A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Questions and Answers
by Gabriel García Márquez

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is the moral of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"? How is the message applicable to the reader?
  I don't believe there is one moral to the story. If there is one, it could be that expectations are never going to be met, and the world is an ambiguous place. The story defies the expectations of...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is the voice?
  “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was first published in 1955. The story is about the married couple Pelayo and Elisanda, who find an old man...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is a theme to the short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Please also give some support for the theme.
  One of the defining characteristics of magical realism is that, since reality and fantasy and magic get all tossed together, clear morals, themes and truths are hard to identify: This is because...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What are some symbols in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?"
  One symbol is the infestation of crabs in Pelayo's house. During the strong rains, the land crabs hide indoors so they won't drown; Pelayo kills them and throws them into the water. The crabs...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  The subtitle of this story is "A Tale for Children." Why and how does this seem like an apt description? An inapt or ironic one?
  I believe you're referring to the short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The subtitle "A Tale for Children" is appropriate for a number of reasons. First and...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What does the man with enormous wings represent in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"?
  "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" plays heavily on ambiguity. Garcia Marquez never allows the reader to settle comfortably into one attitude or the other... For this reason, identifying a...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Explain how Gabriel Garcia Marquez satirizes the institutions of authority in his story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”  
  The main way in which Gabriel Garcia Marquez satirizes the institutions of authority in his story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is through his treatment of the Roman Catholic church.The...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What does the villagers' treatment of the angel reveal about them?
  In the short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel García Márquez, a three-day rainstorm sweeps over a coastal village, and in its aftermath, a man named Pelayo realizes that an old...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  To what extent, if any, does it matter whether Pelayo’s guest is an angel? Explain.
  The short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells of an old man with large wings who appears in the courtyard of the Pelayo family in the aftermath of a three-day...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  How is "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" a tale for children?
  "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is a short story by Gabriel García Márquez, and is subtitled "A Tale for Children." The subtitle seems out of place because the story is so strange; an old man,...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is satire, and how is it used in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"?
  Satire means making fun of things in order to show their flaws and (ideally) improve them. Teasing someone for being new in school wouldn't be satire; it would simply be mean. However, exaggerating...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is the effect of the author’s minimal use of dialogue in the text?
  The short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells of the reaction of a seaside village to the arrival of an old man with large wings like an angel. However, the...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What miracles are attributed to the old man?
  This information can be found in the paragraph that also discusses the woman that had been turned into a spider. Three miracles are attributed to the old man, but the miracles are not seen as...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Who is the narrator of the story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"?
  Gabriel García Márquez's story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is a classic example of magic realism in storytelling. The narrator is a standard third-person omniscient viewpoint; there is no...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Apply the principles of post-structuralism or deconstruction to "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings."
  Deconstruction and post-structuralism are both concerned with subverting traditional understandings of meaning in a text. Deconstruction in particular looks to identify areas of paradox,...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What effects did the rain cause in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel García Márquez?
  As the story begins, the village is in the midst of a sustained downpour that's lasted for three whole days. The heavy rain has caused dozens of crabs to emerge from their underground holes and...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Do any of the characters treat the very old man with the reverence due to a human or an angel? What kind of interest do people show him in "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"?
  In the short story "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a filthy old man with huge damaged wings is swept into a family's yard by a violent rainstorm. Although a neighbor...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Comment on the idea of poverty here and discuss in what ways, if any, it informs the decisions the characters make or how the story is told. If you think it doesn’t, explain why too.
  Poverty motivates the decisions of several of the characters. For example, Elisenda and Pelayo charge their fellow townspeople money to see the very old man. Elisenda makes this decision because...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is the point of view of "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings?"
  I have had to edit your question down to focus on one element of this short story rather than several, as in your original question. Please remember that according to enotes regulations, you can...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," how does Marquez utilize symbolism and magical realism to challenge religious beliefs?
  This is an excellent question. Clearly, the main person or character who stands for religion in this story is Father Gonzaga, whose career as a woodcutter before becoming a priest gives him rather...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," what phenomenon comes to town and distracts the townspeople from the "angel?"  
  For a while, the angel is a tourist attraction. Although he doesn't do anything and is confused by all the attention, people demand to see him, touch him, and beg him for miracles; Peylayo and...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Explain what Father Gonzaga does in order to prove that the Old Man is not an angel.  How is this a criticism of organized religion?  
  Father Gonzaga first speaks to the Old Man in Latin and determines that since he (Old Man) does not understand the language of God (Latin), he must be an impostor. Father Gonzaga also uses the...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Do you think the character in Marquez's story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" was an angel or just a very old man? Does the distinction matter?
  Garcia Marquez’s story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” has fantasy and reality elements. Many of the events in the story fall in the realm of reality yet contain supernatural elements. This...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Describe the old man that is found on the beach in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."  
  Besides his huge buzzard wings and his apparent age, as evinced by a bald skull with only a few hairs and missing teeth in his mouth, the creature who lands in Pelayo and Elisenda's yard after days...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What are some of the cultural symbols in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?"
  The major symbol(s) is/are the wings of the possible angel, and have more than one interpretation. Rather than being a beautiful being of light and spirituality, the angel is old and dirty, and his...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Does the subtitle of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" indicate that it is appropriate for children?
  I would suggest that the story might be difficult for children to fully grasp because it operates so much in the realm of doubt and a lack of certainty. Marquez's work offers little in terms of...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is a good thesis statement for the short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
  A most unusual story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is classified as Magical Realism. This term of two words is indicative of the central idea of Marquez's story....

