Cruelty and selfishness in human beings
Kindness and generosity are two of the traits that are taught in the society, people are advised and urged to be generous to their neighbors and to show kindness to the weak in the society. However this advice is not followed even by those that give it, selfishness and cruelty is all that is displayed in every sector of the society including the religious institutions that are supposed to set a good example to the society when it comes to matters concerning compassion.
It is true that selfishness and cruelty are part of human nature, but again the degree to which people continue to express them is disheartening and it affects the society and surrounding culture (Entrican Wilson, 56). In his book ‘“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Gabriel Garcia brings out the theme of selfishness and cruelty very clearly right from the beginning of the book. He uses the character of the old man who is weak and helpless throughout the book to show how cruel and selfish people are to the weak in the society and also how they are willing to exploit other people for their own gain without any care of how they feel. The first characters
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Pelayo and his wife are ready to get rid of the old man who is still weak even after he had led to the recovery of their only child. The two were not concerned about what would happen to the old man after they put him on a raft and set him to sea with only provisions for three days because he was of no use to them (García, 8). This situation is only changed when they discover that they could benefit from him by charging the people who came to see him at their home. What is sad is that even then, they do not bother to offer the old man a better place to stay but they just left him with the chicken as they gained wealth from letting other people humiliate him.
But regardless if we acknowledge it or not cruelty is all around us. Either through wars going on in the Middle East or through the typical everyday murder in your city. Cruelty is not something we can escape and it boils down to one simple reason, selfishness. The reason all of these horrendous events occur is because we, the human nature, are selfish. Majority of every motive we have is pushed by our selfishness.
Human behavior will determine the success of our world. Humans can destroy themselves if they are malicious like shown in the short stories The Cask of Amontillado, The Veldt, and The Lottery. Human nature is slowly decreasing in value in the world. Characters in those short stories prove to be the wrong answer to healing the wounds of the world today, like the injustice, and overall ignorance the world carries on its back. Although humans can be kind and selfless people, sacrificing loved ones, hurting innocent bystanders, and plotting revenge can reveal the dark side of human nature.
The story, up through the climax, displays the consequences of irrational actions. “The winged old man is viewed as an object” by the community as they search to find an explanation for his existence (Pelayo 84). First trying to rid the old man at sea, Elisenda and Pelayo attempt to act on their irrational ideas. They then involve the neighbor woman, priest, and village people to solve this confusing situation (Marquez #). None of their actions are effective as they are irrational, uncomprehensive thoughts.
Individuals can make their own interpretation of the themes of the short story, but without the grotesque violence and psychopathic nature of the characters, a theme would never surface. The purpose of the violent scenes and nature of the story is to provide a theme for the audience that a good man is not just hard to find but impossible to find because everyone is an imperfect human by human
He tries to forgive himself but he cannot, no matter how hard he tries. The heroic characteristics as well as the flaw leads him to be a tragic hero. On top of his road to self discovery he must deal with the ever declining social structure of the town. He tries to stand out as an honest resistor to the hangings, which ultimately leads to his
It is certainly uncommon for an old man with enormous wings to appear in to your very own backyard.. One of the most common characteristics of a magic realism story is making the uncommon seem like it is nothing out of the ordinary The story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is a short story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Because of this stories abundant use of presenting magic in the mundane, real-world setting and its theme of treating the extraordinary as ordinary, this short story is undoubtedly classified as magic realism. The story immediately jumps into introducing the man in the title with the scene of Pelayo throwing all of his access crabs into the courtyard since he had caught such a large amount. After introducing his wife to the man with large, half-plucked buzzard wings did he and his wife thought this to be a quite surprising sight, and soon went to grab their friend to show them their finding.
