A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, By Gabriel García Márquez

Mysticism and Wings
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, just an “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. Gabriel García Márquez’s short story about an old man with wings has been said to begin the “magical realism” genre of stories (Rios, 2015). This is evident by the normal aspects of life the main characters, Pelayo and Elisenda, have. Their life changes, arguably for the better, once an old man with wings became stranded on their farm. The story begins with the average dismal day, and after an undisclosed amount of time, ends with a fantastic display that is not known in the world today. Márquez intertwines the realistic and the mystical to establish a story about magical realism.
Realism
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” provides a realism
within its text that vividly envelopes the reader within a short amount of time. The scene is initially set up in the first paragraph, which gives a rich description of how dismal the landscape where this short story occurs. This is captured with the passage “Sea and sky were a single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach…had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish.” (Márquez, 1968, p. 590). Converse to how melancholy this particular day is, it the complete opposite to how clear other times of the year are. These other times of the year appear to be quite pleasing where the sky is a beautiful “powdered light” (Márquez, 1968, p. 590) referring to the night sky and brightly shining stars that litter the evening heavens. Once Pelayo and Elisenda made their riches showcasing the winged old man like a sideshow act, the illustration continues with their newly built “two-story mansion with balconies and gardens and high netting so that crabs wouldn’t get in during the winter.” (Márquez, 1968, p. 593) However, even though they had this beautiful mansion, complete with “iron bars on the windows so that angels wouldn’t get in” (Márquez, 1968, p. 593), Pelayo and Elisenda kept the chicken coop that housed the old man with wings. Keeping this coop gives a place to cage the old man with wings like an animal. Unfortunately, the realism continues to be illustrated with the description of the odor emitting from the dilapidated coop. Anyone who has driven by a chicken farm knows that they can have quite a horrific smell emitting from them. Márquez assumes the reader would know that, at the time the coop had such a foul odor, it needed to be cleaned regularly and was on the verge of “turning the new house into an old one” due to the severe stench (Márquez, 1968, p. 593). Along with the homestead that was constructed, Elisenda was able to purchase “satin pumps with high heels and many dresses of iridescent silk” (Márquez, 1968, p. 593). These passages illustrate how modest people, such as Pelayo and Elisenda, may use newly found riches to increase their own self-worth and status in the community, even if the riches were at the expense of someone else. Similar to how the homestead, both old and new, are encapsulated in rich textual illustrations, the people of the village are explained with a realistic description that makes them seem like individuals you may know.
These characters range from the know-it-all neighbor woman who “knew everything about life and death” (Márquez, 1968, p. 590) who’s less than compassionate observation of the old man with wings, was to murder him in cold blood, to Father Gonzaga. Father Gonzaga, who is described as a former “robust woodcutter” (Márquez, 1968, p. 591) illustrates him as a fairly large and muscular man. Another aspect of realism that is rendered, is the general rabble of people who came to see the old man with wings. The general population appears to disregard the possibility of the old man with wings as not being an angel, but more a “circus animal” (Márquez, 1968, p. 591). Some of the acts described are tossing food at the captive man, tossing stones at him to wake him, and even prodding him with a hot branding iron to elicit a response (Márquez, 1968, p. 591-592). Scenes like this are what you expect to see when children are surrounding a caged animal they have never seen. These actions give a vivid description of what one may see when the group mentality of people engaging in something they do not understand takes over. Although this story has many attributes of the mundane, which lays the foundation and framework in which this story occurs, there are numerous passages of mysticism-interwoven
throughout.
Mysticism
Entwined within the ordinary architecture that envelopes this story, there are frequent accounts of mysticism that surround the old man, although there was one instance that did not include him. The only account that did not include the old man with wings was a spider woman who was a complete and literal fusion of a large spider with the head of a woman (Márquez, 1968, p. 592). With the spider woman aside, the mud covered old man had wings that were perfectly grafted to his back (Márquez, 1968, p. 593). When the old man did speak, his language was completely incoherent to anyone (Márquez, 1968, p. 590). While this is not necessarily mystical, most learned people would be able to at least grasp a concept of what was being spoken. Both a minister and a doctor who interacted with the old man could not understand the old man’s basic communication attempts shows that he indeed may be speaking an angelic dialect foreign to Earth inhabitants. Another potential leading to mysticism is the possibility of the old man’s arrival curing Pelayo and Elisenda’s child of an illness (Márquez, 1968, p. 590). However, this could be coincidental, which leads to other mystic credence though; for instance, the old man is in full control over his wings, allowing him to bring “on a whirlwind…that did not seem to be of this world.” (Márquez, 1968, p. 592). Even large birds do not have such an ability as the old man appears to have. The miracles the old man was able to produce appeared more like “consolation miracles” (Márquez, 1968, p. 592) though. Of these miracles, a blind man growin teeth instead of cured sight, a crippled man “almost winning the lottery”, and a leper’s sores starting to grow sunflowers (Márquez, 1968, p. 592), these are not ordinary happenings. There is also the appearance of surprising spryness of the old man where he, at times, appeared to be self-replicating, as he seemed to be in many places in the house at once (Márquez, 1968, p. 593). The final thread that shows this old man was indeed mystical was at the end of the story. After quite some time living with Pelayo and Elisenda, his wings became strong enough that he was able to sustain flight. Without any hint of sadness from Elisenda, the old man few away (Márquez, 1968, p. 594).
Discussion
Márquez expertly constructs an illustration of reality and mysticism within the short pages of his story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. From the boring labors of killing a crab infestation to cleaning up after a mob of people, the vividness of actions seems as anything you or I would be doing while living by a beach that recently hosted a carnival. However, adding in what is unexplainable augments the aura of magic, which this story glosses over as minor and trivial. From living in a hovel, to a spider with the head of a woman, this short story weaves the realistic with the magical. In the end Márquez demonstrates he may be the father of magical realism (Rios, 2015) by showing, it’s not a bird, nor a plane, just “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”