The Coexistence of Good and Evil
The first couple paragraphs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” presents a family who has been dealt with a delirious old man with wings that showed up in their courtyard. Pelayo and his wife Elisenda had been dealing with an immense amount of crabs inside their house at the time and a sickly child who has had a temperature all night and had thought it was due to the stench brought on by the crabs. The couple had then reached out to their neighbor women who “knew everything about life and death” (590). The woman had explained to them that he was an angel who had been defeated by the storm and was there to take the child’s soul away. She advised Pelayo and his wife to club him to death but instead, they had dragged him out of the mud and locked him in a chicken coop where the hens live. The sickly child’s fever had vanished and had an appetite again shortly after the old man’s arrival. The family soon realized they could make a profit by charging admission because of all the attraction that this old man with enormous wings has brought. Though this old man was held captive throughout the entire story, many good things had happened during his presence. There are many key symbols in this short story by author Gabriel Marquez that allow me to believe both good and evil co-exist. The story begins with a dark setting by describing the most dreadful occurrences one could endure. One of the first occurrences described was a sickly child who has ran a high temperature at night in the middle of severe weather. Marquez explains the darkness by writing, “the world has been sad since Tuesday,” describing the dull weather in detail. Peyalo was dealing with crabs that had to be thrown back out into the sea since their stench may have caused the child’s illness. Towards the end of the first paragraph, Marquez had ruined any mindsets we would have about what an angel would be like by describing very old man was laying face down in the mud and could not get up because he was “impeded by his enormous wings”(590). The author also goes into detail about how this old man was dressed like a “ragpicker” (590), had very few hairs left on his skull, a few teeth, and huge buzzard wings that were half plucked which were also forever entangled in the mud. This does not sound like that of an angel but rather an evil presence.
Peyalo and his wife Elisenda had then decided to call their neighbor who might know what to do. The neighbor had decided “he’s an angel” and “he must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down” (590). Peyalo and his wife were told that he must be clubbed to death, but they locked him up in the chicken coop instead with the hens. It was shortly after this old man with enormous wing’s arrival when the rain had finally stopped and their child had woke up with no fever and had an appetite once again. It was this miracle or coincidence that made Peyalo and his wife feel generous and decided to “put the angel on a raft with fresh water and provisions for three days” (590). The author now describes the very old man with enormous wings like an angel.
The neighbors in the story were very curious about this old man and treated him as if her were a circus animal at first. Father Gonzaga had greeted him in Latin and had his suspicion that he may be an imposter considering this old man could not “understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers” (591). The priest had described him as looking too human with an unbearable smell and the backs of his wings was “strewn with parasites” (591). It is said that the devil has a way of confusing the unwary and to not confuse the old man as an angel because of his wings. This still does not explain the goodness that has come since his landing onto the courtyard and is left for interpretation.
Although there may be the possibility of an evil presence in Peyalos and Elisenda’s chicken coop, they had used him to their advantage by charging admission to “see the angel” (591). Many people with small issues had come to see this “angel” in hopes that their problems would go away and the author never mentions whether or not their problems were ever resolved. As the angel got comfortable with what he was given, the “wise” neighbor woman had the idea to feed him mothballs which were the prescribed food for angels (592). Once again the “angel” had turned them down and the author describes “his only supernatural virtue seemed to be patience” (592). From all of the money the family had gathered, they were able to build a two-story mansion and high netting so “crabs wouldn’t get in during the winter” (592). The old man had patience so the family could live a better life.
In this short story, author Marquez allows the reader to decide whether they believe the old man with wings is an angel or a demon. Early on in the story, both ideas are proposed but neither is confirmed with the author and is left to the reader to make the interpretation. Every person in this story has a different view of the angel and all have different responses. Some people treated him like a carnival freak, some viewed him as a savior, and others were indifferent of this old man. Good things had happened to both the family and the old man in the end even though he was treated poorly by the family.