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| Neb English Support Class 12 |
Section 2: Literature (Short Stories)
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Exercise | Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
MAIN INTRODUCTION
Hello, I’m Suraj Bhatt, and today I’ve brought you the final short story, the seventh one, from the Class 12 curriculum in this article. This short story is quite interesting and highly important from an examination's perspective.
Today’s short story is a fictional story. All the characters and the plot in this story are entirely imaginary. It is based on imagination and falls under the genre of magical realism.
ABOUT THE STORY
The story, titled "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", is a short fictional story. It was written by the Colombian author Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez.
Talking about the author, he is one of the renowned Colombian writers. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.
This interesting story was first published in Casa de las Americas in Spanish in 1968. and in later years, it was translated into English by Gregory Rabassa. The story was later included in Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s short story collection book titled "Leaf Storm and Other Stories" in 1972.
TECHNIQUE
This story is rooted in the style of magical realism. The author has presented the entire story using the magical realism technique, narrated by a third-person narrator - not a character in the story but an external voice. The narrative style fully embraces magical realism.
Magical realism is a style of writing or storytelling where realistic and fantastical elements are blended together, presenting events and characters in both a realistic and magical manner.
In Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s writing, we find great simplicity, but the meanings in his stories are profoundly deep. This story is a magical realist story that explores aspects of human nature such as curiosity, greed, and cruelty. It portrays society’s perspective toward weak, helpless, dependent, and different individuals, as well as how human simplicity can lead to foolishness. The story revolves around a mysterious old man with enormous wings who appears in a coastal village. It raises questions about human superstition, religious beliefs, and social behaviour.
SETTING
Regarding the setting, no specific country is named, but it depicts a village on a Colombian coast. The primary setting is the courtyard of Pelayo and Elisenda’s house.
THEMES
As for the themes, the story encompasses several themes, including superstition and religion, discrimination, hope, and freedom. The theme that resonates with me and aligns with the story is human nature, particularly curiosity, greed, and cruelty. These aspects of human behavior are vividly portrayed in the story.
MORAL LESSONS
In terms of moral lessons, reading this story offers several valuable teachings that can be highly useful in our lives. For instance, we should show compassion and kindness toward different and vulnerable individuals. Greed and exploitation harm humanity.
CHARACTERS
Now, let’s discuss the characters in the story:
The Old Man:
He is the central character in the story. A very mysterious, frail, and helpless old man with enormous wings. He becomes a victim of human cruelty in the story.
Pelayo:
A main character in the story. He is an ordinary villager who discovers the old man with enormous wings in his courtyard and locks him in a chicken coop.
Elisenda:
She is Pelayo’s wife, another main character in the story. She exhibits much greed. After seeing the old man, she views him as an opportunity to make money.
Father Gonzaga:
A well-known priest in the village who investigates whether the old man is an angel or not.
The Neighbour Woman:
She is very superstitious woman who, upon seeing the old man, immediately declares him to be an angel.
The Spider Woman:
She is a fictional character in the story with a very tragic story that draws the villagers’ attention.
INTRODUCTION
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez is a magical realist story initially published in Spanish language in 1968. It centers on a mysterious and strange-looking old man with enormous wings who appears in a village and becomes a victim of people’s cruelty. The story explores themes of human nature related: curiosity, greed and cruelty.
SUMMARY
In the exposition of the story, the narrator introduces us to a coastal village and provides details about the weather and the activities of the main characters. According to the narrator, three days of continuous rain have made the village environment quite gloomy and dirty. The story likely takes place in March, with the rain starting on a Tuesday and continuing steadily until Thursday. The narrative describes Thursday in particular. Both the sea and the sky appear in a dull, gray hue. The coastal shore and the courtyards of homes are filled with mud, turning them into swamp-like conditions. The beaches and houses are overrun with sea creatures, specifically crabs, which have infested the area.
The main characters, Pelayo (the husband) and Elisenda (the wife), are busy cleaning their home, which has been overtaken by crabs due to the continuing rain. Their house is filled with both living and dead crabs, creating a foul stench. The couple’s newborn child has a high fever, which they attribute to the stench in the house. They tirelessly clean, kill the crabs, and throw them into the sea. On that afternoon, despite the dim light resembling evening, Pelayo, while returning from disposing of crabs in the sea, notices something moving and groaning in the mud at the back of his courtyard. As he approaches, he sees an extremely old man with enormous wings, his face stuck in the mud and his wings entangled in it. The old man is struggling to stand but is unable to due to the weight of his wings.
