The Old Man - An old man with wings who appears in Pelayo and

Elisendas yard one day. Filthy and bedraggled, the old man speaks
a foreign language that no one can understand. His wings and
unintelligible language prompts some people to believe that hes a
fallen angel and the church to believe hes a Norwegian, even
though he seems oblivious to nearly everything that happens
around him. By the end of the story, the old man has recovered
enough to fly away, exiting Pelayos and Elisendas lives as
suddenly as hed entered.
Read an in-depth analysis of The Old Man.
Pelayo - Elisendas husband and the discoverer of the old man.
Pelayo is an ordinary villager, poor but grudgingly willing to shelter
the winged old man in his chicken coop. Pelayo guards the old man
from harm, humbly consults the village priest, and has the sense to
resist the more extravagant advice he receives from the other
villagers. Pelayo, however, does not want to take care of the man
indefinitely and doesnt feel bad using the old man to get rich.
Read an in-depth analysis of Pelayo.

Elisenda - Pelayos wife. Elisenda convinces Pelayo to charge

villagers to see the old man but later considers him to be a
nuisance. A practical woman, she primarily concerns herself with the
welfare of Pelayo and their child and is therefore relieved when the
old man finally leaves.
Read an in-depth analysis of Elisenda.

Father Gonzaga - The village priest. As an authority figure in the

community, Father Gonzaga takes it upon himself to discern
whether the old man is an angel as the townsfolk believe or just a
mortal who just happens to have wings. Father Gonzaga is skeptical
that the dirty old man could really be a messenger from heaven, but
he dutifully reports the event to his superiors in the church. As he
waits for the Vaticans reply, he does his best to restrain the
enthusiasm and credulousness of the crowd of onlookers.

The Neighbor Woman - Pelayo and Elisendas bossy neighbor.

The supposedly wise neighbor woman actually seems more like a
silly know-it-all than a true counselor and is the first to suggest that
the old man is a crippled angel. She tells Pelayo to club the old man
to death to prevent him from taking Pelayo and Elisendas sick baby
to heaven.

The Spider Woman - A freak-show attraction who visits the village.

Punished for the sin of disobeying her parents, the spider woman
now has the body of an enormous spider and the head of a sad
young woman. The clear moral of the womans story draws gawking
villagers away from the old man, who is unable to offer the crowds
such a compelling narrative.

The Old Man

The old man, with his human body and unexpected wings, appears
to be neither fully human nor fully surreal. On the one hand, the
man seems human enough, surrounded as he is by filth, disease,
infirmity, and squalor. He has a human reaction to the people who
crowd around him and seek healing, remaining indifferent to their
pleas and sometimes not even acknowledging their existence.
When the doctor examines him, he is amazed that such an
unhealthy man is still alive and is equally struck by how natural the
old mans wings seem to be. Such an unsurprised reaction
essentially brings the angel down to earth, so any heavenly
qualities the old man may have are completely obscured. However,
the narrator seems to take the old mans angelhood for granted,
speaking of the lunar dust and stellar parasites on his wings, and
the old mans consolation miracles, such as causing sunflowers to
sprout from a lepers sores, seem genuinely supernatural. In the
end, the old mans true nature remains a mystery.

Pelayo

Although Pelayo is kinder to the old man than the other villagers, he
is certainly no paragon of compassion and charity. He doesnt club
the old man as the neighbor woman suggests, but he does pen the
supposed angel in his chicken coop and charge admission to the
crowds of curious sightseers. Pelayo is primarily concerned with his
family and sick child and is content to leave the theoretical and
theological speculations to Father Gonzaga. His decision to shelter
the old man and take some responsibility for him, however,
suggests that he isnt as cold or heartless as he might seem. By
allowing the old man to stay, Pelayo also invites mystery, wonder,
and magic into his life.

Elisenda

Elisenda is a perfect match for her husband, Pelayo, being equally

ordinary and concerned with practical matters. If anything, Elisenda
is the more practical of the two because she suggests charging
admission to see the angel. Despite the many material advantages
the old man brings, Elisendas attitude toward him is primarily one of
annoyance and exasperation. Once the old mans usefulness as a
roadside attraction dwindles, Elisenda sees him only as a nuisance.
Indeed, the old man becomes so troublesome to her that she even
refers to her new homepurchased with proceeds from exhibiting
the old manas a hell full of angels. The old man becomes so
ordinary in Elisendas eyes that it isnt until he finally flies away that
she seems to see him for the wonder he is. Elisenda watches him
fly away with wistfulness, as if finally realizing that something
extraordinary has left her life forever.

