Class 12 English Lesson 7: Story: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings by Barcia Marquez Literature Section

 

Lesson 7 Story: ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Garcia Marquez

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About the Story Writer

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) was Colombian-born Spanish American journalist, novelist, and short story writer. He is regarded as the literary volcano of the nineteen sixties and an exponent of a new narrative style known as magical realism. His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is taken as a classic example of magical realism. The story ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ was first published in 1955.  

Characters of the Story

·        Oldman: Having enormous wings

·        Pelayo and Elisenda: Husband and Wife

·        Child: Sick Child of Pelayo and Elisenda

·        Neighbour Woman: Predictor of Oldman

·        Father Gonzaga: Local Priest who is the Father of the Village

·        Spider-Woman: Central Attraction of Carnival Dance

Theme of the Story

‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is a magical realist story which examines the human response to those who are weak, dependent, and different. The story shows human nature-related curiosity, greed and cruelty. Márquez made the theme of cruelty and compassion coexisting through the actions of Elisenda, Pelayo, and the old man and the theme of patience evident through the actions of the old man.

Summarized Part of the Story

 A rainstorm drives legions of crabs into Pelayo and Elisendra's house. After killing the crabs and dragging them to the sea, Pelayo returns to find a very old man in his courtyard, struggling to get 39 Class Note of A Very Ola Man with Enormous Wings by Limbu CB up but held down by huge, mud-soaked wings. Pelayo calls Elisenda, who was attending to their feverish baby, and they both attempt to speak to the old man. He replies in a dialect they do not understand. The two try to explain his wings away, guessing that he must be a shipwrecked sailor, before fetching a neighbor woman who "knows everything about life and death." This neighbor woman declares that the old man is an angel who was likely coming for the soul of their sick child but foundered in the rainstorm. The neighbor woman advises that Pelayo and Elisenda club the old man to death, but they lack the heart to do it; instead, they lock the old man with wings in the chicken coop.

The rain stops in the night, while Pelayo and Elisenda continue to kill crabs. Their child awakes hungry the next morning, his fever gone, and Pelayo and Elisendra, grateful for their child's health, decide to put the angel on a raft with enough supplies for three days. When they go to the chicken coop, however, they find the whole neighborhood gathered before the angel. Some joke with him as though he were a carnival attraction; others have more serious responses, suggesting for instance that the angel be made a five-star general or used to breed a race of winged men. Father Gonzaga, the local priest, responds to the old man from a Catholic point of view. He confronts the angel, speaking Latin, which he considers to be the language of God, but the angel does not understand. Father Gonzaga also objects to the angel's shabby appearance. He decides that the angel must be an imposter, and warns the people not to follow him while promising meanwhile to write his bishop for a final verdict on the old man's angelic status.

The crowd continues to grow as news of a captured angel spreads throughout the country. A troop with bayonets is called in to control the crowd before they knock Pelayo and Elisenda's house down. Elisenda spends so much time sweeping up after the mob that her spine curves. She gets the idea to charge an admission price of five cents to see the angel. Countless people arrive-invalids come to be healed, a carnival arrives-and everyone pays to see the angel. In less than a week, Elisenda and Pelayo have crammed their rooms with money. The angel, however, seems aloof from the events. He eats nothing but eggplant mush and exhibits "supernatural" patience as he is paraded for a profit before the crowds, appearing indifferent as chickens peck him and troublemakers pelt him with rocks. He only exhibits anger when they attempt to brand him. Father Gonzaga tries to control the somewhat unruly crowd while awaiting word from Rome about the old man's possibly angelic status. 

A carnival attraction arrives in town, featuring the Spider-Girl, a girl who was turned into a spider by brimstone from heaven after sneaking out of her house for a dance against her parents' order. The carnival charges less than to see the old man, and the Spider-Girl responds by questioning the crowd. This spectacle, full of 'human truth and with such a fearful lesson' draws the people away from the 'haughty' angel. The angel's reputation had already begun to decline because of the miracles associated with him. The blind man regained not his sight but three teeth; a lame man came close to winning the lottery after visiting the angel-were second-rate at best. The courtyard is deserted again, Father Gonzaga is cured of his insomnia.

