“A very old man with enormous wings”:The story of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez “A very old man with enormous wings”, written in 1955 , is about a family harboring what is believed to be an old, fallen “angel man,” who was initially thought to be about to take their sick child. The angel was supposed to come and pick up the child, but the poor boy is so old that the rain knocked him down (Marquez, 1955). The family not knowing how to handle the situation embarks on a journey of mixed emotions as to whether the man is good or bad, strange creature or angel. We'll walk the path of evaluating magical realism in this story. Good and Evil Co-Exist: Good Victories As the story begins, a father, mother, and sick child are all at home on a gloomy day. It was unclear why their child was sick, but the father was determined to blame it on the overwhelming amount of crabs around the house. Since the newborn had a temperature all night, they thought it was due to the stench (Marquez, 1955, p. 1). While the father was killing crabs, he came across a figure lying in the mud, it was an old man with wings. My initial thought process was that it was an angel, but the description of "being" caused some doubts. Its long "buzzard wings" and bald head, I thought, or maybe it's a vulture that fell from the sky, and the family just didn't know what kind of creature it was, but then realized she could speak (Marquez, 1955, p. 2). The family was so curious about the creature that they allowed it to be seen by neighbors against the recommendation of the wise old woman who also said the creature was an angel (Marquez, 1955). At that time, angels were fugitives from the celestial conspiracy (Marquez, 1955), which meant that they were believers...... middle of paper ...... fiction by Rquez. (p.1)ReferencesChristopher, J. (July 2011). The life and influence of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com. Accessed 2014 from http://voices.yahoo.com/the-life-influence-gabriel-garcia-marquez-8776677.htmlTheFreeDictionary.com (nd). Celestial - definition of celestial by the free online dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia. Accessed January 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/celestialGabriel, M. (1955). A very old man with enormous wings. New York: Harper and Row. Retrieved from https://csuglobal.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-384822-dt-content-rid-45301_2/courses/KEY_ENG130/courseFiles_fall2013d/ENG130Merriam-Webster (nd). Magical Realism - Definition and more from the free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Accessed January 2014 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/magic%20realism