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What paradoxes do you find in the story "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"?
  To be clear, a working definition of a "paradox" is in order. A paradox is a statement which seems on the surface to be contradictory or absurd, yet it turns out to be make good sense. In...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is the human condition found in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel García Márquez?
  There are several aspects of the human condition highlighted in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel García Márquez. Perhaps the first is seen when Pelayo first sees the man and shows...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What attitudes is Marquez criticizing?
  With no fixed truth to his short story "A Very Old man with Emormous Wings," Gabriel Marquez complicates readers' efforts to assign explanations and morals to his narrative. Thus, with his...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", how does Marquez use fantasy to reveal a human truth?
  In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" Marquez uses fantasy to reveal human truths about the new beginnings and the value of humanity. In the story, the two most prominent characters are the...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings," how do the fantastic elements help provide insights into the way human beings actually think and behave?
  What this story reveals above all else through the fantastical elements is the ceaseless human need to derive meaning from events, even when meaning itself is very hard to come by. Marquez uses the...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  How do the various characters respond to the events of the story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?"   
  For the most part, the old man (alleged angel) is mistreated and variously misunderstood. Even though the man has wings, Pelayo and Elisenda think he is a castaway from some ship. Their neighbor...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  From the story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, explain the lines: "He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic language and with tears in his eyes, and he flapped his wings a couple of times which brought on a ....
  The late Colombian author and journalist Gabriel Garcia Marquez was known for his surrealistic style of writing, as well as for his journalistic nonfiction depictions of his native land. His short...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In the ending of the story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it says that the angel is an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea. So does that mean that the angel is actually imaginary?
  Great question! No. It doesn't mean that. That's an option, and a possibility, but not a certainty. First, let us review the final line of the story. Marquez wrote, "She kept watching him even...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Discuss the blend of realistic and fantastic details in this story.
  There are many details that combine realistic with fantastic: --The old man seems real, but his wings are enormous buzzard wings --The fantastic creature is confined to a chicken coup --The "old...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Discuss the blend of realistic and fantastic details. Does this blend make the story more or less effective? Does it require a different type of reading than other stories you have read that contain no elements of fantasy?
  "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is an intriguing blend of the ordinary and the supernatural, of reality and the fantastic. Consider the following: A girl disobeys her parents (real) and is...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  Compare the characteristics of the spider woman with those of the old man.
  Gabriel García Márquez provides a comparison between the spider woman and the old man with wings in his story “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” When comparing the two characters it is...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  I would like to know any comments on the translation of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I would like to know any comments on the translation of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
  In this story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I always am reminded of the Bible verse: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  At what point in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" did you first know that it included elements of fantasy? What is the effect of the second sentence, "The world had been sad since Tuesday"?
  Well, the title is a dead giveaway that something unusual is going to happen in this story. The sentence you've asked about, "The world had been sad since Tuesday," is an almost poetic...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In the beginning of  "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," why is Pelayo throwing crabs into the sea?
  As the story opens, the fishing village in which the characters live has been "sad" for three days, with cold, dark temperatures and constant rain. Because of a crab's life cycle, some species...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What is the author is trying to tell us?
  The author trying to tell us a couple of things through this story. For one thing, the subtitle is "A Tale for Children." This shows how it's in a fairy tale format. That explains the...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  What archetypes can be found in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"? Jorge Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"
  With archetype meaning the original pattern or model after which a thing is made, the story itself is an archetype of a fairy tale with the role of the supernatural mixing with the mundane....

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, what are the 3 miracles the old man performed incorrectly according to the townspeople?
  The incorrectly performed miracles attributed to the old man according to the people of the town were:1. a "blind man who didn't recover his sight but grew three new teeth",2. a...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," is the man an angel or a human being?  
  It is really impossible to say if the man is an angel or a human being. The title of the story implies that he is indeed a man with wings; but the story and the symbolism behind the man resist...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" -- What emotions are evoked in the reader about the old man Pity? Fear? Disgust? wonder? How does the narrator evoke these feelings?
  1. Although the angel is "disappointingly ordinary and human," he evokes a number of feelings from the reader: Repulsion - Originally described as a "ragpicker" with only a few strands of hair upon...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", how is there a theme of isolation?
  There is a theme of isolation in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." Since no one knows exactly what or who "that nightmare" is after he appears at the home of Pelayo and Elisenda, the old man,...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  In the short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," why does the author say it's a children's story?
  In magical realism, the genre of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," it's hard to tell exactly why anything is what it is, which is one of the drifining features of magical realism. There are...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  How can Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" be interpreted as an "Eastertide" story?
  The wondrous ending of Gabriel Marquez's story proves that the old man, ridiculed and berated by man, is greater than the fallible people as he finally flies away, with the ungainly flapping that...

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• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  How is the winged man treated?
  Pelayo and Elisenda initially treat him like an animal, locking him up with the hens in the coop. When their child gets better, they decide to send the old man off on a raft with small provisions....

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