Special Post 2

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children is a very interesting story about a family-Pelayo, Elisenda, and their child- who one evening, after a long rainstorm and a struggle with the many unwanted crabs, find a old man "angel" stuck in the mud outside of their house. They did not know if he was good or bad so they just put him outside in the chicken coop with the animals. Pelayo and Elisenda’s child was sick in bed, almost to the point of death, but due to this mysterious angel-man, the next morning the child was all better. News of this miracle spread throughout town and before they knew it, they had people from all over the place coming to see the angel to receive healings of all sorts. Elisenda came to the conclusion that they were going to begin to charge each person five cents to see the old man. As time went on, they get rich; so much so that all of the rooms in their house were filled with money. After an unknown amount of time, the people began to lose interest in the angel-man and shifted their attention and money to the spider-woman. She was not only interesting to look at but she allowed people to ask her questions. She told the story of how by being disobedient to here parents, she was turned into a spider. Despite the way she looked, her story had a moral to it. Elisenda and Pelayo did well for themselves with all of the money they had earned...they built a new house and got a whole new wardrobe. The only thing left unfixed was the chicken coop with the angel in it. Eventually after a while, the chicken coop collapsed and the angel just sort of went around. He would randomly appear in the different rooms of the house. Pelayo and Elisenda were really worried that he was going to die but after surviving winter, the angels health began to improve. One day, Elisenda watched as he flew off into the distance. She felt relief for both herself and him.

When you first read A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children you really have no idea what is going on. You know that you just read a story about and old man/angel/demon who is sick and who fell into this couples life, but you are left with a whole lot questions. Why is this “A Tale for Children” part of the title? What is the point of having the crabs in this story? Who and what is this old man angel-like thing? What happened to him? Why is he so weak? Is this whole story a dream or reality? A lot of the story is almost left unanswered. The audience will never know if the angel-man was a angel or a demon. We have no idea where he came from or why he looked so beat up and awful. It remains a mystery. The central theme of this story is the ambiguity of it all. As I stated above, the reader does not give any answers. Many issues go unresolved and we are left to fill in the blank ourselves. We are given the power to draw the conclusions as to who the old man is and what is real or make believe. Many would even say that what makes this story so great is fact that it allows you to make sense of the story in your own way. In real life, we are not given the answers to all of life’s questions, and I feel as though that is true for this story as well.

The main interpretations that I take away from this story is how shallow people in this world can be. Pelayo and Elisenda only kept the angel man to get money. They treated him poorly and kept him tied up outside like a criminal. All of the people came to see him not only for his wings but to GET something from him. Instead of taking this opportunity to love on someone who was lost and hurting, they used him to make a little cash. I understand that they did not know him or what he was capable of, but they could have at least made the situation a little bit more bearable for him.

This story was an eye opener to what culture is really like today. We are so worried about how we can get ahead that we neglect to see the other people who are hurting and in need around us. Instead of viewing the angel man or the “dorky” person as an annoyance, we should view their presence as an opportunity to share the love of Christ with them…to speak life into them. This story really challenges me to not see people for what they can do for me but what I can do for them as well. It really encourages its readers to be selfless. Matthew 9:35 states that if one so desires to be the first, then he must last and a servant to all. Money is nice but it is temporary. Loving on someone is priceless.