Dec 21, 2009

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings | Social Concerns

The time and place of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," published in Spanish as "Un senor muy viejo con alas enormes," are undetermined. The characters' names suggest a Spanish-speaking country, and a reference to airplanes indicates that the story is set in the twentieth century; but beyond these minor details, the reader seems to be in the "once-upon-a-time" world of fairy tales. The narrator tells of events in the past by using the phrase "in those times" in a manner common to myths and legends. These associations help prepare the reader for the...