Pelayo and Elisenda build a mansion with their new fortune, specifying that neither crabs nor angels can invade it. Pelayo also quit his job as bailiff and set up a rabbit warren, and Elisenda bought fashionable clothes. Meanwhile, they neglect the chicken coop and the angel, merely washing them occasionally to lessen their horrible smell. Over time, their child learns to walk, and though at first, they keep him away from the chicken coop, they grow accustomed to the angel and the smell and allow their child to play with the angel. A doctor examines the angel and finds his vital signs very weak indeed; the practicality of the angel's wings impresses the doctor and he feels that all humans should have them.

The neglected chicken coop collapses, freeing the angel to roam about their house. Elisenda becomes very irritated at chasing the angel from room to room. She notes that he seems to be everywhere at once. The angel grows more and more ill, barely eating. He peels his feathers and gets a fever. On the verge of the death-the prospect worries Pelayo and Elisenda, because they don't know what to do with a dead angel but the angel recovers. He grows new feathers in December, keeping his improvement a secret and singing sea shanties to the moon at night. One morning, as Elisenda cuts onions in the kitchen, the angel tests his wings. He appears clumsy at first but eventually flies off to the horizon, leaving Elisenda very relieved indeed.

Understanding the Text: Answer the following questions.

a.      How does the narrator describe the weather and its effects in the exposition of the story?

In the exposition of the story, the narrator describes the weather and its effects by presenting the details of three days' rainfall, the condition of the weather, and its effects on the main character's house. According to him, it had been raining since Tuesday. The main character Pelayo's house was full of killed crabs which he had to clear from his house for the sake of his newly born baby. There was a horrible smell of crabs in his house and courtyard. The sea and sky seemed a single ash-grey. The beach of the sea was quite muddy with rotten shellfish.

b.     Describe the strange old man as Pelayo and his wife first encounter within their courtyard.

When Pelayo and his wife first encounter the strange old man in their courtyard, they find his face down in the mud in a groaning state. He is dressed like a rag picker. There are a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth. He seems quite weak and pitiable whose enormous wings are dirty, half-plucked, and entangled in the mud. He has an incomprehensible dialect with a strong sailor's voice. Why did Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop?

Pelayo and Elisenda imprisoned the old man in the chicken coop because they became quite fearful about their newly born baby. When they heard the neighbouring woman's words regarding the old man's arrival for their baby, they decided to chain the old man and keep him with the hens in a wire chicken coop.

c.      Why was Father Gonzaga not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger?

Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger because he didn't find matching qualities of a celestial messenger within the old man. The old man was unable to understand the greeting in God's language i.e Latin language. He even didn't know the way to greet his ministers. Father found him too similar to humans with an unbearable smell. Both sides of his wings were strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds.

d.     Many people gathered at Pelayo’s house to see the strange old man. Why do you think the crowd assembled to see him?

I think the crowd assembled to see him because they had heard about the captivated angel in Pelayo's house. Some of them were surprised and wanted to see that unique creature. While others wanted to tease and make fun of imprisoned strange old man as if he was a circus animal.

e.      Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. What are these miracles?

Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. These miracles are quite funny and are as follows:

·        A blind man didn't recover his sight, instead, he got new three teeth.

·        A paralytic who didn't get to walk but almost won the lottery.

·        Leprosy infected a person's sores sprouted with sunflowers.

f.       State the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man.

Following are the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man:

·        When they found him inactive, they tried to pull out his feathers to touch defective parts and throw stones at him to make him stand.

·        They poked him with hot iron pokers.

·        The strange old man remained motionless for a long time but he got aggressive at last flapped his wings and yelled in his strange language in pain with tears in his eyes.

g.     How and why was the woman changed into a spider?

The girl was changed into a spider due to the lightning bolt of brimstone. Behind her transformation, her disobedience toward her parents was also the reason. While she was still a child, she stealthily moved to attend a dance without her parent's permission. After her whole night's dance, while she was returning home through the wood, a fearful thunderclap ripped the sky surface, which allowed a lightning bolt of brimstone through the crack to strike which changed her into a spider.

h.     Describe how Elisenda saw the strange man flying over the houses.

One morning, while Elisenda was cutting some bunches of onions for lunch, she felt the breeze through her window. When she looked out through her window, she caught the sight of the old man flying over the houses. His first attempts were clumsy, but eventually, he was able to gain altitude and fly away from Pelayo and Elisenda's house. Elisenda let out a sigh of relief "for herself and him", upon seeing him go. She kept on looking at him until he was no longer visible to her eyes. The old man was no longer an annoyance in her life. 

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