Marquez Literary Analysis Fending Off

Marquez Literary Analysis Fending Off Crabs and Angels: Religious Symbolism in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children," a small Latin American community is initially mystified, briefly enthralled, and ultimately unimpressed by the sudden appearance of a decrepit winged man in their midst. The literal and straightforward treatment of such a supernatural phenomenon is characteristic of Marquez's work, and can make the interpretation of symbolism in his stories difficult.

However, the religious symbolism of the winged man in this story is hard to miss, and reveals a subtle commentary about the simultaneously sublime and mundane role of spiritual faith in the common man. Marquez is famous for the incorporation of "magical realism" in his fiction. Wendy Faris defines magical realism as the introduction by an author of an "irreducible element" of magic that defies the reader's attempts to reconcile contradictions in the text and "disturbs received ideas about time, space, and identity" (Faris 7).

The sudden appearance of a winged man bedraggled in the mud, ancient and weak, unable to fly despite being equipped for it, introduces this "irreducible element" both to the characters in the story and to the reader. The appearance of any winged human, no matter the circumstances, immediately brings to mind thoughts of an angel -- in the reader, at least. Strangely, this is not the first conclusion that is reached by the characters in the story.

The first instinct of Pelayo and Elisenda, the characters that find the creature, is to "[skip] over the inconvenience of the wings and quite intelligently [conclude] that he was a lonely castaway from some foreign ship wrecked by a storm" (Marquez 218). Though the reader immediately concludes that there is something either literally supernatural or literarily symbolic happening in the story, the text itself refuses at first to acknowledge anything but an ordinary, worldly explanation of the man's appearance.

The effect for the reader is that the creature ceases to be the most mystifying part of the story; instead, Pelayo's and Elisenda's ability to overlook the creature's wings becomes the most inexplicable element in the reader's mind. One begins to wonder not only what the creature symbolizes, but also what the blindness of Pelayo and Elisenda symbolizes. The symbolism of both unfolds as the story continues.

The woman who knows "everything about life and death" gives voice to the reader's conclusion by identifying the creature as an angel, but we are almost immediately distanced from her by her advice to the citizens to "club him to death" (218). The citizens briefly acknowledge the mystery of the angel's appearance, but their reaction is not one of reverence but merely one of curiosity and even cruelty.

When his allure ceases to draw an audience and therefore ceases to provide an income for Pelayo and Elisenda, they treat him as a natural nuisance on the same order as the crabs that invade their quarters. When they build their new house with the money that they made from his appearance, they hang "high netting so that the crabs wouldn't get in…and iron bars in the window so that angels wouldn't get in" (223).

The resistance of the text in complying with the reader's idea of the angel and the appropriate response to it highlights what ends up being the central symbolism of the story; the characters' utilitarian treatment of the supernatural symbolizes the utilitarian and conflicting role of religious faith in the our lives. The angel's position as a symbol of faith is revealed not only through his wings, but also through his first appearance drenched in mud.

In Christian theology, the relationship between God and man began with God's creation of Adam through a mixture of earthly clay and divine spirit (Genesis 2:7). The angel's appearance in the mud highlights the duality of this relationship -- that it is at the same time spiritually mystical and mundanely physical. The religious symbolism of the text is continued in the reaction of the citizens. The community's skepticism, callousness, and demand for "miracles" from the angel (222) calls to mind the treatment of Christ when he appeared to the Jewish community.

While some recognized him as an embodiment of God, the Bible contains many accounts of his being ridiculed, doubted, and ultimately dismissed as a fraud by all but a few. What is Marquez saying about faith by centering his story around these religious symbols? The angel certainly serves a function for Pelayo and Elisendra and for the community. The baby recovers from his fever after the angel appears; though a causal relationship is not made explicit, it is implied.

Pelayo and Elisendra clearly benefit financially from the curiosity of the population. Even the citizens who come for miracles derive some small, if strange, benefits -- a paralyzed man was not healed but "almost won the lottery" (222). When the angel finally does go on his way, Elisendra watches him leave with a faint bit of tenderness, but only because "he was no longer an annoyance in her life" (225).

Perhaps, despite our preconceived notions of how the supernatural should be acknowledged and the role it should play in our lives, Marquez is pointing out with a certain amount of forgiveness the role that it actually plays in reality. We are made of mud, we live in a world of mud, and perhaps only in the muddiest ways can we commune with God. In the New Testament, Christ does not heal blindness by sprinkling some sparkling supernatural.