Symbolism is often employed in literature to represent, signify, and express ideas and qualities that differ from their literal sense in real life. As a literary device, symbolism can assume various forms by using abstract ideas to give an object a more vivid and deeper meaning by the use of symbols. It has become a very integral part of literature as it enables the creation of universal characters and themes. Moreover, authors have gained freedom as they give interpretation varyingly. For these reasons, many authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” greatly rely on symbolism to develop his characters and relay the significant themes of the story. There are several instances of symbolism in the story: the very old man with wings, the feathers of the wings turning dark in color at some point in time, a spider woman whose character depicts evil, and the greedy townspeople. In the end, this writing style helps to tell the idea that assumptions can lead to very severe actions.
An audience may draw several interpretations of the symbolism depicted in the Marquez’s work. An instance is the case of the old man with wings. Marquez describes the old man spotted by Pelayo and Elisenda as someone who was rather malformed, incongruous: “His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked” and a rag picker judging by his lanky looks (Garcia and Gregory 1). These negative connotations represent the life of a person who has undergone so much misery and has so much burden to bear. At first sight, the townspeople do not want to be associated with the old man and isolate themselves from him. The description of the old man’s wretchedness and despair is analogous to the real world, where people go through lots of challenges and problems, and most at times, their lives are torn apart through their experiences. After an inability to rise from such misfortunes, the world always seems to isolate from such kinds of people, just like the old man’s case. The author uses “the old man” in this context to represent anyone going through a cynical phase, mentally, physically, or financially.
On the other hand, the wings symbolize people’s various burdens in their daily endeavors. However, matters take a turn later in the story when the old man begins to grow new wings and can fly away: “at the beginning of December some large, stiff feathers began to grow on his wings, the feathers of a scarecrow… But he must have known the reason for those changes, for he was quite careful that no one should notice them” (Garcia and Gregory1). The angel’s feathers begin to grow dark in color at some point. The dark-rugged feathers indicate the consequences of going through a tough time and adapting to the situation. Earlier, the author depicted the wings as dirty, sullen, soft, and dysfunctional. It was not until the dark feathers grew that he could fly. It shows that there is always a recovery time for anyone going through anguish and hope for better days, albeit the time needed for a person to resuscitate and rise like a phoenix.
Another character used to bring out the story’s theme was the spider woman. The writer labels the lady as “a frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden” (Garcia and Gregory 3). The girl represents someone who had gone against societal norms as she had disobeyed her parents on one occasion. From the picture painted by Marquez and the girl’s nature as seen from her deeds, she represents evil in society. Such people are always a harbor for negativity and a constant source of unwarranted misfortune, just like in the real world.
The townspeople (villagers) symbolize society and how differently they react on various occasions. In this instance, the villagers are depiction greed. Pelayo and Elisenda go to the point of putting the old man on a display so that people could pay to see him. Despite the angel being meek and mild, the villagers torture and rile him up to see what he could do, “the most merciful threw stones at him… they burned his side with an iron for branding steers ” (Garcia and Gregory 2). Just like in the old man’s case, the people who held the spider woman captive charged people to see her. The two occurrences show how much greed the people bore and their cruelty towards outsiders.
Literary devices have been widely used in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” especially symbolism that Marquez uses to develop the characters and the themes. Much as we never learn if the old man was an angel, he represents good in the story and calls society to incline towards charity and good deeds. Society is never always devoid of evil, and the author represents the same by using the spider woman’s nature and deeds. Humanity’s greed for wealth is also highlighted, and the consequences of baseless and biased assumptions are the advent of societal misfortunes.
Work Cited
Garcia, Marquez G, and Gregory Rabassa. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: And the Sea of Lost Time. 2014. Print