AnaMarie Mehmel
Professor Benander
World Literature II
24 January 2011
Reader Response: Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s stories, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” are supposed to make people see that life is crazy. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Márquez shows that people are so self -absorbed and wrapped in their own perceptions of the world that they cannot see what is right in front of them, the miracle of an angel right in their midst. So he has wings of a vulture, covered in parasites, and is an old man. That does not make him any less miraculous than he is, but the villagers don’t see that. They do not see the connection between the appearance of the angel and the child getting better or even that the angel then got sick. No they see something that can entertain them and make them money. It is sickening actually. Then when the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is added to that, God it is horrible! The villagers in that story are just as bad. They find a drowned man who common sense would say should be buried, but do they? No! They clean him up, make an imaginary life for him, and then toss him over a cliff. The villagers most have been very unhappy to have to make up a whole life for a drowned guy so that they could have some entertainment. That is what it seems to come down too, entertainment. People are consumed in their own lives that they do not see anything wrong with treating an old man poorly and a dead man without respect. Unfortunately, I know that people are really self-absorbed. Sometimes I am too, but I would never treat an old man with such disregard. He is a person even if he had wings. Putting him in a shed is just plain wrong, my mother would kill me if she ever heard I did something like that, and it would be worse for me if I had done it for money and entertainment. I am not sure what I would have done if I had found a drowned man, but I know for sure I would not have played with him and dressed him up with new clothes and a new life just because I was bored. These stories made me so angry. I cannot comprehend how despicable those villagers were in both stories. Also they made me sad because some people do things like that.
I am glad to hear that your mother has raised you well such that you would never even think to put an angel in a shed. :-)
ReplyDeleteI think you have summarized exactly what Marquez wanted to do: He wanted to present you with such outrageous situations to highlight how actually outrageous real life can be, in very similar ways! Yup, he wanted to make you mad.
hehe! Yes, agreed the texts do make one just a biiit mad. Two of my biggest pet peeves! Being so close minded that you cannot see anything beyond yourself, which leads to this total self-absorption. Everyone can be self-absorbed, but to this extent? Rather infuriating and sad that this idea isn't just a story, it really does happen in real life.
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