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  • Essay / Summary of a Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - 1384

    Comparison-Contrast: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings In his short story, Gabriel García Márquez wrote "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", which tells how an angel suddenly appears in a seaside town. Márquez's story is also adapted into a play by Little Angel Theater (LAT). In Márquez's original work the story is told by a narrator, while the LAT piece is made up of puppets and in the trailer there is no sound and only visual effects provided by the puppets . There are many similarities between Márquez's original work and the LAT trailer; however, there are differences between the two stories that could change the meaning by the end of the story. Similarities In Márquez's original version and in LAT's trailer of "A Very Old Man 590) with very little hair and few teeth remaining. Its wings were also described as "huge buzzard wings, dirty and half torn off, forever tangled in the mud" (Márquez, p. 590). Quite a different sight in the LAT version of the story. The old man's wings seemed well put together and he was able to use them. In reality, the visual of the old puppet man with his large wings, his collapsed face casting darkness into his eyes is quite sinister; in the meantime, the vision I have of the old man in Márquez's story is quite different. From the beginning to the end of the story, he seems more docile and seemingly harmless. At one point, the boy, very young, entered the cage where a wire was opened. The parents had tried to take the boy away from the henhouse but they “began to lose their fears” (Márquez, p. 593) and let the boy into the henhouse. As the narrator tells it, the angel did not show much interest in the child, but he tolerated him with “the patience of a dog who had no illusions” Márquez (p. 593). There is quite a contrast in the LAT version, as the boy and the old man are very curious about each other, with the old man even reaching for the boy with his wings. In one particular scene from LAT, the old man literally took the young man under his wing. It seems that in the play and in the original story, Pelayo and Elisenda don't start out nearly the same way. However, there are key differences in the plots of Little Angel Theater Company that make the ending of the story seem quite different from that of the original story. original story created by Márquez. I think the differences are because the puppet adaptation had to have a bit more action than the original play. The old man in Márquez's version remained practically in the henhouse until it was destroyed by the weather. Pelayo and Elisenda reluctantly welcomed him into their home until they grew tired of him and “gave him the charity of letting him sleep in the shed” Márquez (p. 594). As a writer, Márquez is able to describe the details of things in a very different way that in a play, especially with puppets, would require the puppets to have striking features and be more active than what was described in the original story. One final difference was the ending. In Márquez's original version, it was Elisenda who watched the old man with outstretched wings begin to fly, and as he gained altitude, Elisenda "breathed a sigh of relief for herself and for him" (Márquez , p. 594) and she continued to look at him until he was far away. In the LAT version, it appears that the man flies away in the middle of the night, while Pelayo lies motionless, hopefully asleep. Other than