A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings | Summary | García Márquez
A very old man with enormous wings is a magic realism fiction tale written by a Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.
This tale was published in 1968. Here's a formatted summary of the story, which helps you in understanding the magic realism piece created by the author.
Characters Overview
Pelayo is a resident of the village, where he is one of the main character of this story. He is the one who sees a very old man with enormous wings.
Elisenda, whose character is a caretaker of the old man is wife of Pelayo.
Pelayo and Elisenda have a baby boy who is described as child in the story.
The old man is the main character of the story on which the whole tale and debate is based upon.
Spider woman, the neighbour and the Father Gonzaga are the other described characters in the plot.
Plot Summary
Story begins with continuous rainstorm from the past three days. Pelayo used to kill crabs. Due to continuous rainstorm for three days, the crabs starts infesting in Pelayo and Elisenda house. Due to infesting of the crabs, terrific odour was created, which caused their baby illness.
Pelayo while returning from throwing the crabs into the sea sees a very old man, with wings whose face was lying down in the mud in Pelayo's courtyard. Pelayo in surprise, called his wife and they began examining the old man. They were surprised by seeing the enormous wings on back of the old man. But, his physical characteristics was not much appealing.
The old man was seen on ragged dress with dirt all over him. Both the husband and wife tried talking to the old man, but they couldn't understand anything spoken by him because he was speaking in unintelligible language. They couldn't figure out anything about him. This incident reached to the ears of the neighbour woman's ear and they came in conclusion that the old man was angel and Pelayo believed that the old man was an angel and came to take their sick baby in heaven.
From the following day, the whole town, knew about the old man with the enormous wings and called him an angel. The neighbour woman suggested Pelayo to club the old man (angel) to death. However, Pelayo decided to chain up the man and lock him up in the chicken coop. After a day, the rainstorm stopped and their baby was able to eat food and felt well than before. Pelayo and Elisenda decided to send the old man to the sea with some food and heal himself with the nature.
They reached to the chicken coop, for releasing him but we're shocked to see all the curious visitors surrounding him and even harassing him. The old man with the enormous wings was treated like a circus animal.
The angels news reached to the priest of the town, Father Gonzaga and reached there. People were suggesting hypothetical talks about the angel in their own view. But to everyone's surprise Father Gonzaga said that the old man was not an angel. To defend his statement, he said that the old man was shabby and doesn't speaks latin. He also said that the old man with the wings was too human and warned other onlookers about it. But people didn't care about his statement and spread over the town that the old man was an angel.
People started visiting Pelayo and Elisenda's house to see the angel. Some people believed that the old man was god's prophet, while some came only to tease him. So many people came that they had to build a fence and charge admission. But the old man didn't want any part of it. The visitors tried to make him react, even poking him with hot iron rods. The old man got angry, flapped his wings, and shouted in his strange language.
Lots of strange miracles happened when people were visiting the old man. There was a blind guy in the crowd who didn't regain his sight but instead grew three new teeths and there was another paralyzed man who didn't regain his ability to walk but he was very close to winning a lottery and the leper whose wounds produced the sunflower. There were weird and strange miracles while the crowd gathered to see the strange old man with the wings.
As time passed, a new carnival arrived in the town, who was known as spider woman. She was a woman who metamorphosed herself into spider. There was a woman who had gone dancing without permission. While she was returning, she encountered a tremendous shattering of lightening which turned her into spider and people started calling her a spider woman.Time passed by and people lost interest and over the old man and the visitors stopped appearing. However, by charging admissions, Pelayo and Elisenda were able to build a mansion for themselves.
The sick child grows up and he was told not to go to the chicken coop but he goes there and gets chickenpox. The old man and the child gets the chickenpox at the same time.
The child becomes the school age kid, and the chicken coop also breaks. The old man appears around Pelayo and Elisenda's house.
The old man then moves to the shed and becomes ill. Pelayo and Elisenda were convinced that the old man will die very soon. However he survived the winter and became even more stronger. The feathers in his wings grew back and he started singing the sailors songs at the night.
One day Elisenda was chopping vegetables for making lunch and she felt the breeze and sees the old man flapping his wings and trying to fly away. He couldn't fly at the beginning but eventually managed to gain the strength and stretched his wings and flew away in the horizon. Elisenda sighs in relief for her and the old man seeing him go.
Understanding the text
Description of weather and it's effect
The weather was rainy and there was continuous rainstorm occuring from three days, which caused infesting of the crabs and its smell caused baby to become sick.
Encounter of the old man with wings
Pelayo and Elisenda, encountered the old man with the wings, covered up in mud, in their courtyard. He was in ragged clothes and dirty.
They tried communicating and the old man spoke in unintelligible language.
Characters opinions on the old man
Most of the people in the town thought that the old man was an angel or god's prophet.
Meanwhile the priest of the town Father Gonzaga was not convinced that he was an angel because he couldn't understand or speak Latin language.
Crowds Visit to Pelayo's house
Pelayo and Elisenda had locked the old man in chicken coop. But people used to visit their house to see the old man, with the wings. Some people thought he was really an angel but some only teased him and treated him like a circus animal.
Later Pelayo charged fees to visit and observe the old man. They built mansion with the admissions from the visitors, but the old man didn't needed any of it.
Exit of the old man
When Pelayo and Elisenda's baby became school age, the chicken coop was broken and the old man moved into an adjacent shed. He was ill but later recovered and became strong.
One day while Elisenda was cooking lunch, the old man flapped his wings and Elisenda watched him fly into the horizon.
Story Genre and Significance
Story Genre - Magical Realism
The townsfolk regard the magical elements of the story, such as the old man's wings and the spider woman's peculiar transformation, with curiosity and fascination, similar to how they would react to an animal in a circus. This treatment of supernatural, magical, or impossible events, characters, and settings is characteristic of the magical realism genre.