Terrified by this mysterious figure, Pelayo rushes to call his wife, Elisenda, who is tending to their feverish child with a cold compress. The couple arrives at the scene and observes the old man with astonishment. His clothes are tattered, he has only a few strands of hair on his bald head, and very few teeth remain in his mouth. He appears frail, helpless, and pitiful, with his enormous wings completely stuck in the mud. After a while, their initial shock fades, and they muster the courage to speak to the old man. He responds in a deep, gravelly voice, like that of a sailor, but the couple cannot understand his words. They conclude that a storm must have washed this foreign old man from a ship into their courtyard.
Soon after, they call a neighboring woman who is knowledgeable about life and death. Upon seeing the old man, she immediately declares that he is an angel who must have come for their sick child but was brought down by the storm due to his old age and weakness. She also suggests he might be a fugitive from a celestial conspiracy. The next day, the entire village learns that a flesh-and-blood angel is held captive in Pelayo and Elisenda’s home. Throughout the day, Pelayo watches the old man from his kitchen, holding a stick out of fear. By evening, he gathers the courage to drag the old man into the chicken coop and locks him in with the chickens.
That midnight, as Pelayo and Elisenda continue cleaning their home, the rain stops, and their child wakes up without a fever, expressing a desire to eat. Seeing their child recover, the couple feels a sense of relief and decides to set the old man free the next morning by placing him on a raft with some water and three days’ worth of food, leaving him to his fate at sea. However, when they go to the chicken coop the next morning to release him, they find the entire village gathered around, interacting with the old man. The villagers show no respect for him, treating him not as a divine being but as a circus animal, throwing food into the coop.
Father Gonzaga, a well-known priest in the village, arrives before 7 a.m. after hearing the news, concerned about the situation. By then, a small crowd has gathered. Some simple-minded villagers suggest making the old man the mayor of the world, while harsher individuals propose turning him into a five-star general to win all wars. Visionaries argue he should be used for breeding to create a race of wise beings. Father Gonzaga approaches the coop, orders it to be opened, and examines the old man closely. He finds fruit peels in one corner and untouched food meant for the old man. The old man is lying in a corner, drying his wings in the sun. Father Gonzaga greets him in Latin, the language of God, but the old man responds in his incomprehensible language, showing no understanding of Latin or reverence for divine ministers. The priest notices many human traits in the old man: a foul odor, parasites on his wings, and feathers damaged by the wind. He finds no divine dignity in him and warns the crowd to be cautious, suggesting the devil might be deceiving them. He promises to write to the bishop, seeking a final verdict from higher authorities, up to the Supreme Pontiff.
Despite these warnings, the news of the old man spreads, turning Pelayo and Elisenda’s home into a marketplace. The overwhelming crowd prompts soldiers to intervene with guns to control the situation. Seeing the massive crowd, greed awakens in Elisenda, who decides to fence the courtyard and charge five cents per visitor. Curious people come from far and wide. A circus arrives in the village with a flying acrobat whose bat-like wings fail to attract attention, as everyone is fixated on the old man. Many sick people visit, hoping for healing. Among them is a woman who has been counting her heartbeats since childhood and has run out of numbers, a Portuguese man unable to sleep due to the noise of the stars, and a sleepwalker who undoes his daytime tasks at night.
In less than a week, Pelayo and Elisenda amass a fortune from the ticket sales, filling their rooms with money. Despite their exhaustion, they are delighted. However, the visitors seek entertainment from the old man, who remains passive, lying in a corner of the coop. Many taunt and torment him, throwing stones or plucking feathers from his wings. Once, a visitor burns the old man’s body with a hot iron used for branding cattle, causing him to scream in rage and flap his wings vigorously, stirring up a dust storm in the courtyard. Frightened by this reaction, the villagers stop tormenting him.
Meanwhile, a carnival attraction featuring a spider woman arrives in the village. Her tickets are cheaper, and she engages directly with the audience, answering questions and sharing her tragic story. She recounts how, as a young girl, she disobeyed her parents and sneaked out to dance. While returning home through a forest, a bolt of lightning and brimstone struck her, transforming her into a spider. Her heartbreaking tale captivates the villagers, drawing attention away from the old man.
