Old Man/Angel- fell to the Earth one day. Is very old and has crappy looking wings that don't work. Is held captive by Pelayo and Elisenda who make a ton of money off of him. It is never found out if he was actually an angel, as believed.
Pelayo- the husband; originally concerned but then exploits the angel
Elisenda- wife; comes up with idea to charge admission to see the old man in the coop. Is relieved when he "flies" out of her life
Father Gonzaga- doesn't believe the old man is an angel; sends word to higher religious authorities to check out the man
Neighbor woman- she "knows everything" about life and death; suggests the old man was an angel on his way to pick up Elisenda's sick child and take him to heaven
The spider girl- turned into a "spider" for sneaking out of the house one night; becomes carnival attraction and takes away the old man's attention.
Though there are many interpretations, I believe that Marquez wrote this simply as an entertaining children's story filled with magic-realism elements. He meant it to be a moral fable to teach children a lesson. A major theme was uniqueness. The old man with wings is NOTHING like the townspeople. He speaks a different language and has enormous wings growing out of him. He also just fell out of the sky one day, mysteriously. Instead of treating him with respect, the townspeople harass him for his uniqueness and see him as an object, an animal to exploit for the own well-being.
Marquez wants to teach the children reading the story to embrace people for being different, not condemn then. Marquez recognizes that not everyone is the same, and he wants to ensure children understand and love everyone.
i loved the title of the story :]
ReplyDeleteit is very interesting ! i don't know what i would do if i really saw this old man with enormous wings. i don't think i would throw anything at him though...it was a little sad to me. the story remind me how selfish humans are.
all the people who came to the old man wanted something beneficial from him without giving him the help he needed.
I like the fact that this story was written for children, as you noted, but that it has a more complex underlying theme that revolves around human acceptance. For all the townspeople know, this man could have been a real angel. However, because he didn't live up to their human idea of what an angel looked like, they treated him like an animal. This is the way that adults treat him, but because this story was written for children, it is easy to imagine that a child would have had a different reaction. Children accept everyone for who they are - they do not judge them on their appearances. I agree with you that the author wants to encourage children to keep loving everyone for who they really are, not what they look like.
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