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A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Essay

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In the satirical short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses juxtaposition to compare the Father Gonzaga and his foil, the doctor, to greater characterize Father Gonzaga show his faults by placing their beliefs and characteristics in comparison with one another to highlight their differences. In the story Marquez uses the character of the doctor in contrast with Father Gonzales in multiple ways. The first comparison between the two characters is their interest levels in the newfound angel. “Father Gonzaga arrived before seven o’clock…”(Paragraph 3,line 1) which “...by that time the onlookers less frivolous than those at dawn had already arrived”(Paragraph 3,line 1). Father Gonzaga, the man of religion, appears after the more frivolous onlookers; likely because he does not believe that the old man is truly an angel of God, and therefore Gonzaga does not care to learn more about the old man and whether he is actually an angel. Because of this Gonzaga takes his time before going to meet the angel and does not put effort into trying to fight his way through the less frivolous onlookers. It is highly surprising that Father Ganzaga is one of the …show more content…

Through the use of the character 's interests levels of the angel, the author’s diction and the processes used to study the angel; we are able to characterize Gonzaga as a Father who is not only uninterested in the newfound angel, but also disrespectful to it, and lastly, he does wholefully believe in his own religion. This is further exemplified through the characterization of the doctor who is interested in the angel, is humble to it, and does not question the ideas of the religion like the Father does. These two greatly different characters, create a contrasting difference with each other making for more unique and interesting

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