her parents. She secretly went to a dance, and while returning home through the woods, she was struck by lightning and transformed into a giant spider as punishment.
i. Describe how Elisenda saw the strange man flying over the houses.
Elisenda saw the strange man from her kitchen window as he made several clumsy attempts to fly. His wings were weak at first, and he almost crashed into the shed. Eventually, he gained enough strength to rise into the air and fly over the houses. She watched him until he disappeared over the sea, feeling relieved for both herself and him.
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