The old man’s miracles are absurd: a blind man doesn’t regain sight but grows three new teeth, and a paralyzed man doesn’t walk but wins the lottery. Pelayo and Elisenda use their earnings to build a grand two-story house with balconies, a garden, and high iron bars to keep out crabs and angels. As their child grows old enough to walk, they forbid him from going near the coop, but he eventually becomes accustomed to the old man’s presence and plays near him. Both the old man and the child contract chickenpox simultaneously. When a doctor examines the child, he becomes curious about the old man and checks his heart and kidneys, hearing strange noises. He declares the old man’s survival impossible but finds his wings logically structured, unlike anything found in humans.
Over time, the coop deteriorates due to harsh weather, and the old man, appearing near death, begins wandering the house like a stray. Elisenda, frustrated by his presence, often shoos him out with a broom. His health worsens; he barely eats, his eyes grow dim, and he stumbles into things. Only a few feathers remain on his wings. One night, he develops a high fever and cries out in pain in an incomprehensible language. Pelayo and Elisenda fear he will die, and the neighbor woman is unsure what to do with a dead angel. The old man endures the harsh winter but begins to recover with the arrival of spring. New, strong feathers grow on his wings, and he secretly sings sea shanties under the stars, preparing for his final flight.
One morning, as Elisenda chops onions in the kitchen, a strong sea breeze blows through the village. She watches the old man’s feeble attempts to fly. His initial efforts are weak, but he suddenly takes flight, soaring over the last house in the village and climbing higher. Elisenda watches as he disappears into the sky. She breathes a sigh of relief, as the old man is no longer a burden in her life.
SHORT SUMMARY
Write a short summary of the story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The short story was first published in 1955 in Spanish and was then published in English in the 1972 book "Leaf Storm and Other Stories".
After three days of rain, Pelayo comes back from throwing the crabs into the sea when he sees a very old man with enormous wings in the courtyard of their house. Pelayo gets his wife, Elisenda, and they try to speak to him, but the man speaks in an incoherent dialect. They call their neighbour woman and ask her about him. They get the idea about the old man from her. They think that he is a homeless man and has come to take sick children to heaven. He imprisons the old man in his wire chicken coop.
Father Gonzaga, the local priest, speaks to him in Latin, and since the man with wings doesn't recognise Latin, the priest thinks he is a devil figure and warns the onlookers that the man is not an angel.
Nevertheless, the man with the wings is told to stay in Pelayo's chicken coop after his sick child recovers. Sooner, Pelayo and Elisenda begin to attract visitors from all over to see the winged man. The crowd has grown so large that it has become out of control, and eventually, Elisenda begins to charge five cents for each admission.
Meanwhile, a new carnival arrives, bringing a woman who has been transformed into a spider, and the crowd starts to disperse and lose interest in the old and inactive angel.
Pelayo and Elisenda have grown quite wealthy from the fees they have charged the visitors. Pelayo quits his job and builds a mansion. The winged old man stays with them, but in the chicken coop, and often wanders from room to room. Later, the child and the old man had chickenpox at the same time.
Just when Pelayo and Elisenda are convinced by the doctor's words that the old man will soon die, he regains his strength. His feathers grow back.
One morning, the old man stretches his wings and flies away over the horizon, and Elisenda watches him disappear into the thin air.
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SHORT STORIES CLASS 12 ENGLISH IMPORTANT QUESTIONS' SOLUTION PACK
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
BEFORE YOU READ
a. Have you ever visited a place to see something strange or unusual? If yes, what is it?
Answer:
Yes, I have visited a place to see something strange or unusual. It is a circus, and I have enjoyed the quite strange magic show.
b. How do clever people take advantage of common people’s gullibility?
Answer:
Clever people take advantage of common people's gullibility with their crafty as well as cunning acts.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
a. How does the narrator describe the weather and its effects in the exposition of the story?
Answer:
In the exposition of the story, the narrator describes the weather and its effects by presenting the details of three days' rainfall, the condition of the weather, and its effects on the main character's house. According to him, it had been raining since Tuesday. The main character's house was full of killed crabs, which he had to clear from his house for the sake of his newborn baby. There was a horrible smell of crabs in his house and courtyard. The sea and sky seemed a single ash gray. The beach by the sea was quite muddy with rotten shellfish.
b. Describe the strange old man as Pelayo and his wife first encounter within their courtyard.
Answer:
As Pelayo and his wife first encounter the strange old man within their courtyard, they find his face down in the mud in a groaning state. He is dressed like a ragpicker. There are a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth. He seems quite weak and pitiable, whose enormous wings are dirty, half-plucked and entangled in the mud. He has an incomprehensible dialect with a strong sailor's voice.
c. Why did Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop?