Themes
THE COEXISTENCE OF CRUELTY AND COMPASSION

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings wryly examines the human
response to those who are weak, dependent, and different. There
are moments of striking cruelty and callousness throughout the
story. After Elisenda and Pelayos child recovers from his illness, for
example, the parents decide to put the old man to sea on a raft with
provisions for three days rather than just killing him, a concession to
the old mans difficult situation but hardly a kind act. Once they
discover that they can profit from showcasing him, however, Pelayo
and Elisenda imprison him in a chicken coop outside, where
strangers pelt him with stones, gawk at him, and even burn him with
a branding iron.
Amidst the callousness and exploitation, moments of compassion
are few and far between, although perhaps all the more significant
for being so rare. Even though he is taken in only grudgingly, the old
man eventually becomes part of Pelayo and Elisendas household.
By the time the old man finally flies into the sunset, Elisenda, for all
her fussing, sees him go with a twinge of regret. And it is the old
mans extreme patience with the villagers that ultimately transforms
Pelayos and Elisendas lives. Seen in this light, the old mans
refusal to leave might be interpreted as an act of compassion to
help the impoverished couple. Garca Mrquez may have even
intended to remind readers of the advice found in Hebrews 13:2 in
the Bible: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some
have entertained angels unawares.

Motifs
PROSPERITY

Pelayo and Elisendas newfound prosperity is the physical

manifestation of the magic and wonder the old man brings to their
lives. As the story opens, the couple lives in an almost comical state
of poverty as swarms of crabs invade their home. Even worse, their
young son is deathly ill. The old man, however, brings hundreds of
pilgrims who dont mind paying Pelayo and Elisenda a small fee for
the privilege of seeing him. The proceeds bring Pelayo and Elisenda
a new house, a new business, and more money than they know
how to spend. This remarkable turn in fortune happens so gradually
that Pelayo and Elisenda dont really see how remarkable it is.
Elisenda even refers to her new home as a hell full of angels once
the old man is allowed inside after the chicken coop collapses.

Symbols
WINGS

Wings represent power, speed, and limitless freedom of motion. In

the Christian tradition, angels are often represented as beautiful
winged figures, and Garca Mrquez plays off of this cultural
symbolism because, ironically, the wings of the angel in the story
convey only a sense of age and disease. Although the old mans
wings may be dirty, bedraggled, and bare, they are still magical
enough to attract crowds of pilgrims and sightseers. When the
village doctor examines the old man, he notices how naturally the
wings fit in with the rest of his body. In fact, the doctor even wonders
why everyone else doesnt have wings as well. The ultimate effect is
to suggest that the old man is both natural and supernatural at
once, having the wings of a heavenly messenger but all the frailties
of an earthly creature.
THE SPIDER WOMAN

The spider woman represents the fickleness with which many self-
interested people approach their own faith. After hearing of the
angel, hundreds of villagers flock to Pelayos house, motivated
partly by faith but also to see him perform miraclesphysical
evidence that their faith is justified. Not surprisingly, the old mans
reputation wanes when he proves capable of performing only minor
consolation miracles. Instead, the spectators flock to the spider
woman, who tells a heart-wrenching story with a clear, easy-to-
digest lesson in morality that contrasts sharply with the obscurity of
the old mans existence and purpose. Although no less strange than
the winged old man, the spider woman is easier to understand and
even pity. The old man, barely conscious in his filthy chicken coop,
cant match her appeal, even though some suspect that he came
from the heavens. Garca Mrquez strongly suggests that the
pilgrims result-oriented faith isnt really faith at all.

