Summary of the a very old man with enormous wings
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Answer:
Explanation:
One day when Pelayo, a coastal villager, goes to dispose of crabs that have washed ashore onto his property, he discovers an old man with wings lying face down in the mud. The toothless creature is bald and dressed in rags. As Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, carefully examine the creature, looking for clues to its origin, it responds to their questions in a tongue that they cannot identify. They suspect that he is a castaway from a ship. Other villagers who see the old man offer theories about his origins and appearance. The couple plan to set him adrift on a raft, but they first imprison him in a chicken coop. When a large crowd gathers around the coop, Pelayo and his wife decide to charge admission to view him, thereby creating a circuslike atmosphere.
The local priest, Father Gonzaga, is disturbed by rumors that the mysterious winged creature might be an angel, so he comes the next day to investigate. When the old man fails to understand Latin, the priest denounces him as an impostor. Nevertheless, curious people travel great distances to see the creature, and a carnival arrives to take advantage of the large crowds. Father Gonzaga, in the meantime, writes to the pope in an attempt to ascertain the church’s official position on the creature and the apparently “miraculous” occurrences that the crowds associate with the old man. The Vatican demands to know if the old man knows Aramaic, if he can fit on the head of a pin, and if he has a navel. Meanwhile, the sick and the handicapped come to the old man in search of cures. The old man does seem to perform miracles, but these miracles are gratuitous in that they are unrelated to the sickness involved. A blind man, for example, grows three new teeth.
The crowds begin diminishing after the carnival puts on display a woman who was transformed into an enormous spider for having attended a dance without her parents’ permission. Nevertheless, Pelayo and his wife have profited so greatly from their enterprise that they purchase a new house and fine clothing. After their chicken coop collapses, the old man moves into the couple’s home, where he becomes a nuisance. Over the years the old man makes feeble attempts to fly, but not until the end of the story does he finally gain sufficient strength and altitude to fly away.
Answer:
The short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings tells the story of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda, who find an old man with wings in their courtyard after killing crabs in a rainstorm. Pelayo gets his wife, and they try to communicate with him unsuccessfully. They eventually get their neighbor woman, who informs them that the old man is an angel. She tells them that it was on its way for their sick child.
They put the angel in the chicken coop, and during the middle of the night their child's fever breaks. They decide to let him go, but when they return to the courtyard at dawn the entire community has arrived to see the angel. Father Gonzaga soon arrives, declaring that the old man is a fake. He promises to get the real truth from the higher courts of the church. The news of the angel spreads like wildfire, and the courtyard soon resembles a marketplace. Elisenda then has the idea of charging a 5 cent admission fee for seeing the angel; they are soon rich. Rome takes it time deciding on whether the old man is an angel, and while waiting for their verdict, Father Gonzaga works desperately to restrain the crowd.
The crowd leaves on its own, however, when a carnival boasting a Spider-Girl arrives in town. Spectators are allowed to question her, and she tells them how she was turned into a tarantula one night for disobeying her parents. This appeals to the masses more than an old winged man who ignores the people around him. Thus, the curious crowds soon leave the angel for the spider, leaving Pelayo's courtyard deserted.
Pelayo and Elisenda build a mansion with all the money they have accumulated. They neglect the angel and prevent their child from getting to close to the chicken coop. He soon becomes a part of their life, and they no longer fear him. The child visits him often. After a while the chicken coop breaks, and they allow him to move around their house, although it causes Elisenda much distress. He gets increasingly frail and sickly, and they fear that he will die. He recovers, however, and one day Elisenda watches him fly away, to her great relief.