Author's Description Of The Angel example essay topic

Parks English 101-104 Professor Storch 9 February 2001 A Lost Cause Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in South America a poor inner city child. He had only his perseverance to be educated which enabled him to escape the slums and become a world-renowned writer. His writing was different than most other native writers during this time period because he utilized the literary technique known as magical realism, and he perfected this style in his short stories. Magical realism is the literary process by which fictional material is made believable, and imagery amid descriptive detail are essential in using this technique to make a story and its characteristics convincing. In his short story, "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings", Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses magical realism to create a believable setting and a creditable earthly angel.

Magical realism and imagery are used by Marquez to build a plausible setting for the discovery of an earthly angel. Marquez creates a dreary setting via his description of the poverty stricken village in his description of the setting. Marquez describes the flooding of the village and the devastating damage the caustic waters have brought. The crabs have communities in the villager's houses, and they seem to multiply as the rain persists.

The stench that the rotting crabs emit is nearly intolerable for the victims, and the author truly creates this village as a monotone and dismal atmosphere. For example, "Sea and sky were a single ash gray thing and the sand of the beach, which on March nights glimmered like powdered light, had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish". This atmosphere described by the author is essential for the discovery of a fallen angel; an angel not of celestial beauty, but of earthly distinctiveness. When the main character, Pelayo, discovers the dirty and deplorable creature, he is face down in the mud, unable to stand under the weight of his enormous and soiled wings. The undeveloped South American village setting is appropriate for the discovery of a tattered and weak angel because the reader imagines an earthly creature covered in filth; and by his using this dirty and unpleasant setting, the author is able to match an unworthy being with an unworthy yet appropriate setting. By his describing this setting as somber and sinister, the author creates a believable environment for the discovery of the contemptible angel, thus incorporating the literary device known as magical realism.

The reader is able to deem this fictional setting believable due to the physical and economic conditions described by Marquez. Not only does Marquez describe the setting, but he also describes the cultural beliefs of the villagers. The author describes the people as Catholics, ideological and intolerant in their beliefs. These Catholics in the story are rendered as close-minded and unappreciative, and the reader realizes the villager's mindset only through their connote reaction toward the creature. For example", The parish priest had his first suspicion of an impostor when he saw that he did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers". The reader can infer from this quote that the Catholics in this Columbian village are skeptical of the creature, and this culture along with the setting are essential in creating an appropriate atmosphere for the discovery of a laudable angel.

The villager's ungratefulness toward the creature is evident when the spider lady visits the village because she steals the attention of the people held by the angel. When this lady comes to the village, the people forget about the angel, and they no longer deem him significant. The villagers forget about the angel like a child forgets about an old toy, and his significance is shattered by the neglecting environment. The people's neglecting of the angel portrays the precise setting for a creature of no celestial splendor. The disapproving attitude of the Catholic villagers, along with the dismal setting, creates an atmosphere capable of containing a grimy fallen angel. The author incorporates magical realism in his creating a suitable setting for the discovery of a frayed and ungodly seraph.

Marquez uses magical realism to make this fallen angel believable and appropriate to the reader. The angel is described as " a drenched great-grandfather" and having "huge buzzard wings". The reader can infer the angel is not of divine beauty and godly appearance, based on the author's description of the angel. For example, Marquez describes the angel when he writes, "he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels". The author uses vivid imagery to describe the appearance of the angel and parallel his physical characteristics with the somber and filthy environment, thus creating magical realism. Upon his encountering of the creature, Pelayo notices the angel's wings, "forever entangled in the mud".

His muddy and maggot-infested wings are half-plucked, and his intolerable filth is visible to the naked eye. This bleak setting is creditable as the angel lies face down in the mud because he is old and weak. If the author had described this angel with flawless characteristics in this poverty-stricken town, then the physiognomy of the angel and the setting of the story would foil one another, thus countering the concept of magical realism. For example, if the angel was described as having celestial physicality's of an arch angel such as Gabriel, then the somber South American setting would foil the being's characteristics; and therefore, the story would contradict magical realism and be implausible. This angel is unclean and feeble, and he is not worthy of any setting other than the wet and putrid ground on which he lays. Marquez creates magical realism via his use of imagery in his describing the angel, and he enables the reader to perceive the creature as valid.

In his short story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses magical realism to create a believable setting and a laudable earthly angel. Magical realism is used to convey this fictional creature as valid in that its characteristics are appropriate for the environment in which it lives. The vivid imagery used by the author conveys a tone and picture for the reader to feel and envision. By Marquez's using other literary techniques to make an unreal story valid, he grasps the concept of magical realism.