“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a story in which an old angel (lacking the superficial, ethereal form one may expect from an angel) is found by a couple. The couple seeks explanation for the angel from a local mystic, as well as their town priest. In the meantime, the couple confines and profits off of the angel being used as a spectacle and form of entertainment.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not one to shy away from infusing religious connotation into his magic surrealism. He is also not one to shy away from critiquing religion and associated culture and values. Throughout the story there are religious elements through characters and descriptions. Descriptions such as “lunar” and “cataclysm” are juxtaposed with the un-celestial descriptions of the angel; he is raw, human-like, and decaying. The idea of what the angel has to offer is respected, but the angel himself is not revered, and instead is an exploited attention-grabber.
The family profiting off of the angel and indulging in superficial purchases — gluttony — stood out as a direct reflection of institutionalized religion. Growing up, I remember at Sunday service a basket would go around, pew to pew, getting heavier with dollar bills, coins, and checks along the way. Naively, I had hoped this money might go to help a community in strife or to help a family eat dinner. Instead, it went to a new building.
The usage of ‘creolin’ and ‘myrrh’ is intentional to evoke religiosity, used in order to cover ‘dung heap’ scents where they once housed the angel. This made me think about showboating and false advertisements within religion that are used to cover corruption and contradiction.
The story ends with the line “because he was then no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea.” The angel, a direct vessel to God, is no longer a burden for the people to carry. They can resume practicing their religion in an “imaginary” manner; they do not have to apply what they supposedly believe onto the actions of their lives. A fault of far too many.
