A Very Old Man with Enormous Wing Analysis

However, Pelayo and his wife are not able to communicate with the man because he communicates in a different language which no one can understand. They also don’t understand what kind of a creature the man is. A large crowd gathers at their homestead to see the old man with wings (García Márquez, 1972 p. This paper mainly focuses on discussing the theme of symbolism as shown in the short story. Symbolism usually refers to the use of symbols so as to represent certain ideas or concepts, especially in a story or poem. The old man is examined by a village doctor who realizes that the wings fit perfectly well with the rest of the old man’s body.

The doctor then wonders why everyone does not have wings just like the old man. This, therefore, suggests that the man is both a natural and a supernatural creature. This is because the man has wings like an angel while all other qualities resemble a natural being. (Marquez et al, 2007 p. They were mainly motivated by faith as well as the need to see the man perform miracles. After some time, the villagers discovered that the old man can only perform minor “consolation miracles”. They decided to look for something else which they can worship and finally went to the spider woman. Therefore, the villagers left the old man and started spending time with the spider woman listening to her stories with sorrow and pity.