Father Gonzaga, the parish priest, symbolizes the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church. When he discovers that the old man with enormous wings doesn't speak Latin—the language of the Church—or look pure and clean like an angel in a religious painting, the Father concludes he can't possibly be an angel.

Pelayo and Elisenda are symbols of the pragmatic, secular world which believes in superstitions, but is so rooted in the material they can only treat the miraculous as something to shove imperfectly into their physical realm. They treat the old man like an animal while exploiting him for profit as a freak show item. As he is flying away, Elisenda refers to him as an "annoyance."

Further, the iron bars that Pelayo and Elisenda put up on the windows of their big new house are expressly installed so "that angels wouldn't get in," a symbol of the couples' continuing resistance to the sacred. (Ironically, the old man does get in, symbolizing the impossibility of keeping out the sacred.)

The old, winged man is a Christ figure, as he is both human (bad smelling, bug infested, missing teeth, old) and divine (winged so that he can soar over the earth) at the same time.

The new feathers the old man grows when winter has ended are a symbol of rebirth. He uses them to soar into the sky (after a few struggles) and fly away.

There are a number of symbols that play a significant role in the development of themes in Marquez’s “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.” The old man’s wings are described as “buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked . . . forever entangled in the mud.” The wings emphasize that he is earthly and human when he arrives in Pelayo’s home with dirty and torn wings. At the same time, however, the presence of even these broken wings makes the observers believe that he is an angel, or not from this world. With this duality established, the old man, by the end of the story, recovers his strength and flies off under the power of his now strong, angular, and majestic wings. The duality represented by the wings, then, can represent the theme of appearance versus reality and the notion that there can be magic in that which appears to lack magic.

The duality of the wings can also lead one to view the Old Man as a Christ figure. Christ is believed by many to be both man and God, sharing the dual nature seen in the Old Man. Like a Christ figure, the old man comes to the town as a poor, humble, broken man and saves the boy and performs other miracles. He ends up being spurned and humiliated by the people he saved.

The Spider Woman that comes to the town as a part of a freak show is also important to the development of themes in the story. While the villagers first flock to the old man with enormous wings, after time, as the miracles he performs become more mundane, or “consolation miracles,” the villagers look for something new to worship. The Spider Woman at the freak show fulfills this purpose. They leave the old man and start to spend time with the Spider Woman, and they listen to her stories with pity. She comes to represent the shallowness of human faith. The Spider Woman shows us that people are fickle and flock to shiny new beliefs, looking for immediate results. Through Marquez's use of magical realism, the symbols in the short story all develop the complex nature of faith as well as man’s struggle to remain faithful in a confusing and chaotic world.

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 symbolize both Pelayo's poverty -- he can't afford a better house -- and the instinct of all animals to survive under pressure. When the angel shows up, it is lying in the mud, trying to move but stuck. Just like the crabs, the angel has the instinct to survive, but it is too old:

...before going to bed [Pelayo] dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop.
(Márquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," salvoblue.homestead.com)

Although they do not treat it well, Pelayo and his wife offer the angel sanctuary to live through the winter; its instincts, if it sought them out specifically, were sound. After gaining money, Pelayo builds a new house, this time with barriers to keep the crabs out; the symbol of the crabs has been replaced by the angel, which now lives in the unchanged chicken coop, representing the poverty that Pelayo and his wife used to live in. The crabs, therefore, have served their purpose, and are no longer necessary.

In "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings", what is the symbolic meaning of the old man?

Your question seems to raise a much larger issue about how we as readers interpret and assign symbols to objects and characters in our often futile attempts to make meaning of what we read.

I think one of the joys of this short story is that it defies interpretation. You need to note how the villagers are often exposed as foolish and gullible in their beliefs, and also how they try to make sense of the world. They stick fast to "facts" even though they are clearly ridiculous, such as the fact that angels eat mothballs, and they jump to impossible conclusions, for example when some argue that the old man should be proclaimed "mayor of the world." It is almost as if once they have conceived of an idea they make reality "fit" to support that idea despite any protestations to the contrary - or until a "better" version of the "truth" comes along and then the process beings again. Of course, the villagers, although they can be said to be figures of fun in this sense, contain many characteristics which we can identify whatever our time or culture - for example the unquestioning belief in their own wisdom and their stubborn clinging to their own ideas are aspects which we can all identify.

It is clear though that while there are a few hints into this story as to the "meaning" or "allegory" there are no conclusive pointers that give one definitive explanation. We are left, much like the villagers therefore, to try and make some sort of meaning from these strange and bizarre events. The last laugh seems to be with Marquez, however, as we prove ourselves to be like the villagers trying to make sense of this story and coming up with very different and ridiculous answers. Therefore, if there is a "meaning", it is that there is no "meaning" - it is more about the process by which we make "meaning" and how we support our conclusions.

So I am not going to answer your question, as I think if you do try to summarise the angel's symbolic significance you are falling into precisely the kind of trap that Marquez wants you to fall into!

What symbols and symbolism do you find in "A very old man with enormous wings"? What do they mean?

The decrepit angel is symbolic of Pelayo's and Elisenda's lack of faith. The angel is crippled, lice-ridden, and filthy. He *could* have been the miracle they hoped for if they had taken proper care of him, and proper care of their faith.

Instead, they got exactly what they deserved. A miracle appears and not only do they not appreciate or recognize it, they actively disdain and exploit it.

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is said to be "symbolic." What is this symbolism?

This is a great issue to raise in relation to this story. Your question seems to raise a much larger issue about how we as readers interpret and assign symbols to objects and characters in our often futile attempts to make meaning of what we read.

I think one of the joys of this short story is that it defies interpretation. You need to note how the villagers are often exposed as foolish and gullible in their beliefs, and also how they try to make sense of the world. They stick fast to "facts" even though they are clearly ridiculous, such as the fact that angels eat mothballs, and they jump to impossible conclusions, for example when some argue that the old man should be proclaimed "mayor of the world." It is almost as if once they have conceived of an idea they make reality "fit" to support that idea despite any protestations to the contrary - or until a "better" version of the "truth" comes along and then the process beings again. Of course, the villagers, although they can be said to be figures of fun in this sense, contain many characteristics which we can identify whatever our time or culture - for example the unquestioning belief in their own wisdom and their stubborn clinging to their own ideas are aspects which we can all identify.

It is clear though that while there are a few hints into this story as to the "meaning" or "allegory" there are no conclusive pointers that give one definitive explanation. We are left, much like the villagers therefore, to try and make some sort of meaning from these strange and bizarre events. The last laugh seems to be with Marquez, however, as we prove ourselves to be like the villagers trying to make sense of this story and coming up with very different and ridiculous answers. Therefore, if there is a "meaning", it is that there is no "meaning" - it is more about the process by which we make "meaning" and how we support our conclusions.

So I am not going to answer your question, as I think if you do try to summarise the angel's symbolic significance you are falling into precisely the kind of trap that Marquez wants you to fall into! Just be aware that Marquez is playing with us as readers and trying to get us to assign symbols in our quest to make meaning of his confusing short story.