Read the full summary of ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to understand the exercise (Questions and Answers) of this chapter.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. How does the narrator describe the weather and its effects in the exposition of the story?
the narrator describes the weather and its effects in the exposition of the story with the picture of a rainy day in the beginning. The rain continuously falls for three days and pours all the land with rainwater including the house. During rainy, the sky and sea were changed into an ash gray color and the sand of the beach glimmered like powdered light, which had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish. The light was so weak and hard to see.
b. Describe the strange old man as Palayo and his wife first encounter within their courtyard.
When Palayo and his wife first encounter with strange old man, they acknowledge him as a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his condition was pitiful. His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked were forever entangled (उलझिएको) in the mud.
c. Why did Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop?
Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop after knowing that he was an angel who came to take their child.
d. Why was Father Gonzaga not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger?
When Father said Good Morning in Latin, he murmured something in his dialect that father couldn’t understand. Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger because he(the old man) did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers.
e. Many people gathered at Palayo’s house to see the strange old man. Why do you think the crowd assembled to see him?
Many people gathered at Palayo’s house to see the strange old man. I think the crowd assembled to see him due to their curiosity to see the angel and doing fun with him.
f. Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. What are these miracles?
Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. These miracles are; the blind man who didn’t recover his sight but grew three new teeth, the paralytic who didn’t get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers.
g. State the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man.
The irritating things that the people did with the strange old man are;
1. They threw stones and burned his side with an iron.
2. They pulled his feathers
3. They burned his side with an iron. An old man became motionless after people burned his side with iron like he was dead but after an hour, he awake and start yelling and also his eyes were full of tears.
h. How and why was the woman changed into a spider?
The woman was changed into a spider for having disobeyed her parents.
In his childhood, she had sneaked out of her parent’s house to go to a dance, and while she was coming back through the woods after having danced all night without permission, a fearful thunderclap rent the sky in tow, and through the crack came the lightning bolt of brimstone that changed her into a spider.
i. Describe how Elisenda saw the strange man flying over the houses.
One morning
Elisenda was cutting some bunches of onions for lunch when a wind that seemed to come from the high seas blew into the kitchen. Then she went to the window and caught the angel in his first attempts at flight. After doing many attempts at flying, he managed and flew in the air. Then Elisenda felt relief for the old man and herself also.
Reference to the context
a. The arrival of a strange old man in Palayo’s courtyard arouses many suspicions and explanations. Explain how the neighbor woman, Father Gonzaga and the doctor speak of the strange man. Why do you think these three people give three different kinds of interpretations?
The arrival of a strange old man in Palayo’s courtyard arouses many suspicions and explanations. According to the neighbor woman, he was an “angel” who came for their child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down. When Father said Good Morning in Latin, he murmured something in his dialect that father couldn’t understand.
Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger because he(the old man) did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers. He looked much too human, he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the backside of his wings was strewn with parasites, and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels. So Father told to the onlooker that an old man who has wings wasn’t an angel. But the crowd didn’t pay attention to Father Gonzaga.
According to the doctor, the strange man couldn’t be alive for a long time. He found so much whistling in the heart and so many sounds in his kidneys. It seemed the body of an angel was completely like a human organism but he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them too.
I think that these three people give three different kinds of interpretations of a strange old man because they are all involved in different types of activities and they all see the strange old man with different eyes. An old woman believes in the things like an angel, ghosts, etc. Father Gonzaga was a person who believe in god and interpreted everything with proof. And a doctor was a person who sees the strange old man as his patient.
b. This story belongs to the genre of ‘magical realism’, a genre perfected by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novels and short stories. Magical realism is a narrative technique in which the storyteller narrates commonplace things with magical color and the events look both magical and real at the same time. Collect five magical realist happenings from the story and argue why they seem magical to you.
This story belongs to the genre of ‘magical realism, a genre perfected by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novels and short stories. The five magic realist happenings from the story are:
- At the beginning of the story when Pelayo saw a very old man, lying face down in the mud in his courtyard who couldn’t get up in spite of his tremendous efforts and had also enormous wings. The writer uses here Magical realism techniques through the word ‘enormous wings’ of an old man. This show that an old man belongs to another universe or world.
- When Pelayo and Elisenda want to talk with the strange old man, he answered in an incomprehensible dialect(meaning: a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group) with a strong
sailor’s voice. It shows the magical link in the sense that he was from another planet. - After seeing the old man, the old woman called him the “angel” who came for their child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down. The word ‘angel’ itself shows the magical link in the story.
- The transformation of a woman into a spider for having disobeyed her parents. to a spider. In his childhood, she had sneaked out of her parent’s house to go to a dance, and while she was coming back through the woods after having danced all night without permission, a fearful thunderclap rent the sky in tow, and through the crack came the lightning bolt of brimstone that changed her into a spider. This also links the story to magical realism techniques.
- In the story, the doctor failed to treat the old man. According to the doctor, the strange man couldn’t alive for a long time. He found so much whistling in the heart and so many sounds in his kidneys. An old man became weak and sick. His all feathers were fallen down. But quickly his feathers regrew again and fly in the sky. This also links the story to magical realism.
c. The author introduces the episode of a woman who became a spider for having disobeyed her parents. This episode at once shifts people’s concentration from the strange old man to the spider woman. What do you think is the purpose of the author to bring this shift in the story?
The author introduces the episode of a woman who became a spider for having disobeyed her parents. This episode at once shifts people’s concentration from the strange old man to the spider woman. I think the purpose of the author to bring this shift in the story is to show another example of magical realism. The author also wants to show us the greed of humans. Af the beginning, Pelayo, and Elisenda take care of a strange old man (angel) when they get benefited from him by charging five cents admission to see. But when spider woman came and people pay less attention to the angel, they do not care about him. The old man drags here and there. The house of an old man (chicken coops) collapses due to rain and sun but they don’t repair it.
d. The story deals with the common people’s gullibility. How do Palayo and his wife take advantage of common people’s whim?
The story deals with the common people’s gullibility. Palayo and his wife saw an old man with wings in their courtyard. When they want to talk with him, he answered in an incomprehensible dialect with a strong sailor’s voice. They couldn’t understand his language. So they called an old woman who know everything about life and death. She called an old man an “angel” who come to take their child but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down. Pelayo dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop. A short time afterward the child woke up without a fever and with a desire to eat. Then they felt magnanimous and decided to put the angel on a raft with fresh water and provisions for three days and leave him to his fate on the high seas.
But when they get early in the morning, their courtyard was full of people like a market. The news of the angel spread like a fire. People didn’t even listen to Father Gonzaga’s voice that he was not an angel. Pelayo’s wife got the idea to charge five cents for admission to see an angel. They gather a lot of wealth from it and built a luxurious house for themselves.
For downloading this article. Click below…
