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23 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Childhood: Historical Background of the Time: |
A. 1. Banana Massacre:
b. on December 6th, 1928 an army regiment sent from Bogota by the conservative government massacred the striking workers and their families. They took claim for 47 of the killings but historians say it was up to 2000.
2. Thousands Day War (1899-1902)
a. A war between the liberal and conservative factions of Colombia.
b. the conservative government was accused of keeping their power through false elections.
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Childhood: Birth |
A. 1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6th, 1928 in Aracataca, Columbia.
3. She married Gabriel’s father, Gabriel Eligio Garcia, without her parents permission. He was below her station and a conservative.
4. After the birth of her children Luisa sent them to live with her parents while she and her husband lived in a different town. A common practice for poor couples.
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Childhood: Early Childhood |
A. 1. Gabriel was raised by his grandparents in Aracataca. 2. His grandfather- Nicolas Ricardo Marquez Mejia was an outspoken man who spoke out against the massacres that had occurred during his time in the army. He was a hero to those in the town and had lived a complex life. 3. He had killed a man in a duel when he was younger and told Gabriel that ‘there was no greater burden then to have killed a man’ which became an important lesson that he would place in his writing. 4. His grandmother- Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes. She was a very superstitious woman who taught Gabriel stories about ghosts and curses and traditional superstitions. 5. His grand aunts also lived in the house with them and they too would tell him superstitions. Their story telling style would later be one he would adapt for his writing. 6. This is when he would be told stories of the Civil War and the Banana Massacre. "I feel that all my writing has been about the experiences of the time I spent with my grandparents." |
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2. 1. Gabriel was sent to boarding school in Barranquilla. He was known as a very shy and serious child to the point where the others nicknamed him “old man”.
3. At the age of 12 he was awarded a scholarship to study at a school 30 miles north of the capitol.
4. He was exposed to the capitol for the first time and found himself hating the oppressive atmosphere. It would affect his view of who he was.
5. In school he found his love for literature growing and he would continue to write short stories and draw for the other students.
6. Due to his parents wishes for a better life for him, when he graduated in 1946 he went to study to become a lawyer in the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá.
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5 Education: B. College Education
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1. Due to his lack of passion for what he was studying Gabriel skipped most of his classes while in college.
2. He began to find a crowd around the city that he enjoyed, he spent time with other writers, socialists and journalists.
4. “"I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago."
5. He began to write again and published his first story “The Third Resignation” at this time in 1946.
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Late Life: |
1. He published a story in 1955 that was the story of the Caldas, a Columbian destroyer that had sunk and had only one survivor. The survivor was held as a hero by the government but later told Gabriel that the ship held illegal cargo. 3. After marrying his childhood sweetheart he moved to Mexico, where he began to write for a newspaper on very anti-american stances 4. After leaving Mexico he moved to Cuba where he would become personal friends with Castro while covering the Cuban revolution. 5. He moved to New York City but was forced to leave due to his communist beliefs. He moved back to Mexico. He would be denied entrance to the US until 1971. 6. He published his most popular works during this time that would earn him his fame including Love in the Time of Cholera (1986), and One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
7. He continued to write and be politically active until his death on April 17th, 2014 due to lymphatic cancer.
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Writing Life: |
1. Gabriel was inspired the most by Faulkner and Sophocles.
5. As he grew older he was inspired by the political upheaval that he witnessed in his country. |
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Writing Life: B. Types of Writing He Published |
1. Short stories: “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” , “Big Mama’s Funeral” |
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Writing Style: Realism
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A. 1. What is realism: “representing familiar things as they are”
2. Many of his earlier works were written with the history of Colombia in mind
Big Mama’s Funeral is an example of his realism style. It’s a satire on latin American life and culture. |
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Writing Style: B. Magic Realism
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2. 1. What is magic realism: “a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.”
2. He used to tie together religious imagery into his story. (in AVOMWEW he brings the old man into the story and has him set up as an angel)
3. Many of the supernatural elements in his story would be written in very seriously.
4. “the most frightful, the most unusual things are told with the deadpan expression” (McMurray, George R. (1987) Critical Essays on Gabriel García Márquez Boston: G.K. Hall & Co.)
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Writing Style: Motifs |
A. The Violence/La Violenca
2. Gabriel wrote many stories with that time period in mind. He would write specific things such as curfews, and press suppression but also write subtle reminders such as the culture of the community at the time
3. “For him, the duty of the revolutionary writer is to write well, and the ideal novel is one that moves its reader by its political and social content, and, at the same time, by its power to penetrate reality and expose its other side” (McMurray, George R. (1987) Critical Essays on Gabriel García Márquez Boston: G.K. Hall & Co.)
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A. The plot pt. 1 |
1. The story begins in a town where it has been raining for 3 days. There are crabs all over the beach, and everything seems miserable.
2. Pelayo and his wife Elisenda are the main characters, their baby has been sick with a fever due to the crabs, and they are attempting to throw them back into the sea.
