A.V.O.M.W.E.W Notes

A.V.O.M.W.E.W  Written in 1968, ‘‘Un señor muy viejo con alas enormes" ("A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’’) is typical of a style known as ‘‘magic realism,’’ which is closely associated with its author, the Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This imaginative style combines realistic, everyday details with elements of fantasy, blurring the reader's usual distinctions between reality and magic.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W  But unlike other works of the imagination such as fairy tales or folk legends, stories of magic realism lead to no clear morals or simple truths; they present a rich and vivid world of magical possibilities, while frustrating and complicating the reader's efforts to fix a definite meaning to events.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W  Very simply stated, this is the story of what happens when an angel comes to town. But while it is subtitled ''A Tale for Children,'' it is by no means a simple story. The setting is no ordinary town, and its visitor is no ordinary angel—indeed, he may very well not be an angel at all. In most respects, he seems disappointingly ordinary and human, despite his extraordinary appearance.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W  Because he contradicts their expectations, the characters we meet seem thoroughly incapable of understanding him; their conventional wisdom and superstitious beliefs lead them into absurd explanations for his sudden visit, and they treat him in a manner that seems cruel, unjust, and ignorant

A.V.O.M.W.E.W  Drawing on the stories and legends of his rural South American childhood, as well as his study of the sophisticated techniques of modernist writers, Garcia Marquez creates a rich and suggestive fictional landscape that challenges traditional modes of thought and focuses the reader's attention on the difficult, elusive work of making sense of the world.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W Doubt and Ambiguity  One of this story's difficult aspects is the sense of uncertainty it creates by leaving important facts unresolved and seeming to offer several possible interpretations for its events. The reader is never allowed to doubt that the old man and his strange wings are as ''real'' as anything else in the story; yet the reader can never be sure just what he is—a heavenly angel, a sad human who happens to have wings, or perhaps some other, unexplained possibility.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W Elisenda  In her marriage to Pelayo, Elisenda takes an active part in decision-making. Her husband runs to get her as soon as he discovers the old man, and they try to make sense of him together, apparently sharing the same reactions. It is she who first conceives of charging the villagers admission to see the ‘‘angel,’’ an idea which makes the couple wealthy. At the end of the story, she is the mistress of an impressive mansion, dressed in the finest fashions. Yet the old man seems to be a constant annoyance to her, a feeling that only intensifies over time.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W Pelayo  It is Pelayo, the town bailiff, who discovers the old man with wings struggling face down in the courtyard of his home after a storm. As the strange visitor begins to attract crowds, Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, exhibit him as a carnival attraction. Though the old man proves to be only a temporary sensation, he creates a highly profitable windfall for the young couple. In ''less than a week they had crammed their rooms with money’’ from paid admissions; they quickly earn enough to rebuild their house as a mansion and to live in luxury by village standards.

A.V.O.M.W.E.W Spider-woman  The centerpiece of a traveling carnival, the ''woman who had been changed into a spider for disobeying her parents’’ proves to be a more popular attraction than the old man, causing the villagers to lose interest in him and putting an end to Pelayo and Elisenda's profitable courtyard business. As a young girl, she had once gone dancing all night against her parents' wishes; later, while walking home, she was allegedly struck by lightning and transformed into ''a frightful tarantula the size of a ram... with the head of a sad maiden.''