Answer:
Pelayo and Elisenda imprisoned the old man in the chicken coop because they became quite fearful about their newborn baby. When they heard the neighbouring woman's words regarding the old man's arrival for their baby, they decided to chain the old man and keep him with the hens in a wire chicken coop.
d. Why was Father Gonzaga not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger?
Answer:
Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger because he didn't find the qualities of a celestial messenger within the old man. The old man was unable to understand the greeting in God's language, i.e., the Latin language. He even didn't know how to greet his ministers. Father found him too similar to humans, with an unbearable smell. Both sides of his wings were strewn with parasites, and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds.
e. Many people gathered at Pelayo’s house to see the strange old man. Why do you think the crowd assembled to see him?
Answer:
I think the crowd assembled to see him because they had heard about the captivated angel in Pelayo's house. Some of them were surprised and wanted to see that unique creature. While others wanted to tease and make fun of the imprisoned, strange old man as if he were a circus animal.
f. Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. What are these miracles?
Answer:
Some miracles happened while the crowd gathered to see the strange man. These miracles are quite funny which are as follows:
▪︎ A blind man didn't recover his sight; instead, he got three new teeth.
▪︎ A paralytic who didn't get to walk but almost won the lottery
▪︎ Leprosy-infected people's sores sprouted with sunflowers.
g. State the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man.
Answer:
Following are the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man:
▪︎ When they found him inactive, they tried to pull out his feathers to touch defective parts and throw stones at him to make him stand.
▪︎ They prodded him with hot iron pokers.
The strange old man remained motionless for a long time, but he got aggressive at last, flapped his wings, and yelled in his strange language in pain with tears in his eyes.
h. How and why was the woman changed into a spider?
Answer:
The woman was changed into a spider due to the lightning bolt of brimstone. Behind her transformation, her disobedience towards her parents was also the reason. While she was still a child, she stealthily moved to attend a dance without her parents' permission. After her whole night's dance, while she was returning home through the wood, a fearful thunderclap ripped the sky surface, which allowed a lightning bolt of brimstone through the crack to strike, which changed her into a spider.
i. Describe how Elisenda saw the strange man flying over the houses.
Answer:
One morning, while Elisenda was cutting some bunches of onions for lunch, she felt the breeze through her window. When she looked out through her window, she caught sight of the old man flying over the houses. His first attempts were clumsy, but eventually he was able to gain altitude and fly away from Pelayo and Elisenda's house. Elisenda let out a sigh of relief "for herself and for him" upon seeing him go. She kept on looking at him until he was no longer visible to her eyes. The old man was no longer an annoyance in her life.
REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
a. The arrival of a strange old man at Palayo’s courtyard arouses many suspicions and explanations. Explain how the neighbour woman, Father Gonzaga and the doctor speak of the strange man. Why do you think these three people give three different kinds of interpretations?
Answer:
The arrival of a strange old man in Pelayo’s courtyard arouses many suspicions and explanations. All these three people speak of the strange man with their different interpretations.
The neighbouring woman speaks of him, saying that he is an angel. According to her, the strange man must have come for the child, but due to his weak body and old age, he was knocked down by the rain.
Next, Father Gonzaga speaks of his being quite doubtful. He states that the strange man with wings doesn't know the language of God or how to greet His ministers. He is too similar to humans, and his body has an unbearable smell. His feathers are strewn with parasites, and the main feathers have been ministered by territorial winds. Father concludes that he hasn't found any matching qualities of angels within him.
The doctor, at last, puts forward his opinion after inspecting his heart and kidneys. He says that the old man can't be alive. He hears so much whistling in his heart and so many noises in his kidneys. He is amazed to see the natural wings in the human organism. He cannot understand the reason and asks why other men don't have similar wings.
I think these three people give three different kinds of interpretations because the strange man is a kind of mystery to them. All these people are well-known in their community for their knowledge of their fields. They speak out their different opinions about the strange-looking man because they want to be smarter in front of gullible people. This is the usual human tendency to respond to those who are weak, dependent and different.
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 story-teller narrates the commonplace things with magical colour and the events look both magical and real at the same time.
Collect five magic realist happenings from the story and argue why they seem magical to you.
Answer:
The five magic realist happenings from the story are as follows:
1. The strange old man with enormous wings:
When Pelayo first encountered the strange old man with enormous wings in a pitiable state in his muddy courtyard, he was amazed and frightened. Here, the strange old man with wings seems magical to me because it is difficult to believe a man with wings.
2. Prediction of a Neighbouring Woman:
The predicted word "angel" for the strange old man by the neighbouring woman seems quite magical to me because our world is quite beyond these myths.
