Introduction
This essay will focus on examining two short stories: “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and “My Singular Irene”. The pieces are dedicated to highlighting the way humans interact with others and form an understanding of one another. Both stories speak of alienation, disenfranchisement, mistreatment, and miscommunication, with their central characters not being able to fit well into the world. While the issues are similar in many ways, they are also distinctly unique and create their own, special outlook on the world. This essay aims to analyze the main themes and messages conveyed in the story, as well as to compare how certain aspects are portrayed in both pieces.
The Need to Understand
The need to understand is one of the fundamental desires of any human being. As sentient creatures, people strive to interpret or ascribe purpose and meaning to their surroundings and their relationships with other people. Communicating with other persons is a complicated process and requires many different steps. Sometimes people are unable to treat others with the dignity and respect they deserve or end up prioritizing their feelings over other people. In the case of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, the problem of understanding and communication take center stage. A married couple, Elisenda and Pelayo, find a homeless man with wings. The old person is dirty, speaks unintelligibly, and does not appear to be fully aware of his surroundings. The couple’s inability to properly communicate with the man creates a problem of understanding, which results in them treating him rather poorly. Since no one around him can understand the man or reconcile with the fact that he is uniquely inhuman, people subject him to abuse. The inability to understand the old angel makes it difficult for people to extend basic courtesy to him, often instead opting to consider him more of an animal. Elisenda and Pelayo even house him in a chicken coup, devoid of most basic necessities or comforts a human would want. In the case of “My Singular Irene”, the lack of understanding comes from the husband, who fundamentally does not understand his former wife, Irene. The text is presented from the man’s point of view, him describing the recent events and the life he leads with Irene. He has taken her to be unassuming and not thinking too much for herself. The husband bent her to his will, constricting her ability to meet and interact with other people, develop any skills, or derive basic enjoyment from anything other than housework. Throughout the story he mentions that they lived in “mutual understanding”, assuming that his forceful and inconsiderate approach was just good persuasion. Irene left her husband, escaped catching him unaware and confused. The man was so focused on his own beliefs and desires, he failed to notice how much suffering he was putting Irene through. The central leading story beat, Irene’s escape, is fully motivated by her husband’s inability to understand her basic needs and rights as a person.
The Need to Control
The need to exercise control is another human aspect that is explored in both pieces. The world people live in is an ever-changing, place that is very difficult to comprehend through a single person’s perspective. The desire to fit in and keep one’s surrounding factors consistent is what fuels the need for control. People often find a sense of order and meaning in the ability to exercise control over their surroundings and others. In the case of the angelic old man, the married couple had no way of understanding the winged man, so they opted to control him instead. As a mostly helpless person, the old man was unable to take care of himself, allowing the pair to manage his living how they say fit. By keeping him in a chicken coup and charging people for visits, Elisenda and Pelayo have taken control over a situation that they were not able to completely understand. The ability to confine the man to a specific location and find a use for his presence was ultimately used to justify his supernatural existence in an otherwise normal world. In the case of the second story, the husband exercises control over Irene to feel content with his life. Judging from his trip plan and the need to carefully arrange their leisure time, the man seems to be unable to enjoy life without approaching it on his own terms. The control he puts over his wife is the guarantee that his desires in life will be fulfilled. For Irene’s husband, control is the tool to enjoy life.
The Need to Belong
The need to belong is another human desire that is fundamentally shared by all humans. Finding one’s place in the world, and having the ability to fulfill a certain purpose is what gives many people’s lives meaning. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the reader can examine how the old man does not belong to the normal society. His differences in physical appearance, speech, and capacity for normal thought separate him from the rest of the humans on a fundamental level. Without being able to be accepted, the man is not being treated the same as others and does not have close connections with other people. His leaving at the end of the story signifies that the man did not feel that Elisenda and Pelayo’s household was the place he would want to stay in. In the case of “My Singular Irene”, Irene is the person that does not belong in her husband’s house or in human society in general. She is a free spirit, forever curious and joyful, wanting to experience the simple joys of freedom. During their trip, she requests simple things of her husband, to leave the car and see the hill, to walk on water barefoot, pick daisies and catch butterflies. Her joy upon being in the water and riding in the car, seeing all kinds of different sights is starkly contrasted with both her husband’s outlook and her house life. The man finds her fascination to be foolish and stupid, often refusing to even entertain the possibility of Irene getting her way, or ultimately disregarding her feelings. As for the house life, he feels that buying Irene a TV and many material possessions will make her fulfilled, while not taking her perspective into question even once. The pair’s priorities and outlook on the world are fundamentally different, and Irene’s need to find the freedom she thirsts for is what motivates her to run away with butterflies. She finds her belonging away from the man that tries to control her.
Need for Personal Freedom
Lastly, a desire that is shared by people is freedom. The ability to openly display their emotions, being allowed to find and accomplish goals, or even move without physical restraint are all especially important to people. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, depicts the old man lacking physical freedom. He is unable to leave the chicken coup where the married couple situates him in, due to the lack of strength and the general disposition of the people around him. Much like with the need to belong, his departure at the end shows the reader that the man also yearns for freedom, making him as much human as a person without wings. In “My Singular Irene”, this theme is especially highlighted. Irene’s husband is controlling to an unhealthy degree, restricting her movement and social circle, placing and the deciding power on himself. Irene’s desire for liberation is most evident on their trip, where her excitement over the outside world escalated to an extraordinary degree. The pure joy she experiences being able to swim and catch butterflies shows the reader how much the woman needs and enjoys her personal freedom. Her husband’s manipulative and selfish nature has isolated Irene from the rest of society, effectively making her his personal doll, a pretty plaything to be commanded. Her breaking free of his control and running away is the culmination of the story and a reinforcement of the need for freedom found in any person.