World Modernism: Part III

Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” depicts a scathing,

bleak, and unerringly accurate depiction of the shortcomings of both humanity and society.

Despite the inclusion of seemingly fantastical components the events that unfold remain not only

believable but depressingly familiar as it mirrors reality so closely. These fantastical inclusions

juxtaposed against the mundanity of the events and lack of wonder or awe of both the characters

and the reader allows “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” to perfectly depict the concept

of magical realism in the clearest of ways.

The unchanging characters, apathetic attitudes, and dehumanizing behavior throughout

the story cast criticism liberally. The targets of this criticism include the Church, the clergy, the

blindly faithful, the fair-weather faithful, the overly logical, the common man, modern society,

and human nature as a whole. One criticism in particular stands out as exceptionally relevant in

our time, the condemnation of sciolism, pseudo-intellectualism, or otherwise vacuous heuristics

that are plagued with cognitive biases, as well as the efficiency and speed with which this

stupidity is disseminates amongst a society. This propagation of moronically, illogical, logical

fallacies brings to mind the modern phenomena of mainstream flat-earthers, conspiracy theorists,

pseudoscience, and fake news.

Marquez demonstrates this societal failure through the wise neighbor woman, Father

Gonzaga, and the mob’s increasingly grandiose ideas. The blind acceptance of the assertion that

the winged old man is an angel is not questioned by most, even after her later spiritual

conspiracy and mothball assertions are proven wrong. Similarly, Father Gonzaga arbitrarily

asserts that the man is not an angel simply because he does not understand Latin or fit the beauty

expectations of an angel. Instead, he boldly proclaims, likely with the advanced knowledge of
evolution he acquired as a woodcutter, that the winged man is likely a winged Norwegian as if

such a thing were obvious and logical.

The old man plays many roles in the story however, two stand out when analyzing how

others treat him, the old man represents both faith and the “other” or anything or anyone who is

different. In the first role the treatment of the old man is representative of the modern perspective

of religion and faith. Everyone makes claims and assumptions based off of whatever basis of

knowledge they choose and follow it without trying to learn from the source. The old man’s

refusal to provide more confirmation of their established beliefs has the masses move on towards

the openly understandable Spider Woman, who represents the scientific enlightenment, which

readily provides answers and explanations rather than obscurity and odd pseudo-miracles. This

metaphor is humorously punctuated with by the detailing on how and why her business won and

stole away all of his faithful followers. The second role as the “other” can be used to explain

their behavior towards him. This aspect can be used to show some of the variety of ways society

mistreats anyone different or misunderstood, such as individuals of a different race, ethnicity,

nationality, faith, culture, or sexual orientation.

Likewise, the end of the story can be viewed as a multitude of variable meanings, but for

the two, character meanings discussed above the end is representative of either the rebirth of

faith and religion or the emancipation or acceptance of the “other.” In the first meaning, the old

man’s leaving is a symbol of religion bypassing the pitfalls and overcoming the inadequacies of

humanity to once again become what it was meant to be. Alternatively, in the “other”

interpretation his liberation from his squalid imprisonment can represent the freeing aspects of

social acceptance.
 Federico García Lorca’s "Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" and Anna Andreyevna

Gorenko's "Requiem" deviate from the magical realism of “A Very Old Man with Enormous

Wings” yet remain in the same era of modernism. This is achieved by a combination of heavy

symbolism, profound disillusionment, dark and depressing themes, and a general sense of

hopelessness. Lorca’s poem is a somewhat more blurred example of the era, when compared to

“Requiem” or “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” as it focused on the death of the

author’s friend rather than the social or political issues and the alienation they entail, that the

other two addressed.