A Man with Wings

      Have you noticed the increasing amount of cruelty and hatred in this world? Everywhere you look there is meanness lurking around. In her short story called A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Gabriel Garcia Marquez shows how cruel the people of the world can be.This story also shows how easily you can take things for granted. A filthy, mysterious man with enormous wings shows up face down on the ground in a small town of curious people.

      This short story has many examples of meanness and sympathy. When a unhealthy winged man shows up in a small town, a man named Pelayo decides to take the man to his home and help him. Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, talk with a neighbor woman and decide the man must be an angel. Pelayo and Elisenda take this disgusting, pitiful man to their home and keep him in the chicken coop. The family shows sympathy towards the unusual winged man by helping him out even when they don't understand what he is. Next, the news of the angel spreads all across the people, and people come from everywhere to examine the unknown being. The crowd of people demonstrate cruelty by throwing stones at the man and branding him with a hot iron.

      I think people take many of the things around them for granted, and people use others to better themselves. Pelayo and Elisenda take their son's health and the man with wings for granted. The couple start charging admission to see the man, and they make a great amount of money off of him. Some of the people in the crowd came seeking information and healing from him. This poor man was used by many people. The angel man was mistreated, but I think he was a gift from heaven to help the small family he stayed with.

      The world we live in today is filled with cruelty. In the story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings the people are very unsatisfied and mean. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an excellent author who knows how to make a reader feel emotion. This story gives great examples of the way people treat others. Pelayo and Elisenda realize the importance of the angel when they think he is dying, but he regains his strength and flies off into the horizon. In my opinion the angel helped the family become wealthy and taught them to be more open minded about the things they have.