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By Gabriel Garcia Marquez The fictional tale entitled A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is an intriguing story which is expressed very well in the title. The story is about just that, an old man with wings. The only aspect that the title fails to point out is that he is an angel. I find the story to be somewhat interesting; however, it isn't exactly hard to put down.
The one thing about this story that stands out the most, is the author's use of tone. This is the main aspect of the story that jumps out at you. The usage of tone and detail really works to the story's advantage. The first paragraph alone is filled with descriptions that really set the tone and make you feel like you are there. "On the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs inside the house that Pelayo had to cross his drenched courtyard and throw them into the sea, because the newborn child had a temperature all night and they thought it was due to the stench. The world had been sad since Tuesday. Sea and sky were a single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach, which on March nights glimmered like powdered light, had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish.
The light was so weak at noon that when Pelayo was coming back to the house after throwing away the crabs, it was hard for him to see what it was that was moving and groaning in the rear of the courtyard. He had to go very close to see that it was an old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who, in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn't get up, impeded by his enormous wings. " This paragraph does a good job of setting the tone. It gives you the feeling that you are in an old, small town. One of those little towns where everyone knows each other and the adventures and gossip of the school children travels town wide. As the story goes on, the characters begin wondering why the angel is in there presence. Was he in the middle of a flight and was forced to land because of the weather?
Or was he in front of their house because he was coming to help the family? They assumed that he was coming to help the child. "He's an angel, " she told them. "He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down. " Once everyone gets settled in the fact that an angel has crash landed in their town, they start to wonder what they should do with it. The town folk start to wonder what they should do with the angel in order to use it to their advantage. "By that time the onlookers less frivolous than those at dawn had already arrived and they were making all kinds of conjectures concerning the captive's future. The simplest among them thought that he should be named mayor of the world. Others of sterner mind felt that should be promoted to the rank of five-star general in order to win all the wars. Some visionaries hoped that he could be put to stud in order to implant on earth a race of winged wise men who could take charge of the universe. " At this point in the story, the characters start to wonder if the angel is even going to survive.
I feel that this sets a very dark and bleak tone. The angel is lying there, motionless, and all of the people who are around him can only think about themselves. It shows how selfish humans can be when someone or something is dying, and the only reason they care if it lives or not is so they can use it for their own benefit. Meaning, they want to use him for a leader or to bring in money, as the main characters did. Pelayo and Elisenda (main characters) really cashed in on the presence of the Angel. The way that the angel is being used and poorly treated, does a good job of setting the tone in itself.
Anyone who imagines this situation is going to imagine it as somewhat of a grim one. This is actually quite strange if you think about it. When most people think of angels they think of bright lights and happiness. The angels are always portrayed as strong, healthy, and immortal; however, this angel appears as anything but immortal. This angel appears to be on the fringe of death. Another tone that is set throughout the story is a mysterious one.
As you read you are wondering if this is a real angel or not, and why it is where it is? At first, the story leads you to believe that the whole situation is a hoax. This is because the so called angel has all of the features of a human old man. He also didn't have some of the other supposed traits of angels, as shown on page 437, last paragraph- "Alien to the impertinences of the world, he only lifted his antiquarian eyes and murmured something in his dialect when father Gonzaga went into the chicken coop and said good morning to him in Latin.
The Parish priest had his first suspicion of an imposter when he saw that he did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers. " Later, when they take a close look at his wings, it is plain to see that they are definitely attached to him and he is, in fact, some sort of an angel. Eventually, life goes on for the family and all of the talk about the angel is quickly intercepted by a lady who is cursed with the body of a tarantula. After a while of everyone ignoring the angel, his wings heal. One day Elisenda looks out the kitchen window to see the angel fly away. He is struggling to fly because of his sore wings, but eventually he disappears in the horizon. This finishes the story with the feeling of a positive tone.
Everything seems to be a little bit brighter at this point. Not only did the angel manage to recover and go back to wherever he came from, but at this point the family was quite wealthy because of the money brought in by the tourists who had come to see the fallen angel. There is no use in wondering if the angel came for a purpose anymore, his presence helped to completely turn the family's lifestyle around. Their new mansion was very beautiful.
It had gardens and balconies, as well as nets to keep the crabs in. This kept the crabs from getting into the house and making everything dirty, which was mentioned earlier in the story as the reason that the child was sick in the first place. I guess Elisenda was right when she said that the angel had come to help the baby.
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