3. Pelayo finds an old man with enormous wings in the mud. He is very ill and Pelayo is frightened. When he runs back to get Elisanda the man tries to speak to them but he can only speak a language they don’t understand
4. They run to their neighbor and she says that the man is probably an angel who came after their child but got caught in the storm.
5. The old woman tells them to kill the man but they don’t have the heart so instead they lock him in their chicken coop. At this point the others in town hear of the strange man and come to see him.
6. The townsfolk all try to decide the old mans future. The “simpler folk” say he should become mayor of the world. The “sterner stuff” folk say he should become a 5 star General, and the “visionaries” believe they should have him mate others so that they could create a race of ‘winged wise men’ who will rule the universe.
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Breakdown of AVOMWEW: A. The plot pt. 2 |
1. Father Gonzaga, a priest, arrives at this time, and tries to test him to see if he is an angel. But because he does not speak latin, smelled too human, and his wings were too broken, said he wasn’t. 2. Elisanda begins to have people pay 5 cents to see the angel man. People come from all around, especially those with illnesses. 3. The old man doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t speak or move. The only time he does anything is when they brand him, then he wakes up and begins to call out in his language. 4. One day another attraction comes to town, a girl turned into a tarantula but who keeps her human head. She was turned into this because she misbehaved. The crowd went from the old man to her because she spoke of her troubles and was much more interesting to them. They mention the old mans miracles which were not so miraculous: “the blind man who didn’t recover his sight but grew three new teeth, or the paralytic who didn’t get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers.” 5. In the end, the all stop visiting the old man, but Pelayo and Elisanda are happy and fine because they made enough money to build a new house. 6. Their child is now a toddler and he plays with the old man. And when the child grows sick he grows sick as well. By the time the child goes to school the old man grows so ill they think he’s going to die. But he doesn’t.
7. In the end, he flies away. To the relief of Elisanda who was becoming annoyed of his presence.
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Breakdown of AVOMWEW: B. The characters |
1. Pelayo: Elisanda’s husband. He finds the old man when he is throwing the crabs back in the water.
2. Elisanda: the wife. She comes up with the idea of charging money for others to see the old man.
3. The Old Man: his wings are broken and he doesn’t speak except in the beginning and when they brand him. Besides that he is quiet most of the time.
4. Father Gonzaga: the priest who believed the old man was not an angel. He is the authority figure in the town.
5. The Neighbhor Woman: she is the one who tells the family that the angel is after their son. She also believed they should kill him when he first arrived.
6. The child: he is ill when the angel first arrives and is the only one to interact with him well. When he gets ill the angel gets ill.
The Spider Woman: she takes away all of the fame away from the old man. She is open to telling her story and she is now a spider because of her bad behavior when she was fully human. |
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Breakdown of AVOMWEW:
The Style & themes |
A. Magic Realism
2. The old man is the biggest piece of magic realism in the story. He is an angel but at the same time not an angel. He is always referred to as an old man with wings.
3. He can create miracles but they are not normal miracles. They are very strange ones ““the few miracles attributed to the angel showed a certain mental disorder”
4. His wings are referred to with realistic attributes. They are injured and rotting and full of insects. “What surprised him most, however, was the logic of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them too.”
5. The Spider Woman. Her story is very horrific. She has the head of a human girl but the giant body of a tarantula. Her transformation is very mystical as well: “While still practically a child she had sneaked out of her parents’ house to go to a dance, and while she was coming back through the woods after having danced all night without permission, a fearful thunderclap rent the sky in two and through the crack came the lightning bolt of brimstone that changed her into a spider.”
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Breakdown of AVOMWEW: The Style & themes |
B. The Outsider
2. They immediately lock him up in the chicken coop. And don’t try to take care of him at all.
3. The neighbor woman suggests they club him to death. The others in the town treat him like a circus attraction.
4. They brand him to mark him as theirs.
5. The Spider Woman is also treated like an outsider. The only time she is fed is when they throw meatballs into her mouth. |
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Breakdown of AVOMWEW: The Style & themes |
C. Religion 1. Religion is obviously a very big theme of this story.
2. They question whether the old man is an angel. The Neighbor woman says yes while the Priest says no. People come to see him hoping he will cure them of their ills.
3. The old man can create miracles but those miracles are ‘broken miracles’.
4. The way the Spider Woman was turned into what she is, is very reminiscent of mythological stories (she was turned by thunder)
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Breakdown of AVOMWEW: The Style & themes |
D. Suffering 1. The story begins with a suffering town. It has not stopped raining for 3 days.
2. The Child is very ill and has a fever when the story begins.
3. The old man is suffering throughout the story. His wings are broken, he’s very ill, and they brand him.
4. The Spider Woman is suffering because of what has happened to her.
6. It is mentioned that Elisanda has a curved back because she has to sweep the streets.
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Critic of Main Piece 1: |
1. “The Villagers represent Colombians and the ‘angel’ religion, as opposed to the church.”
