Life is unfair. In the short story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," Gabriel Garcia Marquez shows that the lives of outsiders are unfair because the majority of society mistreat them. The main character Elisenda and Pelayo find an old man with enormous wings in their courtyard. Soon, the whole neighbourhood hears about the news of an outsider taking shelter in the couple's chicken coop. As days pass by, the townspeople do not get much out of the old man and so they mistreat him. Marquez shows this mistreatment through the townspeople and how they make assumptions about the old man's identity, they treat him like a circus animal, and they exclude him because he is different. Even though the story is fictional, mistreating outsiders also applies in the real world.
Assumptions often lead to misunderstandings. When someone makes an assumption about a person, other people may think that such an observation is …show more content…
Pelayo and Elisenda find the whole neighbourhood in front of their chicken coop "...tossing him things to eat through the openings of the wore as if he weren't a supernatural creature but a circus animal" (1). The townspeople think it is okay to treat outsiders lowly and disrespectfully because they are different from them. As more and more people come and visit the old man, Elisenda "got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel" (2). Elisenda exploits the old man because she thinks that she is superior to him or that she owns him because he is taking shelter in her chicken coop. In society, outsiders are often considered as inferior to the majority of society because they are different; the majority of society think that they are the "normal" people that makes them feel
Assumptions often lead to misunderstandings. When someone makes an assumption about a person, other people may think that such an observation is …show more content…
Pelayo and Elisenda find the whole neighbourhood in front of their chicken coop "...tossing him things to eat through the openings of the wore as if he weren't a supernatural creature but a circus animal" (1). The townspeople think it is okay to treat outsiders lowly and disrespectfully because they are different from them. As more and more people come and visit the old man, Elisenda "got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel" (2). Elisenda exploits the old man because she thinks that she is superior to him or that she owns him because he is taking shelter in her chicken coop. In society, outsiders are often considered as inferior to the majority of society because they are different; the majority of society think that they are the "normal" people that makes them feel