Jan 3, 2010

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings | Historical Context

The Lack of a Context
The time and place of this story are undetermined. The characters' names suggest a Spanish-speaking country, and a reference to airplanes indicates that we are somewhere in the twentieth century; but beyond these minor details, we seem to be in the "once-upon-a-time" world of fairy tales. The narrator tells of events in the past, using the phrase ''in those times'' in a manner common to myths and legends. These associations help prepare the reader for the story's "magical" elements by suggesting that this is not a factual history to be taken literally,...