Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is a short story written by a Colombian writer named Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The short story was considered by most as an archetype of magic realism that helps the readers to see reality more closely. The story was about a family who found a drenched old man with enormous wings by the shore that unfolded societal issues such as corrupted human nature. It is a viable human instinct that raises a certain level of curiosity about some peculiar occurrences that are happening around us.

The story seems to make it clear that human beings can be very self-centered and comparatively uncaring of others who are different from us.

During the entire time that the old man lived in the chicken coop, nobody seemed to care about his comfort and feelings. It was told in the story how fast such news about an old winged man reached the town’s people and every person comes to the uncertain creature for their gain such as satisfying their curiosity.

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For instance, the Portuguese wanted to seek help from the old man for he could not sleep because the noises from the stars above the sky at night disturbed him. Many people who visited the old man tried to hurt and torture him in various ways just for them to see a bit of the old man’s reaction and to make him move.

This story seems to suggest that this type of insensitivity is not something that people only express towards animals but also towards one another.

We as a human being seems to have a very short attention span even the smallest things can be amusing and how it can easily draw our attention but generally, only for a short period. The human race is always looking for the new best thing, and that is why the people in the story flocked their way out of the old man’s sight once they heard the news about a woman who turned into a spider for them to see for it sounds more convincing than the old man who says nothing and ignores them for countless of times.

Except for having wings that made the old man different from other people, he was also a human being. Chances are if the old man had been founded by Pelayo and Elisenda under the same circumstances but without any wings, he would have been treated much more kindly. However, the wings made him different enough from them that even though he seemed to be completely human in every other aspect, that difference prevented anybody from caring about him.