While reading A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (A Tale for Children) I kept expecting for the end to have some sort of lesson, like most children's stories and fairy tales do.
Such as: one would maybe be to not believe false prophets/or people that claim to be something extraordinary. Or maybe the inverse of that would be to always have faith in the powers above, etc.
Neither of those lessons, nor any of your "cookie cutter" child hood lessons (don't touch a hot stove, don't play with guns- you'll shoot your eye out, etc.) were taught. And the more I sit with this story, the more I'm okay with it.
When I first began to read I automatically thought of the story of Icarus (a greek character who made wings out of wax- his father warned him not to fly close to the sun, Icarus (of course) did fly too close to the sun and fell.) Lesson: Don't be careless and over-ambitious. Done.
The Lament for Icarus H.J. Draper
This story, however, left me with a slight sour taste in my mouth. I started out very skeptical of the winged man, but was soon convinced that this man did in fact have real wings and maybe even "magical" powers, "the child woke up without a fever (Marquez 270)" once the old man arrived after all. And because we weren't left with this beautiful little lesson tied up in red ribbon at the end, I felt slightly disappointed. I wanted my fairy tale ending! The old man eventually flew away and Elisenda was relieved to be rid of the nuisance.
I believe this story illustrated the idea that blessings are usually misinterpreted by others- even the people these "blessings" are happening to. The family eventually made money off of having the angel in their coop (this "angel" lived in a chicken coop!) but they really didn't grow close to him at all. The towns people, once he didn't produce any obvious miracles, were disenchanted and had reduced him to a side show act. It shows how differently people perceive something quite unique and wild.
I mean, a man with wings?! Come on!
I was a bit troubled by the subtitle "A Story for Children" as well considering the story's dark content. The only connection The only explanation I have been able to come up with is that the angel falling from the sky is the type of magical moment you would expect to find in a little kid's favorite bedtime story. Marquez does not pose an explicit lesson on morality, but he sure does criticize human nature. The fact that the family housing the angel "felt magnanimous" and generous because they "decided to put the angel on a raft with fresh water and provisions for three days and leave him to his fate on the high seas" instead of killing him on the spot shows how callous people can be.
ReplyDeleteWhats strange is how the man was described as so wretched and pitiful and yet never was there any consideration of how the people could help him. The couple watched a man struggle to get out of the mud all day and only when they decided he may be an angel did they pull him out and put him in the chicken coop.
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