43 pages • 1 hour read
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
The Chicken Coop
Considering Pelayo and Elisenda were ready to send the old man off on a raft with food and supplies, their subsequent choice to instead lock him in the chicken coop as a kind of circus attraction is significant. They want to be rid of him and at first feel magnanimous at the idea of setting him free, but when they see he can help them turn a profit, they keep him captive. The chicken coop becomes a symbol of this greed. It also solidifies the old man’s status as a dehumanized animal; he becomes just another chicken that Pelayo and Elisenda “farm” to survive. Even the chicken coop receives more care than the angel himself: “If they washed [the coop] down with creolin and burned tears of myrrh inside it every so often, it was not in homage to the angel but to drive away the dungheap stench that still hung everywhere like a ghost” (Paragraph 11).
The literal barrier of the chicken coop that keeps the angel locked in also keeps the surrounding world out. The people who come to see him can only access him through the coop’s holes, which they penetrate with sticks and other devices to garner some reaction from the angel. Because he neither reacts as they expect him to nor communicates in their language, he is an outsider.
The collapse of the coop at the end of the story allows the angel to wander inside Pelayo and Elisenda’s house, much to their annoyance. The angel and the chicken coop are so symbolically entwined that its collapse also coincides with the angel’s apparent health decline. However, because the angel is no longer confined outside, Pelayo notices his illness and covers him with a blanket. Therefore, the loss of the coop humanizes the angel, and this improved treatment is possibly the reason for his quick recovery at the end of the story. Once he is no longer locked in like an animal, he is empowered to fly off on his own.
Stormy Weather
Storms are common in fictional works and typically signify destruction and rebirth; the skies wash away the old and allow new things to grow. “A Very Old Man” begins with a storm that signals the beginning of a new life for Pelayo and his family, washing up the old man and granting Pelayo and Elisenda the opportunity to make money off him. The old man’s arrival also coincides with their child’s recovery—a rebirth that may or may not be a “miracle.” However, if their neighbor is correct, then the storm merely interfered with the angel “collecting” the deathly ill child in the first place (Paragraph 3). Pelayo and Elisenda themselves initially view the weather and the crabs it brings as bad omens, but are ultimately content with the storm: “In the midst of that shipwreck disorder that made the earth tremble, Pelayo and Elisenda were happy with fatigue, for in less than a week they had crammed their rooms with money” (Paragraph 7).
Storms and bad weather can also symbolize fantastic punishment or justice, as evidenced by the tarantula woman’s story: “[W]hile she was coming back through the woods after having danced all night without permission, a fearful thunderclap rent the sky in two and through the crack came a lightning bolt of brimstone that changed her into a spider” (Paragraph 10). This tale is reminiscent of a fairytale, or the lightning bolts Zeus unleashes in Greek myth. Moreover, when the angel finally takes flight at the end, the moment is preceded by an auspicious “wind that seemed to come from the high seas” (Paragraph 13). This is a moment of justice for the angel, who is finally free of his captors. Thus, meaningful depictions of weather underscore the moral of the story.
The Church
From the moment the neighbor woman declares that the old man with wings is an angel, the Catholic Church becomes a looming presence. Word spreads rapidly enough that Father Gonzaga arrives to investigate the so-called angel. Even so, Father Gonzaga’s role seems at odds with the Church’s official stance on the matter. While Gonzaga warns the community to view the angel cautiously, the Church “show[s] no sense of urgency” (Paragraph 9). Instead, they write letter after letter asking seemingly random questions about the angel, forgoing any final “verdict” in favor of apparent curiosity.
The juxtaposition of Gonzaga with the disembodied but highly bureaucratic Church adds to the humor of the story: “[Gonzaga] promised to write a letter to his bishop so that the latter would write to his primate so that the latter would write to the Supreme Pontiff in order to get the final verdict from the highest courts” (Paragraph 5). Gonzaga must remain wary of the angel because he takes his institutional role seriously, whereas the neighbor woman and others in the community can speculate freely because they do not have to report to anyone besides themselves. Ultimately, the presence of the Church helps the story satirize the human capacity for faith (both religious and secular) when confronted with the unknown; neither Gonzaga’s trust in the system nor the villagers’ superstitions bring them any closer to real faith in the face of the old man’s miraculous presence.
Unlock all 43 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 9,150+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Gabriel García Márquez
