“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

            “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a short story in which Death and Rebirth is a reoccurring theme. The angel starts off nearly dead but he is getting attention. The one day gets no attention and grows its wings and flies away.

            In the beginning, the angel is found dying in the rain, his wings, “dirty and half plucked” (Marquez 588). The family who finds him takes him in to try to lessen his suffering and anguish; to prevent him from dying. The priest looks at him in a pitiful manner. This symbolizes the death of the angel. It is hard for him to move, “For he had been motionless for so many hours that they thought he was dead” (Marquez 592). He lies in the chicken coop, motionless to be tormented by the spectators trying to get him to move. He was as good as dead.

            The angel also experiences to time of neglecting. As the angel died, more and more each day, people stopped being interested in him. They became used to him. To prove it Marquez wrote, “ruined the angels reputation when the woman who had been changed into a spider finally crushed him completely”. The angel went from high popularity at the beginning of his time in the coop to a constant, boring angel who sat around dying all day. This is vital to death and rebirth making you pity the angel and wanting something god to happen to him.

            As the dying angel suffers, alone and neglected, something positive happens. The season changes from fall to winter. “at the beginning of December some large, stiff feathers began to grow on his wings”, (Marquez 594), representing rebirth. He starts flapping his wings after his feathers are grown. His first attempts were clumsy, like a baby walking, but as Elisenda watched, he flew away off into the distance.

            “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a precise example of death and rebirth. It shows the angels death, this struggles with little to no hope, and his rebirth.