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Article Evaluation

For my article I'm editing "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez" Outline: -Add to the lead section, author, publishing date, small overview of story, themes, etc. Add citations -Edit Plot summary, add citations -reorganize character synopsis/add to characters/add citations -Add to context/major themes/critical response/citations -Edit references and check them -Possibly reorder sections -Add "See Also" section

Lead Section

Original: "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (Spanish: Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes) is a short story by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, first published in 1955. It falls within the genre of magic realism and is included in English in the book Leaf Storm and Other Stories. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Edited: "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (Spanish: Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes) and subtitled "A Tale for Children" is a short story by Colombian writer and Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez. The story was first published in 1955 in Spanish and was then published in English in the 1972 book, Leaf Storm and Other StoriesLeaf Storm. The short story involves a very old man with enormous wings who appears in a families backyard on a stormy night. What follows are the reactions of the family, a town, and outside visitors. This story can be read as a critique on the human attitude of wanting religion to be a "an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea" rather than have it present in the flesh among us. This story falls within the genre of magic realism.A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

"A Very Old Man with enormous Wings (Spanish: Un senor muy vieho con unas alas enormos) and subtitled "A Tale for Children" is a short story by Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story was first published in 1955 in Spanish and then published in English in . [1] It falls within the genre of magic realism and is included in English in the book Leaf Storm and Other Stories. The story involves a family in a small ocean side town of unknown time and place. When an old man with enormous wings suddenly appears face down in the backyard on a stormy night [6] the family (Pelayo, Elisenda, and their young son) have to figure out what to do with the old man. A neighbor assumes the man is an angel and quickly the whole town, a priest, and several visitors with strange diseases and ailments come to see if the angel can cure them[6]. The family begins to make some money off the visitors and eventually a new attraction comes in the form of a woman who had been turned into a spider and people lose interest in the winged man [6]. After Pelayo and Elisenda make enough to fix their house up and the winged man regains his strength he flies away and is "no longer an annoyance but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea"(Marquez).

Characters

Pelayo

   Pelayo is the father of the child and Elisenda's husband. He discovers the Old Man in his backyard.

Elisenda

   Elisenda is the mother of the child and Pelayo's wife. Elisenda is the one who comes up with the idea of charging people to see the Old Man.

The Old Man

   The Old Man is "Dreaming" in the story. He first appears in the backyard in the mud. The family is first hesitant about what he is, so they make him live in the chicken coop. He is very dirty and he speaks an incomprehensible language that no one understands. When the crowds first start to come around, he is absentminded and patient about what's going on; as the crowds continue to come from all over the world to see him, he becomes a celebrity. Later, the crowds burn him with a branding iron and he flaps his wings in pain. In the end, he grows back all of his feathers and flies away. The old man is described many times throughout the story as having "antiquarian" eyes. 

Father Gonzaga

   Father Gonzaga is the town priest and the authority figure of the town. Father Gonzaga is described as having been "a robust woodcutter" before becomming a priest. Father Gonzaga suspects the old man is an imposter because he doesn't know Latin, the language of God. He then contacts the Church and awaits verdict from higher authority.

The Neighbour

   The Neighbour is said to know everything about life and death. She thinks that the Old Man is an angel who has fallen from the sky and come for Pelayo's son. While her advice for clubbing the Old Man is not taken, she still attempts to help her neighbors Pelayo and Elisenda.

Spider Woman

   The Spider Woman essentially comes and takes the Old Man's fame. She is a troublemaker who got kicked out of her parents' home for disobeying. After disobeying her parents, she was transformed into a tarantula with the head of a woman. The people forget about the Old Man and focus their interest on her. In contrast to the Old Man, who does not talk and move much, she is always open to tell about her story, so the villagers abandon the Old Man when she comes. The Spider Woman is attractive to the visitors because she is a relatable character who has been against some struggle as opposed to the seemingly cold and alien Old Man.

The Child

   The child is Pelayo and Elisenda's newborn baby, who is ill when the story opens. The Neighbor tries to tell the family that the Old Man came to take the baby. The Old Man and the child are somewhat connected. They are ill at the same time and play together.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Plot Summary

Original: "The story begins after three days of rain, which make crabs come out everywhere. Pelayo and Elisenda's child is sick, supposedly because of the crabs' stench. They find an old sickly man with enormous wings in their backyard. When the couple attempts to communicate with the old man, his incomprehensible language leads the couple to believe he is a castaway. A neighbor woman, who knows many things about life and death, tells the couple he is an angel. Pelayo decides to lock the angel in a chicken coop overnight and then send him on a raft to his fate.

Early the next morning the local people gather in front of the chicken coop, to harass the angel. Father Gonzaga arrives at 7, alarmed by the strange news and to see whether the old man really is an angel or not. Ultimately, Father Gonzaga finds many reasons why the man cannot be an angel, such as the fact that the old man cannot understand Latin, and he shows many mortal characteristics. Elisenda, tired of cleaning up the visitors' messes, decides to charge an entrance fee of 5 cents to see the angel, which eventually allows them to amass a fortune.

The crowd soon loses interest in the angel, because another spectacular person becomes famous in the village. The new attraction is a woman who disobeyed her parents when she was young and has since been transformed into a tarantula. In order for her to continue telling her story, the people of the town toss meatballs into her mouth, which was "her only means of nourishment." Though the people of the town no longer visit the angel, the family has saved up enough money to build a mansion with balconies and gardens and nets.

