Gabriel Garcia uses irony in explaining the appearance of
this old, bald, and featherless angel instead of the soft, white and ethereal angel
we would expect. The townspeople’s reaction in seeing this angel is to deny
what it is because it does not fit their conventional idea of a God sent angel.
This conflict between what we think the characteristics of what an angel should
look like and the angel sent causes confusion and difference opinions on the
treatment of the angel. Because the angel is unknown and foreign, they assume
the worst in him, and treat him accordingly. In the short story “A Very Old Man
with Enormous Wings” Gabriel Garcia uses our expectations to instill irony in
the disheveled appearance of the old angel and shows us how our eyes determine
the fate of the angel rather than his character.
Upon seeing the angel Peloya and Elisenda deny what he is
because he doesn’t fit their conventional idea of what he should look like.
“There were only a few faded hairs left… [and]
few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched
great-grandfather took away a sense of grandeur he might have had
· “They skipped over the inconvenience of the
wings and quite intelligently concluded that he was a lonely castaway
Because the angel is very old man with enormous, almost
featherless, wings the townspeople go into disarray, unable to identify the
foreign creature.
·
“Others of a sterner mind felt that he should be
promoted to the rank of five-star general in order to win all wars”
·
“The parish priest had his first suspicion of an
imposter when he saw that he did not understand the language of God or know how
to greet His master”
·
“He
argued that if the wings were not the essential
element in determining the different between a hawk and an airplane, they were
even less so in the recognition of angels
·
“[He] would write to the Supreme Pontiff in order to get the final
verdict from the highest courts.”
The appearance of the angel prevents the town’s people to
see him simply, and treat the angel like a criminal because he does not fit
their expectations.
·
“Before going to bed he
dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken
coop.”
·
“Hens pecked at him,
searching for the stellar parasites that proliferated in his wings, and the
cripples pulled out feathers to touch their defective parts with, and even the
most merciful threw stones at him”
Ultimately, despite his poor treatment
he heals his wings and takes off, proving he was an angel all along.
·
“Stiff feathers began to
grow on his wings”
·
“Then she went to the
window and caught the angel in his first attempts at flight. They were so
clumsy that his fingernails opened a furrow in the vegetable patch and he was
on the point of knocking the shed down with the ungainly flapping that slipped
on the light and couldn't get a grip on the air. But he did manage to gain
altitude.”
