The Old Man with Enormous Wings (Literary Analysis)

Gabriel Gracia Marquez shows his talent in his short story "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings". In his story Marquez displays his capability of having a wonderful imagination. As an author, Gabriel's goal is to teach the reader a moral. As Gabriel goes on with his story, the reader must be able to read "in between the lines" or interpret the story by using context in order to understand. In order to comprehend the story, one must use analysis, interactive reading, and evaluation.

To analyze this story one must examine it with openness, carefulness, and mindfulness. Gabriel starts the story with a gray, sad and gloomy mood. As Gabriel tells the story, he shows the displeasing human characteristics, magic realism, and the need to explain events.

From beginning to end, Gabriel shows the negative view of human nature. The first negative trend that Gabriel shows is ignorance and the lack of logic.

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This is evident in the story in many ways. First of all, Pelayo's neighbor assumes that the angel has come to harm the baby, yet she never provides any evidence to support her conclusion. Secondly, the priest says that the angel is a fraud because the angel cannot speak Latin. This exhibits some stupidity because if that statement were to be true, then any priest that knows Latin would have the rank of an angel. This is how Gabriel shows mankind's mindlessness.

The second nasty trend that Gabriel displays in the story is cruelty and ungratefulness. The characters in the novel tend to mistreat the angel just because he is different. The angel is caged up in a chicken coop and is treated more like a "circus animal than a supernatural creature". In the story, people make fun of the angel and torture him until...