Question

Several times throughout “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, García Márquez will interrupt the narrative with a hyperbolically descriptive or philosophical comment. For example, in the midst of the opening description, he notes that, “The world had been sad since Tuesday”. What other examples can you find of this technique, and what is their effect on the story (Why are these effects important)?

Answer 1

In the second paragraph of the story, the narrator tells us that "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". This comment works as a transition between the extraordinary aspect of the old man and the simple-hearted approach that Pelayo and Elisenda have. It's a extraordinary sentence because it reveals why many people will visit the old man with enormous wings. For curiosity is a way of knowing and turning familiar what is odd.

In that same paragraph, Pelayo and Elisend decide to consult with a woman: «And yet, they called in a neighbor woman who knew everything about life and death to see him, and all she needed was one look to show them their mistake». This comment is written for ironic puroposes. First, Pelayo and his wife think that the old man is a salir from a foreign country. Then, this neighbor woman believes that he is an angel. Both conclusions are presented with certainty, as if it was trully possible that someone «knew everything about life and death» and could show, needing just one look, the truth.

Another humorous passage is: «Against the judgment of the wise neighbor woman, for whom angels in those times were the fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy, they did not have the heart to club him to death».

The effect that hyperbolical passages have is important because it creates a distance between some perspectives: the one that the woman holds, the one of the neighborhood, the one of father Gonzaga, the one of Pelayo and his family and the one that the reader himself can create.

Other comments that interrupt the narrative and have a humorous approach, despite being philosophical in a very informal way, are the conjectures about the captive's future. He will be «major of the world», «five-star general», he will start a race of winged wise men... These comments contrast with the sad and beaten figure of the old man. They talk more about the imagination of the villagers than about the old man itslef.

A significant phlisophical comment is near the end of the story: «Father Gonzaga held back the crowd’s frivolity with formulas of maidservant inspiration while awaiting the arrival of a final judgment on the nature of the captive. But the mail from Rome showed no sense of urgency. 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. Those meager letters might have come and gone until the end of time if a providential event had not put and end to the priest’s tribulations.» García Márquez makes fun of the thelogical discussions of the scholastics and the futility of these investigations.

In the end, the curiosity of people deviates towards a woman converted into a spider, showing the need to find new stimuli. It's the other side of knowledge: when something becomes too well known that it isn't noticed anymore. That allows the old man to recover and is beautiful because the most extraordinay act (the old man flying) is barely noticed and it's not cause of astonishment, but cause of relieve for Elisenda.