Essay On A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” tells of the curious encounter between a rather mundane family and a mysterious old man with wings who crash-lands in their backyard. In keeping with magical realist style, this short story relies on deeply evocative descriptions and poetic devices to reveal a strange, almost ethereal setting. Yet Marquez’s story is not limited by the stylistically typical blend of the fantastic and the real. Rather, through the calculated use of symbols like invalids and wings, the story creates palpable literary tension that suggests reality is not an objective absolute, but the creation of each individual. Once the winged man has been defined as an “angel” by the neighborhood, Marquez writes that, “the curious came from far away.” These curious included “the most unfortunate invalids on earth” who came “in search of health” (523). As Marquez lists the conditions from which each
In an instant, they have accepted this challenge to their worldview, adapted their reality, and moved on! Another example takes place at the end of the story, when Elisenda watches the winged man take flight and disappear. Her reaction of relief in this moment--“because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea,”--illustrates again how quickly these characters are capable of sidestepping roadblocks in their reality, and reshaping how they see the world to fit what is presently convenient (525). This provides further proof that reality is far from objective, and that it is the product of each individual’s