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Nicole Harlan
ENGL 263.W1
Professor Sanders
19 February 2016
Critical Response Essay 1
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Axolotl by
Julio Cortazar both have characters in the story that are impertinent to the storyline. However,
the term of magical realism best describes these characters and their parts in the stories. Logic
and realistic are two words that will never described these two stories, which is what makes them
similar. A few similarities between the two story are the supernatural elements and parts of the
theme can be intertwined within each other. The differences between the two stories are the
characters and the meaning of the stories.
The story of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings starts off with a family throwing
dead crabs back into the sea. The story revolves around an angel and how the family can make
money off of him. The angel is deemed a supernatural creature, or that is what the townspeople
claim he is. Father Gonzaga was the only one to doubt the mystic creature stating, the devil
had the bad habit of making use of carnival tricks in order to confuse the unwarywings were
not the essential element in determine the difference between a hawk and an airplane (Marquez
459) and even less in describing what an angel looks like. However, the townspeople quickly tire
of the old man with enormous wings and the story concludes with him apprehensively flying
away.
The Axolotls are a little more difficult to describe as being in the supernatural realm. The
man that comes everyday to watch them has no difficulty with this. He frequently holds them in

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high regards stating, The eyes of the axolotls spoke to me of the present of a different life, of
another way of seeing (Cortazar 357). Just like Father Gonzaga, the security guard at the
axolotls aquarium likely thought thought [the man] was a little cracked (Cortazar 357). The
man watching the axolotls believe he is one but also exists as a man, still.
While the characters both had ties to the magical realism in their stories, the characters
were also very different from each other. They both held some awe for the creatures that captured
their attention, however the way they expressed their emotions were black and white. For
example, Elisenda, the wife in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, treated the old man with
very little regard. Considering he brought in all the money that allowed her family to move into a
two-story mansion, you are led to believe that she would think higher of him than an
annoyance in her life (Marquez 462). Father Gonzaga had the same mind set as Elisenda, but
for different reasons. He believed the supposed angel was an imposter, yet his prudence fell on
sterile hearts (Marquez 459). While these two characters disliked the mythical creature in theirs
lives, the man was positively fascinated with what he saw in the axolotls.
The man was pulled in by their quietness[and was] fascinated the first time [he]
saw the axolotls (Cortazar 356). The man goes on to describe the axolotls in great detail, even
admitting that he believes them to be more than animals and of a mysterious nature. The man
relates to the axolotls in ways that are indescribable. He states that their eyes holds another world
in which no creature but the axolotls could reach. The man goes on to state that while he is
captured by them, he is also afraid of the creatures. Possibly he is afraid of what they are and
what relations they have in accordance to him, as a human being. The man finally reaches the
conclusion of the axolotls when he becomes one and knew instantly that no understanding
was possible of the axolotls (Cortazar 358).

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In A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, the story follows a family that finds an angel
and eventually moves into a larger house after making enough money off of the spectacle living
in their chicken coop. The family and others that found him treated the angel more of a circus
animal than a blessed angel. The story ends with Elisenda, the wife, feeling relief because the
angel flew away until she could no longer see him. The story has an angel in it, but the angel is
not depicted how these mythical beings usually are. Angels are typically described as being wise,
ethereal, and servants of God. That is not the case in this particular story. The angel is described
as having very few hairs on his head, few teeth, and his wings are dirty and half-plucked,
were forever entangled in the mud (Marquez 458).
From the story, I understood that the ideas and concepts that are we led to believe are not
always what they seem to be. The angel plays this part and even Father Gonzaga doubts the
angels real identification. Sometimes when we are faced with the hard truth that things are not
what they appear to be, people respond with fear. Pelayo and Elisenda acted this with putting him
on a raft and have him fair for himself out on the sea. Certain parts of the theme in Marquezs
story also plays a part in Cortazars story as well.
A man is fascinated by the Mexican salamanders and studied them day after day. He soon
comes to the realization that he is a axolotl and the point of view switches to him being the
animal watching a man watch the specimen. The part that is similar in terms of theme with
Marquezs story is that not every idea we have come to believe is true in that sense. Majority of
people would believe axolotls to be boring, but this one man took it further and actually tried to
understand the axolotls as more than just axolotls. It seems like the axolotls live very lonely
lives, and the man continued to study the specimen when he believed he could gain something,
more insight on them. The ending states, if I think like a man its only because every axolotl

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thinks like a man.. (Cortazar 359). It leads the reader to believe that man are axolotl are
connected, in the way that they often feel lonely, there is a world only known to them, and they
have a hard time expressing themselves.
The two stories of A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings and The Axolotls have
similar but distinctive characters and ideas that make them both intriguing. Their similarities are
being that both each have a supernatural element in them, one being the angel and the other are
the axolotls and their hidden world. The other similarities between the two stories are the themes
and meaning behind the stories. Between the two, I believe there is an underlying understanding
that not everything is what you believe it to be.
The differences between the characters is how they acted in their peculiar situations.
Elisenda and Father Gonzaga were apprehensive and against the creature. In opposition, the man
feared but adored the axolotl, and aspired to become one. The difference in the themes was that
Marquezs story with the old man is not everything you originally believed to be true is.
Cortazars story seems to be saying that the axolotls have a world that is only known to them, but
they cannot communicate because there is no understanding the axolotls.

Works Cited
Cortzar, Julio, and Paul Blackburn. End of the Game, and Other Stories. Print.
Mrquez, Gabriel Garca. Collected Stories. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Print.