3. The gruff and incomprehensible dialect of the strange old:
The strange old man uses a typical gruff and incomprehensible dialect in different situations. This strange dialect seems magical to me because I have only found such a kind of language in fictitious movies.
4. The woman's transformation into a spider:
The story presents the transformation of the woman into a spider due to the lightning bolt of brimstone. This transformation of a human into a bigger spider seems magical to me because this kind of transformation isn't possible in the real world.
5. The old man flying in the sky:
Finally, the old man attempts to fly a lot and soars up in the sky. This instance of a man flying in the sky with wings seems magical to me because I have never seen a man flying in the sky like this in my lifetime.
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?
Answer:
I think the purpose of the author's shift in the story is to create a shift in the presentation of magic realism for his readers. He keeps on presenting the story of the strange old man with wings to his readers at first. Later, he presents a sudden twist in his story by presenting the entry of an enchanted woman who has been turned into a spider for her disobedience towards her parents. This shift is specially inserted in the story to add the concept of people's gullibility, their nature of curiosity, greed and cruelty. This instance of presentation makes all the readers realise that gullible people are easily diverted by ambiguity, whether in stories or real life.
Here, we find people's attraction towards a spider woman with a human head without knowing the truth behind her. They are seen diverted immediately after learning about the spider woman. They lose interest in the strange old man and assemble their crowd to see the woman. Their greed is seen in getting the tickets at cheaper rates. Their curiosity is also evident in watching this amazing woman. They feel excited to hear from the woman, no matter whether she is real or fake.
Marquez has presented a community near the sea with middle-class, gullible people. Here he has inserted the events along with magic realism. The gullible people of the community are seen to have deep faith in supernatural things or creatures. The author mainly focuses on aspects of human nature and their responses to those who are weak, dependent and different.
d. The story deals with the common people’s gullibility. How do Pelayo and his wife take advantage of common people’s whim?
Answer:
Pelayo and his wife Elisenda encounter the strange old man with wings in a very pitiable state in their courtyard. When they get informed by a neighbouring woman about the strange old man's arrival as an angel to take their child to heaven, they imprison him in a wire chicken coop. At midnight, when their child wakes up without a fever and desires to eat, both of them become magnanimous and decide to set him free on his fate, along with food and water in the sea. When they try to take him out during the first light at dawn, they find a huge mob outside their chicken coop to watch an old angel. Despite Father Gonzaga's claim, the story of the old angel spread so fast. People from all around start arriving at the place to watch an elderly man with wings. In this situation, both Pelayo and his wife Elisenda take advantage of common people's gullibility. They get the idea of fencing the yard and charging five cents for each admission to see the angel.
REFERENCE BEYOND THE TEXT
a. An irresistible crowd queues at Palayo’s house for many days simply to look at the strange old man. Narrate an episode from your experience or from another story where people assemble in crowds, not for any noble cause.
Answer:
An Episode of Captivated Young Woman in the Movie Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters
A similar kind of irresistible crowd queue to watch a young woman has been presented in a movie called Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters. Both Hansel and Gretel have been presented at their adult ages. When Hansel and Gretel arrive in the town of Augsburg, they find a crowd of people surrounding a captivated young woman in a white dress. She is bound by ropes. All the people, including Sheriff Berringer of the town, intend to execute a beautiful young woman named Mina for witchcraft. All the people in that town are looking at the young girl with suspicious and aggressive eyes. They are making noises in favour of killing the girl. But in the meantime, Hansel and Gretel prevent all of them from committing this crime. They examine the girl and conclude that she is a simple human. They set her free from all the people's traps.
b. The taste of children is different from grown-ups. What are the elements in the story that make ‘The Old Man with Enormous Wings’ a children’s story?
Answer:
Following are varieties of elements in the story that make ‘The Old Man with Enormous Wings’ a children’s story:
Unique and memorable characters:
Here in this story, we find two unique and memorable characters: a strange old man with enormous wings and a woman with a spider's body. These two characters make this story a children's story.
Plot and setting:
Both the plot and the setting of this story are quite fascinating elements for children, which can pique their interest.
Unique technique of magical realism:
Magical realism refers to a literary style or genre that combines naturalistic details and narrative with surreal or dreamlike elements. This kind of technique fascinates children too much.
Supernatural act:
Here in this story, the last scene of the old man's efforts to fly in the sky and his success seems quite fascinating to the children. This type of supernatural act is mostly liked by children to watch or read.
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