A_Very_Old_Man_With_Enormous_Wings

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” uses magical realism to convey Garcia Marquez’s ideas about Catholic religion. There are two main elements of magical realism in the story: the winged old man and the girl who changed into a spider. In this short story, Garcia Marquez shows that he thinks that Catholicism in his country is becoming more like a sideshow. The treatment of the old man by the local people shows this very well: “But when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence… …as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal.” (Page 324) Later in the text, the Pelayo family uses the old man to line their pockets, putting him on as a circus freak for people to view. Garcia Marquez must feel that the Catholic Church is using tithes they receive for their own fulfillment. The Pelayo family then uses the money to build themselves a mansion, and this statement shows that Garcia Marquez thinks that the grandiose cathedrals are too extravagant. The most obvious use of magical realism is man, old, enormous, wings, story, garcia, people, magical, shows, realism, power, marquez, woman, spider, show, part, language, catholic, being, violence, very, using, thinks, statement, since, short, religion, pity, pelayo, page, obvious, miraculous, marquez’s, iron, human, however