Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a brilliantly written short story that leaves the reader with questions about society, acceptance, and sacrifice. The way the author has delivered the content normalizes its fictional side and makes it uncertain whether presented events have occurred. This essay will argue that “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” represents the magical realism genre.
The way the characters accept the man with wings makes the supernatural somewhat explainable, which gives the story a magical realism twist. For example, Pelayo assumes that the winged person is a foreigner who survived a shipwreck (Márquez, 2014.) Father Gonzaga referred to the high conceal to confirm the person’s angelic nature, who “showed no sense of urgency” concerning such a case (Márquez, 2014, p 13.) Even the doctor realizes that the phenomena of a man having wings is not surprising but natural (Márquez, 2014.) These and many more examples confirm that the narrative belongs to the magical realism genre.
Authorial reticence is another element of magical realism that is vivid in Marquez’s short story. The authorial reticence refers to withholding certain information to make the story more realistic (Dinodrummer524, 2012.) The author chooses not to reveal the winged man’s actual origin and specifies that he spoke in the unknown dialect (Márquez, 2014.) Because of the absence of such information, the characters start to fill in the gaps, normalizing the magical components of the narrative.
Lastly, Marquez’s story includes indescribable yet believable details characteristic of the magical realism genre. Though a man with wings certainly does not belong to realism, the parasites in his feathers make the fictional element more convincing (Márquez, 2014.) There is also a spider-woman whose nature has a very “logical” description (Márquez, 2014.) These examples show that the author intentionally mixed the magical with the natural, which makes the magical realism genre evident.
A short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a mix of reality and fictional elements. The author makes the supernatural aspects of the narrative seem to be explainable and even believable. Marquez also uses authorial reticence, which makes the character fill in informational gaps and gives the story a more realistic look. Therefore, the presented factors prove that “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” represents the magical realism genre.
References
Dinodrummer524. (2012). Magical Realism Definition [Video]. Youtube. Web.
Márquez, G. G. (2014). A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Penguin Books.