A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Analysis Essay Example

In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, Marquez askes the readers to consider the fact that human nature is very contradictory. 

We introduce this idea by the reason of empathy. Marquez uses empathy felt for the angel compared to utilizing him for benefits. Marquez writes “they did not have the heart to club him. Pelago watched over him all afternoon from the kitchen, armed with his bailiff club and before going to bed he dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the chicken wire coop” This comes to highlight the empathy of the characters, using physical description and pattern of language to show the nature of humans. Marquez especially emphasizes this with sentence patterns as they include an action of danger and then of care towards the angel. Marquez allows the readers to understand that even if actions of sympathy are taken, humans still don't fully agree with themselves connecting to the idea of contradictory nature. Marquez also mentions this, “Elisenda her spine all twisted from sweeping up so much market place trash, then gopt the idea of fencing a yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel.” This highlights the greediness of Elisenda by using vivid descriptions to show how physically strained she was but eventually took the opportunity of garnering money from the creature she saved. The author emphasizes this by usage of sentence structure as its paced in like when thoughts rush to your head and hers was money. It goes to show how humans value money compared to relations. Marquez does this by allowing the readers to understand that even though humans maintain their belongings, they prefer to gain benefits and use them, symbolizing a relationship of discrepancy. 

Another reason to consider would be the difference in treatment. Marquez uses a comparison of the angel's situation to the spider girls to show this. Marquez says, “The only time they had succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers, for he had been motionless for so many hours, they thought he was dead. He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic language and with tears in his eyes, and he flapped his wings a couple of times, … ” Marquez uses character action and reactions to show the angel and humans to show the emotions of the characters interchangeably. The author emphasizes this with the actions the characters took signifying a distressing relationship. Marquez does this by allowing the readers to understand that if from the beginning something is seen as unalike to humans, you essentially become ostracized in their eyes. Comparing this to what Marquez writes later, “A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals.” We can see Marquez use similies to compare the actions of the angel and the spider girl emphasizing on the fact of how humane the spider girl was and wanted to connect with the humans. Compared to the angel who wanted to be left alone in his world and not maintain relationships with anyone. This is specifically emphasized by the pattern break showing the spider girl and her human truth with the angel and his position of never lowering himself down to the humans positions. Marquez does this by allowing readers to understand that through 2 different ways these creatures act around humans goes to show how the humans treat them, with how they are treated.

In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, Marquez asks the readers to consider the idea that human nature is very contradictory considering the difference in empathy and treatment for the angel and spider girl. We can gather the message that Marquez is trying to communicate this message from the actions he wrote signifying a deeper meaning. Showing that humans can’t strictly pick one emotion to display to the same category of things, depending on how the creature treats them, hence an ever changing nature present in humans minds.