A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

In the first week of August, crowds of people were drawn towards a sculpture that defied human understanding. The sculpture, created by two Beijing artists Sun Yuan, and Peng Yu, depicted an old female, fallen angel (Poppy, the Daily Mirror). The sculpture was lifelike that stories began circulating on the internet claiming that the sculpture was a divine being. Keen followers and fans of the two artists however knew that such work is hardly beyond them as the two artists are known to feature cadavers and human fat in their creations and would not shy away from exhibiting such kind of art. The reaction from observers betrayed a fact that many people know too well, that humans are scared by the reality of divine beings. The fact that other beings could exist which could potentially have superhuman powers has been the subject of human fantasy since time immemorial (Thiemann, 89). It is this belief that underlined the essential foundations of religious beliefs. This essay will examine the phenomenon of human reaction to supernatural beings through studying a book titled a very old man with enormous wings written by Gabriel García Márquez in 1955.

A very old man with enormous wings

In the book, the main protagonist is Pelayo, who lives along the coast in a tranquil Christian village probably located in the Mediterranean (Rquez, and Gregory, 68). The town is full of crabs, and this becomes a great matter of concern to the villagers, and for Pelayo the crabs were a major nuisance and unwelcome intruders to his property. On one particular morning, he woke up to throw away crabs that had washed up onto his property, and he discovered an old man with broad wings lying in the mud. The old man was lying face down presumably after being washed onto Pelayos property by the oceans waves. The old man is toothless and bald and appears to have aged quite significantly. Pelayo calls for his wife to come examine the creature and when his wife, Elisenda arrives they began to scrutinize and examine the animal to establish its origins. It seems that apart from the enormous wings on the creatures back, he/it looks just as human as any old man in Pelayos village. 

Pelayo and Elisenda take the animal to their property and attempt to interrogate it or rather for purposes of levity, let us refer to the creature as an old man. The old man wakes up and talks in a language both Pelayo, and his wife cannot understand. The villagers are likewise called to observe the spectacle and nobody else seems to understand the old mans language. The villagers attempt to postulate theories regarding the origin of the winged old man, but nobody appears to agree on a single idea. The fact that he can understand their speech but cannot answer their questions in a language they can understand proves to be quite irritating to the couple and the villagers and they decide to set him adrift back to the ocean on a raft. They, however, shelve off this idea after realizing they can simply imprison the winged old man in a chicken coop and charge members of the public to view him.

The news regarding the discovery of the old man soon spread like wildfire and many more observers came to Pelayos village to see the winged old man. The observers whoever treated the old man as nothing more than a spectacle to be made fun of. They poked him and threw food at him through the wires of the chicken coop. Even the local priest was not left out of the goings-on in the village, and he was disturbed by rumors going around that the old man could be an angel. This in itself seemed implausible to the priest due to the frailty of the old man, and according to his beliefs, angels were meant to be strong and invincible. Father Gonzaga, therefore, sought to disparage any further belief in the winged old man, and he decided to investigate his origins further. Armed with his priestly garb and Latin, Father Gonzaga spoke to the winged old man in Latin but he could apparently not understand what Father Gonzaga was saying (Stark, 260). The priest convinced that angels spoke Latin, denounced the winged old man claiming he was an imposter, and therefore not divine. The priest having disparaged any ideas that the winged old man was an angel, the villagers decided to propose ideas for the old man to be useful in the village. They began churning ideas such as gifting the old man with the post of mayor of the world or a general for the army to defeat other nations. Other implausible ideas were that the old man should be made to impregnate as many women as possible so that offspring who could fly could rule the earth.

The villagers wary for miracles begin to press the winged old man to perform them. The sick and the crippled went to the old man seeking relief from their afflictions. Strangely, though, the old man was capable of performing miracles albeit too gratuitously. For example, he gifted a blind man with three new teeth rather than with sight and to a leper he made his sores grow sunflowers. The villagers became tired of waiting for the old man to perform meaningful miracles, and even communication from the Vatican did not confirm his angelic origins, further exasperating the villagers. The Vatican was merely interested in finding out whether the old man had a navel or whether his language had any links with Aramaic.

The crowds became a major nuisance to Elisenda due to the dirt that accumulated on their property. She was however saved from the problem by the arrival of a woman whose body was turned into a tarantula on account of disobeying her parents. The crowd immediately shifted their attention from the angel to the tarantula lady, and within no time Pelayo and Elisenda were back to their lonely life albeit with so much more wealth than before. They build a bigger, grander house and even bought better clothes that were more expensive. The rains destroyed the chicken coop, and the old man moved into the couples new house where he continued to exasperate Elisenda. The old mans frailty becomes more pronounced, and his sight and gait became highly affected. His only friend was Pelayos son who was sickly but seemed to improve with the old mans presence. 

