"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is a story that combines the reality of everyday life with fantasy. The magic realism used in the literature illustrates many meanings in society. The old man with wings and the girl who turned into a spider are two examples of unreal events used to tell a story that is too strange to believe. Within this story, the author exposes the lack of compassion that people tend to have for people who are different. .
In the beginning of the story, author Gabriel Marquez describes a gloomy environment in which he states, "The world had been sad since Tuesday" (Marquez 356). The rain has caused an infestation of crabs inside the house. The son of Elisenda and Pelayo was also extremely sick. One day after throwing away more crabs, Pelayo stumbled upon the old man lying face down in the mud. Instead of helping the man in need, Pelayo ran to get his wife Elisenda. Speechless and in shock they stared at the old man before helping him. The couple's conclusion was that the man is a "lonely castaway from some foreign ship" (357). The neighbor woman advised them that he was an angel. Pelayo and Elisenda showed some type of compassion because against the judgment of the neighbor woman they did not have the heart to club the old man to death. The cruelty was shown instantly when they decided lock the old man up with the hens in the wire chicken coop. With the sudden existence of the angel, the rain stopped and the child woke up without a fever. .
Father Gonzaga arrived to the house to see the old man after hearing the news of his existence. The priest felt that the man was an imposter because he did not understand the language of God. "Then he noticed that seen close upunbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites, and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels.