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Old Man With Enormous Wings Essay

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“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is his magic short realism masterpiece. Fiction through the grotesque, alienation, exaggeration and other practices, the combination of fantasy and reality, mapping the Latin American social reality. Whether he is or not an angel is not important, it is significant that how the people of the town 's attitude towards him. The novel reveals the spirit of the Latin American emptiness, religious absurdity. The author believes that this is the Latin America "lonely" the root causes. The greatest feature of the novel is the use of symbolic techniques. The giant wings of the elderly symbolize the traditional culture of Latin America; Pelayo and Elisenda are middle class symbol of Latin …show more content…

Moreover, in people 's minds, people with wings should be angels or has the relationship with angels, but Pelayo found this angel is completely different from pure beauty of the beautiful angel image. He is a frail old man, “He was dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth. (page 43, second paragraph)” Even the giant wings that marked his angel 's identity were filthy and had already taken off half of the feathers. In addition to a pair of wings, the old man and the beggar is no different. Is he a man or a god? Is the angel or the devil? The mysterious old man aroused people 's curiosity. When faced with mysterious things, people 's first reaction is curious, and then try to find the answer. But, unfortunately, exploration often ends in failure. Because the unknown world is infinite, and human knowledge is limited. The people in the town misunderstanding and suspicion the old man, but also reflects the human ignorance and ideological rigidity. People may dreams of heaven, but when a real angel comes to them, they turn a blind eye. Since, this angel was totally different from the traditional angel. In traditional angel, it with a pairs of long white wings and beautiful image. Likewise, they are difficult to accept change, it is difficult to break the traditional

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