The last Short Story Discussion
In the same class that I read about “The Yellow Wallpaper,” I also read “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” So, I already feel like I know a good amount about what this story portrays. And even though I’ve already decided I’m going to write my short story analysis on “A Worn Path”, I feel like I should still do a quick post about what I noticed in the story.
For starters, as it was pointed out in class, nobody truly knows what the purpose of the angel was when the story ends. All we know is that “He must have been coming for the child” (Marquez 674) and that once the story ends, “stiff feathers began to grow on his wings” (Marquez 677) so that he can fly away. While some people might argue that the angel meant to harm the boy, got unlucky, was stuck with Pelayo, and happened to become a cash cow, this idea is incorrect. Some people also argue that it wasn’t an angel at all, and he was just treated as if he were one. However, my theory is that he was in fact an angel, he was sent for the child, but he wasn’t intending to hurt the child; he intended to help him. I believe that the significance of the angel was to watch over the child and help him get a good life. Notice that the angel brought enough money to significantly improve the boy’s life, and when he is finally off to school for his first day and living a peacefully successful life, the angel flies away because his mission was completed. I’m sure there’s more in the story to prove this theory, but this is where I’ll go ahead and end it.
Works Cited:
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” Literature: A World of Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Pearson Education, 2011. 674-677. Print.
For starters, as it was pointed out in class, nobody truly knows what the purpose of the angel was when the story ends. All we know is that “He must have been coming for the child” (Marquez 674) and that once the story ends, “stiff feathers began to grow on his wings” (Marquez 677) so that he can fly away. While some people might argue that the angel meant to harm the boy, got unlucky, was stuck with Pelayo, and happened to become a cash cow, this idea is incorrect. Some people also argue that it wasn’t an angel at all, and he was just treated as if he were one. However, my theory is that he was in fact an angel, he was sent for the child, but he wasn’t intending to hurt the child; he intended to help him. I believe that the significance of the angel was to watch over the child and help him get a good life. Notice that the angel brought enough money to significantly improve the boy’s life, and when he is finally off to school for his first day and living a peacefully successful life, the angel flies away because his mission was completed. I’m sure there’s more in the story to prove this theory, but this is where I’ll go ahead and end it.
Works Cited:
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” Literature: A World of Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Pearson Education, 2011. 674-677. Print.