Enormous Wings

In the short story, “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author conveyed the meaning of human cruelty, selfishness, and the desire to dominate nature for their own benefits through the constant use of symbolism in the text as illustrated with the manipulation and neglection of the old man by the couple. One of the major symbol used in this short story was the old man’s enormous wings that signify freedom, power, as well as the natural and supernatural. In the beginning of the story, the old man appeared in the courtyard of Pelayo and Elisenda with “ his huge, buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked and were forever in the mud” ( Marquez 1). Because the conditions of the wings were heavily …show more content…
As the old man becomes victim to the couple’s selfishness, he was constantly tortured and used for their own benefits. The old man experienced countless torture as demonstrated when “...the hens pecked at him, searching for the stellar parasites that proliferated in his wings...even the most merciful threw stones at him, trying to get him to rise so that they could see him standing” and they “burned his side with an iron for branding steers” (Marquez 2). Because the old man was trapped in the wire chicken coop, he had no choice but to submit to the couple’s demands and ruthless actions. Even as they earned enough money from the fees from the visitors to buy a large house, they continued to neglect him in the same wire chicken coop. This exhibits the human qualities of greeds, and self-seeking nature that valued themselves before others. Since the symbol of the chicken coop served the meaning of captivity, it uncovers the self-centered attitude of the couple as well as leading to the importance of the theme. They constrained the man in the wire cage like a circus animal to keep him away from them simultaneously gaining wealth from the fee that they charged visitors without paying any attention to the old man’s opinions. The author was able to manipulate the use of …show more content…
The child of the couple was extremely sick when the old man appeared out of nowhere in the courtyard which causes the couple to fear that the old man was an angel coming to get their child. Because the child was sick, the couple left the old man in the mud while keeping their guard up with a club in case he gets up so that they could beat him to death. And in that sense, the child signifies morality because as the child fell victim to sickness, the morality of the couple was also heavily undermined as they refer to imprisoning the man and imposing control over him. Also, when the child began to recovered from the sickness and started growing up, the couple began treating the man more humanely as they let him play with the child and even upgraded him to one of the room in the shed. Such was demonstrated as “...when the child learned to walk...they began to lose their fears and got used to the smell, and before their child got his second teeth, he’d gone inside the chicken coop to play” (Marquez 3). Therefore, they learned to be more compassionate as their child grew up because it symbolizes that their morals and humanity are also growing and improving. This reflects the theme of how humankind can often turned cruel and selfish when they’re put in a difficult position although they can learn to be kind and