The Symbolism of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
An allegory is a method in which characters or events symbolize ideas and concepts; it is a way of explaining concepts which cannot be easily explained, by telling a story which has a deeper meaning. The underlying meaning of an allegory has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas, like charity, greed, or envy. With this in mind, symbolism is the art of using an object or a character to represent an abstract idea; therefore, an action, person, place, or word can all have a symbolic meaning. When authors want to suggest a certain idea, they can also use symbolism to hint at it, rather than just blatantly say. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the short story explores human nature in regard to people judging others by his or her surface features, thereby determining whether he or she has the right of be treated with respect. The story tells of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda, who find an old man with wings in their courtyard, so the couple attempt to communicate with the old man but are unable to since he speaks in a different language. Pelayo locks the angel in a chicken coop. And soon thereafter a new attraction comes to town, as a woman who disobeyed her parents when she was young, and transformed into a spider, now tells her misfortunes to the audience. Meanwhile, no longer trapped in the chicken coop, the angel is free to roam around the house until one day he leaves the house and flies away.
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“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is allegory for immigration with the “old man” symbolizes a group of people who immigrate to a place from far away only to be badly treated, whereas the “spider woman” symbolizes the immigrants desire for people’s understanding, through communicating one’s physical description and action. Marquez uses the “old man” to represent the immigrant who looks totally distinct from the natives, especially since the physical appearance of the old man is extremely vivid and distinct in this story; readers easily imagine what he looks like. When Pelayo and Elisenda first time saw the old man in their courtyard, they saw “[The old man’s] huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in the mud” (269).
The old man does not seem as normal as the townsfolk, for he has big wings in his back. Most immigrants do not take after the local people, for example, they maybe have different shapes of noses, or different colors of skins and eyeballs. Even now, there are still many native people that do not accept the immigrant. Some local people will judge the immigrants by their exteriors, and do not respect them, especially to darker pigmented immigrants. People should not judge a person by his or her appearance. The old man typifies the immigrants who do not have similar surface or custom, and they are judged in an unfair way. Additionally, the old man’s actions demonstrate that immigrants who do not know the local language by get bullied by some natives.
The old man cannot communicate to the townsfolk; therefore, no one would know any background about him. The townsfolk are curious about his story, but some of them would bully him. For instance, “The most merciful threw stones at [the old man], trying to get him to rise[s] so they could see him standing” (272) when people go to see the old man in front of the chicken coop, some townspeople even “burned his side with an iron for branding steers” (272).
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The townspeople seem the old man as an animal; in fact, they are analyzing him. The only thing he can respond to people is “ranting in his hermetic language and with tears in his eyes, and he flapped his wings a couple of times” (272).
The old man does not have an ability of using local language to let people understand his feelings. A large number of immigrants suffer greatly from humiliation. Some locals are presumptuous to bully the immigrants because they know the immigrants cannot speak out. Even though the immigrants are supposed to protect themselves with the law, the problem of language let them have to swallow their prides and tolerate it. Elisenda decides to charge an entrance fee to see the old man. “The angel was the only one who took no part in his own act” (271), although the family becomes rich and builds a mansion with the money collected. Like many immigrants, employers pay less money to hire them than the natives. Nevertheless, some locals have no respect for the people who help them save much money, and work very hard for them. Marquez shows the way how the local people treat unjustly the immigrants who do not know the local language through the old man’s action.
The spider woman is the assimilated immigrant. She still different from the locals, yet she has an ability of speaking the local language. In terms of her physical descriptions, Marquez does not give much information, but readers still can have a clear picture of her. The crowd soon lost interest in the old man as another freak has arrived in the community. “She was a frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden”, that is no less strange than the old man (272).
She is just the same as the old man, with most townsfolk not treating her as a human because of her appearance. To most immigrants, no matter where they come from, they will get peoples’ strange look. Immigrant is a special group in society. People should put themselves in other’ shoes: everything is brand-new to immigrants; they need time to adapt to new surroundings. Clearly, the surface of the spider woman symbolizes the immigrants have a different appearance.
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Marquez tells readers that the spider woman is able to speak the local language, and willing to share her story with her visitors, allowing the spider woman perfectly represents many immigrants desire for peoples’ understanding. The reason of this woman becomes a spider woman is the bolt of brimstone. She comes to the town, and be showed in public. “People were permitted to ask [the spider woman] all manner of questions about her absurd state and to examine her up and down” (272) that showed she wants people to accept. She is in the circus for townsfolk to entertain. People choose immigrate to other unknown place for various reasons. Maybe the politics of their countries, or they want to start a new life. Most of them can communicate, and would like to develop the relationship to the natives. Marquez uses the thing what the spider woman does to exhibit that the immigrants want the locals to understand them.
The allegory of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is immigration that always plays a part in society. Marquez uses “the old man” and “the spider woman” to symbolize many immigrants be badly treated, and they desire the native’ understanding through their appearances and actions. Writers often use symbolism to enhance their writing, because it is able to give a literary work more richness and color and can make the meaning of the work deeper. When readers deeply analyze a character or action, they will have a better understanding of a story.
