Good and Evil Good and evil exists in the story in many ways through the use of symbolic inferences touching on patience, care, and love to bring out the good in society, but also touches on cruelty, brutality, and greed to show the evil in society. From the start of the story, it is evident to see the evil in thinking when the couple’s neighbor assumes the old man has arrived to hurt their son and suggests the couple should kill him (Marquez, 1968). Even though the neighbor had familiarity with angels, she exhibits indifference and lack of compassion due to his appearance. Another instance is when the priest claims the old man is a fraud, simply because he could not speak Latin (Marquez, 1968). This shows how humans can be judgmental and how evil is housed in their hearts. In addition, brutality is apparent in the story when the
References: Horrible, D. (2011, July 12). Symbolism in a very old man with enormous wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Humanities 360. Retrieved from http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/symbolism-in-a-very-old-man-with-enormous- wings-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez-12127/ Marquez, G. G. (1968). A very old man with enormous wings. In K. Mauk (Ed.), Compact Literature (pp. 590-594). Boston: Cengage Learning.