San Gabriel Mountains

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…

Throughout the novel I was confused as to why the Vicario brothers decided to murder Santiago simply for having slept with their sister before marriage. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold there was a culture different from my own and therefore I had difficulty understanding how murder could be acceptable. Although I did understand that honor played a part in their decision-making, I still could not comprehend why they went to jail for such a brief time. I also could not understand why the…

people in the short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, who Gabriel Garcia Marquez portrays. The story is moving in that it portrays the fickleness of faith through the character’s interactions with the Old Man. Marquez also attempts to reveal the beauty we may not recognize. Marquez uses tone, imagery, and theme in this story to urge his readers to reevaluate how they see the world and people who are different. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1928, in Aracataca,…

In a time and place where corruption was ubiquitous, Gabriel García Márquez’s primary objective was to unveil the overlooked evils. He exposed the brokenness of government, family, and romance, but never dared to blatantly criticize something as untouchable as the Church. Nevertheless, hidden in the retelling of an actual murder is Márquez’s report on the perversions of the modern Church. In his novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, biblical figures are manipulated to reflect Colombia’s…

In the short story A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, Gabriel Garcia Marquez demonstrates the magical realism present in the world, in which humans tend to overlook. The short story is about an old man with enormous wings falling into the lives of a struggling family. This story represents the social group of both humans as very unsettled and insecure, and the magical realist, the man with wings, in a more miraculous and wonderfully mysterious way. In the beginning of the short story, Marquez…

The Life of Saint Martin de Porres Did you know St Martin de Porres was so deep in prayer that he sometimes levitated off of the ground (St Martin de Porres Patron of Social Justice)? Martin had a tremendous relationship with God. Martin De Porres is a saint because he devoted his life to God, could perform miracles, and lived a holy, yet spiritual life. Martin was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579. His mom was a freed slave of Panama. His dad was a Spanish conquistador. Just two years…

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…

foretold, the concept of honor is very strong and vital in a town’s Latin-American society. The Vicario brothers are forced to commit murder to rebuild the honor of their family, even though they do not have the heart to go through with the crime. Gabriel Marquez discloses the effects of a traditional sense of honor in many Hispanic cultures and how it becomes the downfall of both men and women. The honor of the Vicario family is lost when Angela’s premarital sex and her subsequent failed…

The Man to Send Rain Clouds In Leslie Marmon Silko's 1969 short story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds," two men find an elderly man below a cottonwood tree who has passed away and quietly transports him back to town where an Indian burial is given to the elderly man without the knowledge of the Catholic church. This story incorporates many different views of religion and culture such as Native American rituals and burials and the Catholic Church’s funerals and blessings. The primary characters in…

Studies show that in the 2011-2012 winter season, the state of California received nearly 300 inches less snowfall than it did the previous winter. While many of California’s dry winters are a direct result of ridges off of the west coast, climatologists suggest the drop in precipitation during the 2011-2012 winter was due to below average sea surface temperatures, or La Niña (Seager et al.). La Niña is the result of cooling sea surface temperatures that lead to an overall temperature of the…