Commentary of "The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story, "The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings", summarises how the married couple turn their back on the old angel and put the angel in the chicken coop for the others to see. By the end of the story, the ending makes the readers stir up the thought of being insolent to an angel for being different from the initial one. Marquez uses visual imagery and character analysis between the angel and the human spider to support how illusional figures are better off unseen.

Marquez applies visual imagery to support the destruction of illusional figures when interacted with in the human world. The story starts off by the couple finding "a very old man, lying face down on the mud, who, in spite of his tremendous effort could not get up" because of his enormous wings. This makes the reader imagine how the angel looks and from the description, the angel in the story is nowhere close to the initial angel. Another factor that changes the aspect of the angel is the comparison of an illusional angel's and the story angel's movement. While an illusional figure would have a graceful and elegant movement, the movement of the angel in the story was described as a "rag picker". The comparison between the angel in the story and the reader's interpretation of an angel proves how illusional figures should not interact with humans as it destroys the initial interpretation of illusional figures.

While the angel was stuck in the chicken coop, it encountered other humans that carried irrational behaviours that links back to the idea that illusional figures are better off unseen. Marquez decides to se character analogy between the angel and the spider to convey the destruction of illusional beings in the human world. In the story, the angel encounters a maiden spider, a "woman who has been changed into a spider for having disobeyed her parents". Keeping in mind that the spider was once a human, stirred up the emotions of empathy from the other humans. Unlike the spider, the angel was not once a human but rather a conceit figure without any "truth" of "fearful lesson" which in result was not able to stir up any kind of empathy from the humans even if the angel was the one living in such poor conditions; the chicken coop. Marquez analysis's the level of treatment between the angel and the spider by using "human truth" and "fearful lesson" which was "bound to defeat" the "haughty angel who is scarcely deigned to look at mortals". Picking out the different treatments, Marquez shows how the angel is no exception when it comes to stirring human empathy. Proven from one of the evidences, even if the angel is living in a much more poorer condition than the spider, the latter gains more authority from the humans as it talks about it's tragic incident. This proves that illusional figures should not get in contact with humans as it obliterates the initial interpretation of illusional figures and gets easily overlooked by the stirring emotions.

The story ends with the angel looking like "an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea". The angel is no longer in the human world turning the lives of the couple back to its original state. Although the angel left, the initial image of the angel has already been destroyed. The description of the polar angel and the initial angel and being disdained by human emotions by comparing two different variables with the spider and the angel has marked the end of illusional figures. Therefore, leaving illusional beings alone and letting humans presume anything illusional will help the reconstruction of illusional beings and help the human stay pure and loyal to them.