Magical Realism

Garca Mrquezs literary reputation is inseparable from the

term magical realism, a phrase that literary critics coined to describe
the distinctive blend of fantasy and realism in his and many other
Latin American authors work. Magical-realist fiction consists of
mostly true-to-life narrative punctuated by moments of whimsical,
often symbolic, fantasy described in the same matter-of-fact tone.
Magical realism has become such an established form in Latin
America partly because the style is strongly connected to the
folkloric storytelling thats still popular in rural communities. The
genre, therefore, attempts to connect two traditionsthe low
folkloric and the high literaryinto a seamless whole that
embraces the extremes of Latin American culture. As the worldwide
popularity of Garca Mrquezs writing testifies, it is a formula that
resonates well with readers around the world.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is one of the most well-
known examples of the magical realist style, combining the homely
details of Pelayo and Elisendas life with fantastic elements such as
a flying man and a spider woman to create a tone of equal parts
local-color story and fairy tale. From the beginning of the story,
Garca Mrquezs style comes through in his unusual, almost fairy
talelike description of the relentless rain: The world had been sad
since Tuesday. There is a mingling of the fantastic and ordinary in
all the descriptions, including the swarms of crabs that invade
Pelayo and Elisendas home and the muddy sand of the beach that
in the rainy grayness looks like powdered light. It is in this strange,
highly textured, dreamlike setting that the old winged man appears,
a living myth, who is nevertheless covered in lice and dressed in
rags.

Satire

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings functions as a satirical

piece that mocks both the Catholic Church and human nature in
general. Garca Mrquez criticizes the church through Father
Gonzagas superiors in Rome, who seem to be in no hurry to
discover the truth about the bedraggled, so-called angel. Instead,
they ask Father Gonzaga to study the old mans unintelligible dialect
to see whether it has any relation to Aramaic, the language of
Jesus. They also ask Gonzaga to determine how many times the
old man can fit on the head of a pin, another dig at Catholicism
referencing an arcane medieval theory once thought to prove Gods
omnipotence. Their final conclusion that the old man with wings may
in fact be a stranded Norwegian sailor only makes the church sound
absurdly literal-minded and out of touch with even the most basic
elements of reality. In the end, the churchs wait-and-see tactic pays
off when the old man simply flies awaya rib from Garca Mrquez
implying that the wisdom of the church has never really been
needed at all.

Such criticisms of the church are only part of Garca Mrquezs

critique of human beings in general, who never seem to understand
the greater significance of life. There is a narrowness of vision that
afflicts everyone from the wise neighbor woman, with her unthinking
know-it-all ways, to the kindly Father Gonzaga, who is desperate for
a procedure to follow, to the crowds of onlookers and pilgrims with
their selfish concerns. Elisenda too is more focused on keeping her
kitchen and living room angel-free than on considering the odd
beauty of her unwelcome guest. She, however, seems to have a
moment of realization and almost of regret at the end of the story,
when she watches the old man disappear from her life forever. Just
as the proverbial lost hiker who cant see the wilderness for the
trees, Garca Mrquez suggests that most people live their lives
unaware of their significance in the world.

Important Quotation Explained

1. His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever

entangled in the mud. They looked at him so long and so closely
that Pelayo and Elisenda very soon overcame their surprise and in
the end found him familiar.

Pelayo and Elisendas initial impression of the old mans wings as

the filthy limbs of a scavenger rather than the glorious wings of an
angel is a good example of how Garca Mrquez grounds even his
most fantastic elements in the grunginess of daily life. The second
sentence in particular clues readers in to one of the central
elements of magical-realist fictionreawakening readers sense of
wonder at their own world. Garca Mrquez suggests that if people
can become inured to the presence of a winged man in a story, then
they can just as easily overlook the wonders and little miracles of
real life. A story such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is
meant to serve as a reminder that everyday life is filled with great
mysteries and wonders that people overlook too often.

2. What surprised him most, however, was the logic of his wings.
They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that
he couldnt understand why other men didnt have them too.

When both the old man and Pelayo and Elisendas son come down
with chicken pox, the local physician takes advantage of the
opportunity to examine the angel physically. The doctor is
surprised both that the old man is still alive and that his wings seem
so natural on his body. In this passage, Garca Mrquez seems to
imply that there is nothing angelic about the old man at all, although
the narrator goes back to referring to him simply as the angel a
few lines later. More important, the passage suggests that the
boundary we draw between natural and supernatural is arbitrary at
best. Garca Mrquez subtly raises the question: if wings are so
naturally a part of this particular mans body, then are we the freaks
for not having them?