Hardships of an Angel In the short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Marquez tells a story about a man taking advantage of the weak and portrays human behaviors. This story is about a character Pelayo finding an old man, who turned out to be an angel. Discovering the angel, brought new hope and new opportunities to the family. However, the family exploits the angel for money. Many people went to see the angel and so they profit. In this story, Marquez shares his perspective of humanity. It can be interpreted in many ways, but many would express humans are cruel and judgmental people. In A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Marquez uses many examples of theme and symbolism to portray the cruel and
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An example of how cruel humans can be, is when they burned the angels side with branding steers to make him stand. Many could find the act of branding him as brutal. Everyone is guilty of discriminating against the angel. Marquez illustrates, “even the most merciful threw stones at him”(221). To have the merciful to throw stones, shows the angel was seen as a threat. The angel did absolutely nothing to any of the townspeople, yet everyone see’s the angel as a menace. Everyone of the townspeople were heartless and showed no compassion toward the angel. One may feel it would have been different if he were a regular old man. The townspeople would not have treated one of their own this harshly. Both the townspeople and humanity share the trait of …show more content…
The humiliation the angel must have felt is absolutely dreadful. If the angel was young, powerful, and magnificent, he would have been treated differently. However, the angel is old and dirty, so many could understand why they would persecute him. Many may feel that they treated the angel like this because he was different. The arrogance of the townspeople resulted in the suffering of the angel.
One example of symbolism in the story is the Sea. The Sea is where the story begins and ends. The sea can be seen as endless in the way that the angel flew away and became no longer visible. Elisenda said, “she kept watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea”(225). The angel may have been an annoyance to the family, but they cannot deny all of the good he brings. The sea was the angels escape from humanity. Humanity’s cruel nature is the reason why the angel
An example of how cruel humans can be, is when they burned the angels side with branding steers to make him stand. Many could find the act of branding him as brutal. Everyone is guilty of discriminating against the angel. Marquez illustrates, “even the most merciful threw stones at him”(221). To have the merciful to throw stones, shows the angel was seen as a threat. The angel did absolutely nothing to any of the townspeople, yet everyone see’s the angel as a menace. Everyone of the townspeople were heartless and showed no compassion toward the angel. One may feel it would have been different if he were a regular old man. The townspeople would not have treated one of their own this harshly. Both the townspeople and humanity share the trait of …show more content…
The humiliation the angel must have felt is absolutely dreadful. If the angel was young, powerful, and magnificent, he would have been treated differently. However, the angel is old and dirty, so many could understand why they would persecute him. Many may feel that they treated the angel like this because he was different. The arrogance of the townspeople resulted in the suffering of the angel.
One example of symbolism in the story is the Sea. The Sea is where the story begins and ends. The sea can be seen as endless in the way that the angel flew away and became no longer visible. Elisenda said, “she kept watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea”(225). The angel may have been an annoyance to the family, but they cannot deny all of the good he brings. The sea was the angels escape from humanity. Humanity’s cruel nature is the reason why the angel