A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Discrimination

Prejudice and discrimination, two monsters of a thing that can take many forms throughout different stories. In this essay I will be tackling both prejudice and discrimination and how each one is prevalent in two of the stories we have read. The two stories I have chosen to discuss and examine are “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” written by Gabriel Garcia Márquez and “Indian Education” written by Sherman Alexie. Both stories deal with prejudice and discrimination as an underlying tone in their stories. Gabriel Garcia Máquez handles prejudice and discrimination by writing about an “angel” that ends up in an unexpecting family's backyard, having the story be about how the family and the town treat/view the ‘angel’. Sherman Alexie handles the tone of
When Pelayo notices the old man in his courtyard, he and his wife take pity on him and keep the old man in their chicken coup, while their neighbor suggests they club the old man to death. Even after a couple days of hosting the old man in their chicken coup, Pelayo’s family debates on putting him on a raft with food and water to last him for three days, thinking they’ll be doing him a favour by letting sail to his “fate”. Noticing that word has spread quickly through the town that Pelayo and his family are hosting an angel, they quickly have the change of heart noticing that the old man could be exploited for their benefits by charging the town’s people a fee to see the “fallen angel”. By doing this Pelayos family opens the door to vast discrimination by the town’s people and how they treat the old man. Wanting the old man to prove he’s an angel of some sort, the town’s people become belligerent towards him, gawking at him, poking him with sticks, throwing food at him, stoning him and even resorting to branding him, all at their expense of trying to prove he could do miracles as an angel