Still in captivity, the angel's health declines and seems on the verge of death. When his last winter in the chicken coop is over he suddenly becomes more healthy and grows a few new feathers. At first, he roams around the house, but Elisenda keeps shooing him out of the rooms with a broom. One day he leaves the house and flies away.[2]" A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Editied Plot Summary:

The story begins after three days of rain, which make crabs come out everywhere. Pelayo and Elisenda's child is sick, supposedly because of the crabs' stench. They find an old sickly man with enormous wings in their backyard lying face-down. When the couple attempts to communicate with the old man, his incomprehensible language leads the couple to believe he is a castaway. A neighbor woman, who knows many things about life and death, tells the couple he is an angel. The next day everyone knows there is a "flesh and blood angel" in their yard (Marquez). Pelayo decides to lock the angel in a chicken coop overnight and then send him on a raft to his fate.

Early the next morning the local people gather in front of the chicken coop, to harass the angel. Father Gonzaga arrives at 7, alarmed by the strange news and to see whether the old man really is an angel or not. Ultimately, Father Gonzaga finds many reasons why the man cannot be an angel, such as the fact that the old man cannot understand Latin, and he shows many mortal characteristics. Elisenda, tired of cleaning up the visitors' messes, decides to charge an entrance fee of 5 cents to see the angel, which eventually allows them to amass a fortune.

The crowd soon loses interest in the angel, because another spectacular person becomes famous in the village. The new attraction is a woman who disobeyed her parents when she was young and has since been transformed into a tarantula. In order for her to continue telling her story, the people of the town toss meatballs into her mouth, which was "her only means of nourishment." Though the people of the town no longer visit the angel, the family has saved up enough money to build a mansion with balconies and gardens and nets.

Still in captivity, the angel's health declines and seems on the verge of death. When his last winter in the chicken coop is over he suddenly becomes more healthy and grows a few new feathers. At first, he roams around the house, but Elisenda keeps shooing him out of the rooms with a broom. One day he leaves the house and flies away.Elisenda watches him do this through the kitchen window as she continues chopping onions.

Context

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings was published during "La Violencia". Scholar John Goodwin argues that the text of the story can be read as a commentary on the events in Colombia at the time: "The opinions of the villagers reveal an idealized view of religion as government; their treatment of the angel, however, betrays their reaction to rule by religious authorities."[3] A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" has received several critical responses most often commenting on Marquez's use of the genre of magical realism.

In Greer Watson's "Assumptions of Reality: Low Fantasy, Magical Realism, and the Fantastic" they discuss magical realism and mention Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings". In the article, Greer points out that there is little fantastic about the story, rather it displays the elements of the story (like the old man's wings) as accepted fact. Greer argues it is only the angelic nature of the winged man that is drawn into question in the story [7].

In Vera M. Kutzinski's "The Logic of Wings" refers to Marquez's use of wings in the short story to comment on the Afro-american myth of flying and the trope of flying in general.

Marcy Schwartz discusses "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" in her article "The Right to Imagine: Reading in Community with People and Stories/Gente y Ceuntos". Swartz comments on the effectiveness of ambiguity in Marquez's story.

Stage Play

This piece was adapted to the stage by Nilo Cruz in 2002, which he published in the journal Theater.[4][5] Also, Theatre Formation Paribartak of India made another adaption of this story into a play and has been staging it since 2005. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

References

“Chasqui.” Chasqui, vol. 1, no. 2, 1972, pp. 39–40. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20778090.

Watson, Greer. “Assumptions of Reality: Low Fantasy, Magical Realism, and the Fantastic.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 11, no. 2 (42), 2000, pp. 164–172. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43308437.

Kutzinski, Vera M. “The Logic of Wings: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Afro-American Literature.” Latin American Literary Review, vol. 13, no. 25, 1985, pp. 133–146. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20119392.

Castillo, Rafael C. “Recommended: Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” The English Journal, vol. 73, no. 6, 1984, pp. 77–78. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/817270.

SCHWARTZ, MARCY. “The Right to Imagine: Reading in Community with People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos.” PMLA, vol. 126, no. 3, 2011, pp. 746–752. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41414148.

Abbott, H. Porter. “Immersions in the Cognitive Sublime: The Textual Experience of the Extratextual Unknown in García Márquez and Beckett.” Narrative, vol. 17, no. 2, 2009, pp. 131–142. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25609359

Peer Review

1. I thought the page was really well organized which made it really easy and clear to read. I also thought the sources provided seemed to be a lot more reliable than the ones from the original piece thus adding validity to the page.

There was a link in the middle of the article that led me back to the original article and I'm just not sure if that's there for a reason or not, so that would be something I would edit if its a mistake. Also, context there's a reference to "La Violencia" but since there no link to another page unless you explain it I really do not get the reference. So maybe if you link it to another Wiki page about that particular reference it would benefit a reader on wiki since that could provide the context. I guess if there is no page maybe just a brief sentence or two explaining what that is.

I think the thing from your article that I would likely take away is the organization. It really allows for an easy read.

--Ashley Rios — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ashalexandra (talk • contribs) 23:01, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

2nd Peer Review

Hello there,

Very nice job on your research, as you give a clear understanding of this short story. Nice use of wikilinks throughout your draft, and I think how you organized the page works well as it keeps things structured and precise. I think given the multiple mentions of critics, it still allows the reader to stay neutral with their own interpretation, so well done. I also like the creation of "stage play" as it helps me to think about additions to my own page.

I do have a slight concern, is "La Violencia" mentioned in this short story? It seems an odd link as maybe you might just want to add a brief context for this rather than a link to the page? It seems a little distracting and off topic...(just a suggestion) I would also suggest adding a photo of the cover of this short story if you are able to find it. Other than that, good job and good luck! QuiteCurious (talk) 21:42, 16 November 2017 (UTC)