In Esquivel’s novel, Like Water for Chocolate, she argues that kindness is more powerful than cruelty. Unlike kindness and compassion, people will never be fully loyal to those act cruel. The strongest form of loyalty is obedience founded by trust and powered by love, which cannot be replaced with intimidation and fear. When kindness is displayed to a given individual, it is capable of creating a strong core of purpose within oneself, forming loyalty through the desire to be near the one who gives them that affection. In contrast, brutality does the opposite, in hope to break that core enough for the person to resort to dependency Overall, cruelty pushes those under its control to break down, whereas kindness allows for people to strive.
Virtue, compassion, and benevolence are all qualities in our society that are considered good. In history, there are figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. that have displayed these characteristics, but then again, demonstrations of goodness are shown by people every day. Goodness or righteousness from people has always thrived, even in the worst periods of humanity. Therefore, mankind is inherently good as shown in Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, where this notion is illustrated through kind acts during his difficult times and through charities which give people hope.
In A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, author Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses imagery, simile, symbolism and metaphor to describe the mistreatment of an ‘angel’ that fell from the sky, revealing the theme that assumptions can lead to unwarranted misfortune for the one being judged. This theme is first presented when characters Pelayo and Elisenda discover a man with wings. “He was dressed like a ragpicker… his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away and sense of grandeur he might have had” (Marquez, 975). Through visual imagery and simile, describing the winged man as a great grandfather and a ragpicker, he is connoted as grotesque, malformed, and of no use. These assumptions piled negative connotations on the old man without
Considering this isn’t the usual suspense or supernatural story, the author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez still manages to use imagery in his work to describe various situations. Just like many other authors, the imagery is explained to the most detail and precision that allows the reader to imagine all the things are happening in the story. As we read this story, we would be able to understand his point of view more clearly. In this story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, uses imagery during a chain of events to describe various situations. Imagery is a tool used in literature to help the reader understand the circumstances and surroundings of each plot.
Although Pelayo is kinder to the old man than the other villagers, he is certainly not full of compassion and charity. Pelayo doesn’t club the old man as his neighbor woman suggests, on the other hand, he does pen the old man in the chicken coop and charges admission for the crowd to see. Pelayo also stand by while people throw things at the old man and continue to mistreat him physically. “The only time they succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers, for he had been motionless for so many hours that they thought he was dead” (Marquez 497). Many tried to get a “blessing” or at least any type of reaction from the old
The short story, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is titled this because it shows that the characters don’t understand or appreciate how magnificent the angel is. When Pelayo and Elisenda first meet the angel, they “skipped over the inconvenience of the wings” and automatically assume that he is a “lonely castaway from some foreign ship wrecked by the storm,” (1). They view him as a “very old man lying face down in the mud,” (1). They don’t consider the possibility that he is an angel until their neighbor “who knew everything about life and death,” (1) tells them that he is one. Their newborn child is ill with “a temperature all night,” (1).
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, there is a clear theme of the coexistence of compassion and cruelty, which exists in the hearts of the people of the town. Although compassion and cruelty are direct opposites, it is still possible for the two to coexist. That is one of the points that is made clear in Garcia Marquez’s short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. The story, written in 1955, focuses on the theme of the coexistence of compassion and cruelty in the hearts of the people of the town. (1) When an old, weak, and dirty man with huge wings appears in Pelayo and Elisenda’s yard, the couple is compassionate enough to let him live and stay on their territory.
The human nature can be a vile, corrupt, and heinous object that will do anything to benefit itself and put down others. This is the bleak reality of the human nature. LoTF, written by William Golding, and Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini are two books that follow the tragic stories of young boys who lost and sacrificed everything when they succumbed to their evil desires. Lord of the Flies and Kite runner both shed light on human nature by showing the inherent evil that can be evoked, how it can lead to the loss of childhood innocence, and the sacrifices we are willing to make.
The Old Man’s struggles throughout the novel are predominantly Man versus Self and Man versus Nature, since his struggles are always against the seas, the Marlin and the sharks who begin to hunt him. Also, while he is traversing the seas for fish, his struggles with the pain he experiences are a large example of the Man vs Self