Towards the end of winter, the old mans condition started to improve. His feathers began to grow back, and his strength also seemed to increase. One day Elisenda saw the old man attempting to fly and he made several attempts until finally he managed to ascend into the sky, and he was never seen again. His departure was a relief to Elisenda and Pelayo, who saw the winged old man as more of a nuisance than a visitor.

Storys context and interpretation

Thought he book is introduced as a childrens story, its senselessness makes it difficult to interpret. The story of the winged old man seems more like a work of fictitious comedy than a story on morals. The nature of the characters and the slant the story takes indicates that the author probably had a more telling story hidden beneath the story of the winged old man. To adopt this theory, the words enormous wings seem to be the key in finding an interpretation of the story. In the story, the old man did have appendages that suggested he has wings, but they were not enormous due to the lack of feathers that would have aided his flight. The close relation he had with the child seems to be an indicator that the old man was intended to teach a deeper lesson than the one that comes up with a cursory glance (Munk and Nilo, 33). In my opinion, the story is meant to ridicule political and religious figures. This is because, in the story, both religious and political characters seem to be the main useless identities in the story. Father Gonzaga, in spite of being the key authority and moral figure in the community, fails to identify who the old man is, and dismisses him as an imposter. The fact that the villagers thought he old man was a mayor or a general also shows the disdain the crowd had for political figures. The poking and branding that the old man went through indicates that even if he had any authority either divine or otherwise, the villagers behavior towards him would not have changed in the slightest.

The impact of the old mans arrival is felt only by Pelayo and his wife. The villagers soon get distracted by the next attraction that came around and their memory of the old man faded. This story does sound like a contextualized critic of the human race with its nonchalant dismissal of complex issues. Upon scrutiny, the villagers reactions throughout the story are indicative of societys aloofness as a result of benign servitude to political and religious figures. The society is too used to listening to useless advice and orders from political and religious figures that they have grown numb when an actual divine character lands in their midst. They merely see the winged old man as an oddity rather than an issue that warrants scrutiny and analysis of life.  Assuming the old man was an angel and given the fact that Pelayos village is actually a Christian community, it is indeed strange that their behavior is quite as aloof, and this is indicative of the diminishing influence of religion in society.

Contemporary interpretation

The role of religion and mysticism in society is a core aspect of the story. The story of the old man is close to the art project of the Beijing duo, Sun Yuan, and Peng Yu. The reaction to finding an angel washed up in ones neighborhood directly elicits social media frenzy and massive retweets rather than a scrutiny of society and its moral architecture. The role of the divine has been relegated to the sidelines, and they seem more like strange oddities worthy of pity rather than reverence (Krishna, 90). The old man did deserve some sympathy due to his old age and frailty and even his improving health after the winter went unnoticed. In a similar fashion, the art project by Sun Yuan, and Peng Yu became a media frenzy only up to the point people realized the sculpture was not an actual angel but an art project.  Therefore instead of the art project eliciting questions and profound reflections into spirituality, it merely became a media spectacle for a short period before the public shifted to another spectacle.

The manner in which authority figures have been ridiculed in the story is also a matter of great contemporary significance. The priest proved to be a mere bystander in the story, and the absence of any worthwhile political figure is quite telling of their estimation in the story. A look at newspapers and there is not a single day that goes by without lurid details of corruption and moral decadence in both the religious and political offices. Both religion and politics have created greater monsters than any fictitious tale could ever produce, and society has learned to create a reality devoid of influence from these two (Pearson and Hannelore 116). Religion and politics are merely seen as conduits for success rather than actual positive influences in society. To Pelayo, the winged old man was merely a means to success, and once success was achieved, his departure went without changing the livelihoods of Pelayo, his family, and the entire village. In a similar fashion, the change of political and religious office by different individuals goes unnoticed by the society, and it continues to trudge onwards, naïve and unrelenting in its selfish pursuit of meaning.

Works Cited

Munk, Erika; Nilo Cruz. "The Children are the Angels Here". Theater, 2003.33 (2): 62

Poppy Danby, Artists Known for Using DEAD BABIES and Human Fat in their Creations Have Unveiled Shockingly Realistic Fallen Angel Installation 24th July 2015, Retrieved From The Daily Mail. 

Krishna Chattopadhyay. The World of Mystics: A Comparative Study of Baul, Sufi and Sikh Mysticism. R.K. Prakashan, 1993. pp 70-112. Print.

Stark, Ryan J. "Some Aspects of Christian Mystical Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Poetry," Philosophy and Rhetoric 41 2008: 26077. Print.

Pearson, Lon, and Hannelore Hahn. "The Influence of Franz Kafka on Three Novels by Gabriel García Márquez." Chasqui: 116. Print.

Thiemann, Ronald F. Why Are We Here? Everyday Questions and the Christian Life. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity International, 1998. Print.

Rquez, Gabriel, and Gregory Rabassa. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: And the Sea of Lost Time. Print.

Rquez, Gabriel, and Nicholas Tornaritis. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. S.l.: GradeSaver LLC, 2007. Print.