Examining Human Nature in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Very Old Man

The Latin American writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is one who often utilizes an unique literary style known as "magical realism," defined in the Bedford Anthology as a "mixture of realism, myth, and the miraculous."

Through this literary style Marquez is able to present an intriguing story that incorporates both the events of daily life and those events of a far more supernatural origin. In the story of A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, the presentation of these two aspects of life complement each other, and ultimately work to reveal the true human nature. By utilizing the New Criticism literary theory to interpret the text, one is able to determine that Marquez's depiction of human nature is one that illustrates and inevitably criticizes human reaction to the uncertain and the need to relate an unfamiliar object with something familiar, and the lack of compassion for fellow humans and the willingness to exploit others for personal gain. Marquez also exposes human superficiality and superstition, as well as human simple-mindedness and susceptibility to manipulation. All of these aspects of human nature though different, are inter-related and build upon one another.

Much of the work, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, highlights human uncertainty and human response to such unfamiliar situations. The sudden appearance of a "being" with wings is one that presents uncertainty for Elisenda, Pelayo, and the rest of the townspeople. At first sight of what was later referred to as the "angel," Elisenda and Pelayo were unsure of what to identify it as. However, later Elisenda and Pelayo's natural human instinct surpasses the uncertainty that they face, this change is revealed in the passage that reads:

They looked at him so long and so closely that Pelayo and Elisenda very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar...they skipped over the inconvenience of the wings and quite intelligently concluded that he was a lonely castaway from some foreign ship wrecked by the storm (929).

Despite the obvious appearance of the old man's wings, a mark of the supernatural, the couple's conclusion that he is simply a "lonely castaway from some foreign ship" demonstrates the human need to rationalize. A lonely castaway may not be a person that they encounter regularly, but to them, at least initially it is more fathomable than the supernatural.

The townspeople, including Elisenda and Pelayo, in the story A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, also demonstrate the unfortunate lack of compassion for fellow humans and creatures, as well as their willingness to exploit others for personal gain. The willingness to exploit others is perhaps most apparent in Elisenda and Pelayo's decision to imprison the angel and attempt to profit off him by charging admission to see him,

"Then [Elisenda] got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel...for in less than a week they had crammed their rooms with money and the line of pilgrims waiting their turn to enter still reached beyond the horizon" (930).

This quote not only reveals their exploitation of the angel, but also of the pilgrims who flocked to see him, some desperate for aid in healing their wounds. The act of imprisoning a fellow being is inhumane in itself, but it isn't the only instance of the townspeople lack of compassion toward the angel. The angel was subject to the people's taunting and the people even "burned his side with an iron for branding steers," in order to get him to move and they "tossed him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren't a supernatural creature, but a circus animal" (930). The angel wasn't the only creature subject to such cruelty, though he received the brunt of the mistreatment; however, the "spider lady" was also subject to similar mistreatment as the townspeople manipulated her for their own entertainment.

Marquez reveals another staunch criticism of human nature: human superficiality and superstition, in the excerpt that says:
Then he [Father Gonzaga] noticed that seen close up he [the angel] was much too human: He had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels (930). The reality of supernatural beings, in itself, is subject to debate; however, a greater problem lies when people identify such supernatural occurrences using stereotypes and pre-fixed ideas of what something ought to be. Rather than examine each situation uniquely and determine if it was a supernatural occurrence, people rely upon these stereotypes to identify the supernatural. In this instance, the wide-spread belief is that angels should be splendorous and dignified, thus questioning whether the old man can truly be an angel. An underlying question in this debate, however, is whether or not the old man's lack of dignity is caused directly by his appearance or if the people's mistreatment of him because of his appearance caused him to lack such dignity. By imprisoning him and treating him like a "circus animal," the townspeople certainly don't allow for him to have any dignity. This stereotype of an angel needing dignity and splendor also relates to another aspect of human nature: human superstition. The irrationality of human superstition is demonstrated in the excerpt that reads,

"At first they tried to make him eat some mothballs, which, according to the wisdom of the wise neighbor woman, were the food prescribed for angels" (930). The idea that an angel only being able to eat mothballs is irrational and illogical to the readers, however, the townspeople follow the woman's instructions because of their susceptibility to manipulation and their general lack of knowledge of how to proceed with such uncertainties. The townspeople blindly follow the advice of authoritative figures such as Father Gonzaga, the wise neighbor woman, and the Church, because of this. This ultimately allows such figures to influence what the people belief is necessary to identify the supernatural and a passage that illustrates this reads, "They spent their time finding out if the prisoner had a navel, if his dialect had any connection with Aramaic, how many times he could fit on the head of a pin, or whether he wasn't just a Norwegian with wings" (930). By saying that the people spent their time performing such measures, Marquez is implying that such characteristics are necessary to truly identify an angel. Today such measures would be deemed ridiculous by the majority of people, however, because of the influence of the Church at the time this story occurred, such beliefs were widespread.

Perhaps for the same reason, a lack of knowledge and ability to think for themselves, the aspect of human simple-mindedness and lack of ability to comprehend complex problems is demonstrated. For instance, when the "spider lady" arrives in town, though both the angel and the spider lady are considered to be supernatural and appealing for entertainment purposes, the townspeople become further intrigued with the spider lady than the angel. The townspeople become fascinated with the spider lady, because she has a "plausible" background story that teaches a moral lesson, not to disobey your parents, that the people approve of. Her straightforward background story is more easily digested by the people than the more complex one of the angel. In fact, the narrator once says, "A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals" (930). As such, the popularity of the spider lady quickly surpasses that of the angel.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's criticisms of human nature through the townspeople's symbolical representation of human kind, though different are all inter-related. For instance, the simple-mindedness of the townspeople makes them more susceptible to manipulation and superstition. Though Marquez is generally critical of human nature throughout the story, he does offer a brief glimpse of human potential when he says, "They felt magnanimous and decided to put the angel on a raft with fresh water and provisions for three days and leave him to his fate on the high seas" (930). However, this generosity is quickly diminished when human greed and the opportunity to exploit others for financial gain presents itself.