2. “The Opinion of the villagers reveal an idealized view of religion as government, their treatment of the angel however, betrays their reaction to rule by religious authorities.”
3. John Goodwin believes that the story is representative of Colombians during La Violencia. He believes that their reaction to the angel is their reaction to religion as opposed to the church.
When the angel isn’t what they believed he would be, they turn against him, he is no longer a religious symbol but a circus freak. |
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1. Critic of Main Piece 2:
A. Leif Shenstead-Harris (Four Stories: "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
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1. “To begin, who is our eponymous figure? An angel? An old man?” 2. “Perhaps the old man is the angel of death, as the neighbor suggests, his wings the ragged remnants of heavenly garb. He is – this is certain – the narrative pretext for the villagers’ actions: his aberrant nature and abrupt presence precipitate events of passing strangeness.” 3. “The story raises a question: to what degree are people led by the spectacular and the strange, only to capriciously and suddenly shift their allegiances and interest?” 4. “Magical realism – the weirdness in which García Márquez’s story is deeply imbued – disrupts the political intractability of fiction’s traditional relationship with its social origins, but that disruption retains and even clarifies a hard nub of political violence and communal ethics. Weird fiction sets itself out against a particular milieu of social, literary, and political influences but does not cut its ties to the world as we know it.” 5. Leif Shenstead-Harris discusses the way the magic realism in the story is used as a tool to show the way people work in society and how politics and religion play a part in peoples lives 6. He discusses the strangeness of the story itself. The ambiguity of the old man’s identity and the villagers reaction to it.
7. He also uses other points, such as the setting, to show how it sets a very mystical scene in the story.
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Critics of Main Piece 3:
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1. “described and examined, in quite some detail in this story, the wings are the visible metaphoric extensions of the Afro-American myth of flying” (pg. 75)
2. “the logic of the wings, as it were, is the logic of the supplement, which is at once complementary and additional; ist is both a part of as well as apart from the cultural and textual context in which it appears” (pg. 75)
3. “Garcia Marquez’s old man with enormous wings are all mythical figures which exist outside and in defiance of the authority of the law, which in all three cases attempts, rather unsuccessfully to confine them within the limits of a fixed definition or identity, to make them adhere to the conceptual categories officially employed to define reality and truth” (pg. 75)
4. “those extraordinary consolation miracles are of course further manifestations of the same kind of supplementary which, as we have seen, determines the logic of the old man’s wings…. What we are dealing with, in short, is not a condition of mental disorder, but a method capable of both enriching and at the same time endangering the stability of the accepted.” (pg. 77)
5. Harold Bloom believes that Gabriel uses the afro latin@ storytelling troop of flying and wings to tell a story of breaking beyond the confines of order
6. He discusses how the wings are not the traditional style of wings we have seen, they are broken and injured and how those break the mold society has of the wings
7. He also discusses how the old man’s healing powers might not be a sign of illness but a sign of a different form of healing, one that breaks the rules of society and what we define as ‘healing’.
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Critics of Main Piece 4:
A. Gene H. Bell-Villada (Garcia Marquez: The Man and His Work)
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1. “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is subtitled ‘a tale for children’ but what fairy-tale characteristics it has are affectionately parodied throughout” (pg. 137)
2. “On one hand, there is unmistakable magic in the arrival of the winged humanoid… on the other hand, everything about the visitor completely contradicts our stand mythified, western image of God’s angels.” (pg. 137)
3. “At the same time the official emissaries of the Catholic faith show their comic limitations. Father Gonzaga may bear the name of a legendary Jesuit saint and hero, but his expectation that the angel should know Latin as the “language of God” demonstrates his innocence of scriptural Hebrew and Greek” (pg. 138)
4. Gene H. believes that the story is parodying not only traditional fairy tales but also the church
5. He brings up how the old man seems to mock the very essence of what we believe is a traditional angel
6. He also brings up the fact that the priest does not realize that there are other ‘languages of god’ beyond latin. Showing the very narrow view of a leader of the church.
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Critics of Main Piece 5:
A. Ruben Pelayo (Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Critical Companion)
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1. “The tension experienced by the reader is similar to the tension in Leaf Storm and for the same reason- a stranger who has been rejected by the community. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the old man plays the same role. The townsfolk do not interact with him; instead, they treat him as a circus animal whose only value is entertainment” (pg. 83)
2. Another theme that seems to appear in several of the short stories is the lack of love between a couple…. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” Elisenda and Pelayo do not seem to enjoy a loving relationship. They seem more interested in benefiting from the old winged man than even in taking care of their sick son” (pg. 83)
3. Ruben Pelayo discusses the different themes that play a role in the story and in other stories Gabriel had written
4. He brings up the theme of the stranger, and how the old man is not interacted with like a person but rather like entertainment
5. He also brings up the theme of lack of love in a relationship. And discusses the relationship between Elisenda and Pelayo which is more one of greed than love.
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