A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Question/ Answer) Grade 12

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Understanding the Text

a. How does the narrator describe the weather and its effects in the exposition of the story?

Answer: The narrator describes that it has been raining for three days and Pelayo is throwing the crabs inside his house into the sea in the exposition of the story. Sea and sky are a single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach which has been glittering.

b. Describe the strange old man as Palayo and his wife first encounter within their courtyard.

Answer: The strange old man whom Palayo and his wife Elisenda encountered their country yard was an unusual elderly man who wore ragged clothes. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald head and very few teeth in his mouth. His had enormous wings, dirty half-plucked were forever entangled in the mud when they first encountered within their courtyard.

c. Why did Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop?

Answer: To find out the reality about the old man the couple called their neighbor woman. She told them that he was an angel came there to treat their child. So, they imprisoned the old man in the chicken coop.

d. Why was Father Gonzaga not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger?

Answer: Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man being a celestial messenger because he did not understand the language of him when he greeted the old man in Latin.

e. Many people gathered at Pelayo's house to see the strange old man. Why do you think the crowd assembled to see him?

Answer: Many people gathered at Pelayo’s house to see the strange man because the old man looked strange with very big wings at his back. They thought that he was the messenger of God or an angel.

f. Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. What are these miracles?

Answer:  Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man. Some of the miracles are: the blind man who didn't recover his sight but grew three new teeth, the paralytic who didn't get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers.

g. State the irritating things that the people did with the strange old man.

Answer: People started doing irritating things with the old man such as they poked him with iron and burnt his side with iron. They pulled his feathers. Because of their mistreat, the old man became violent due to pain.

h. How and why was the woman changed into a spider?

Answer: In her childhood, she had sneaked out of her parents' house to go to a dance, and while she was coming back through the woods after having danced all night without permission, a fearful thunderclap rent the sky in tow and through the crack came the lightning bolt of brimstone that changed her into a spider.

i. Describe how Elisenda saw the strange man flying over the houses.

Answer: While she was busy in the kitchen, she felt something outside. She went to the window to see what was happing. She saw that the old man was trying to fly. Soon, he flew off the horizon of the sea and disappeared. 

Reference to the Context

a. The arrival of a strange old man at Palayo's courtyard arouses many suspicions and explanations. Explain how the neighbour woman, Father Gonzaga and the doctor speak of the strange man. Why do you think these three people give three different kinds of interpretations?

Answer: There are many suspicions and explanations which are aroused because of the arrival of a strange old man at Pelayo's courtyard. They are given below:

According to the woman of neighbor, he was an angel who must have come for the child, but he was very old so he was knocked down by the rain who could understood all about life and death.

According to Father Gonzaga, he looked much too human because he couldn’t understand God’s language and he had unbearable smell of the outdoors. According to him he wasn’t a celestial messenger.

Similarly, the doctor discovered that because he had a whistling sound in his heart and kidneys, indicating the impossibility of his being alive. The doctor was shocked to see his natural wings and wondered why others didn't have them.

The strange old man was described differently by those three persons. They give three different kinds of interpretations because of his looks and activities which were supernatural and different from the real people.

b. This story belongs to the genre of 'magical realism', a genre perfected by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novels and short stories. Magical realism is a narrative technique in which the story-teller narrates the common place things with magical colour and the events look both magical and real at the same time. Collect five magic realist happenings from the story and argue why they seem magical to you.

Answer: This story belongs to the genre of 'magical realism,' a genre perfected by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novels and short stories. These five magic realist happenings from the story are listed below:

1. Pelayo saw the very old man first with enormous wings. It is magical because in real world humans do not have wings.

2. During the talk with Pelayo and his wife, the old man used his own dialect which they couldn’t understand. Because of his strange language, they guessed that he might be from another planet. That was also magical.

3. According to the woman of neighbourhood, he was introduced as an angel who came there to treat the sick child. The word "angel" itself gives a magical link in the story.

4. According to the doctor he had so much whistling sound coming from his heart and kidneys so he couldn’t be alive for long time. He saw that his feathers fell down and they quickly grew up which made the doctor surprise. It is also magical.

5. The spider woman in the story is also magical. In real world there isn’t a human being like a spider.

Because of above mentioned points, the story falls under the genre of Magical Realism.

c. The author introduces the episode of a woman who became a spider for having disobeyed her parents. This episode at once shifts people's concentration from the strange old man to the spider woman. What do you think is the purpose of the author to bring this shift in the story?

Answer: The author introduces the episode of a woman who became a spider for having disobeyed her parents. This episode at once shifts people's concentration from the strange old man to the spider woman. I think the author's intention in introducing this change in the story is to show the examples of magical realism.

It is also found that from the magical realism, humans want to earn which is their greed. At the beginning, Pelayo and Elisenda got benefit from the old man by charging some money to the visitors. Later on, their earning was stopped because of the arrival of the spider woman. He brings this shift to show that greed also.

 

d. The story deals with the common people's gullibility(भ्रामकता). How do Palayo and his wife take advantage of common people's whim?

Answer: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is a short story about the common people's gullibility. Pelayo and his wife Elisenda saw an old man with wings in their courtyard and attempted to talk with him. But they weren’t successful to talk to him. He used different dialect. Then they called their neighbour woman, who told them that the old man is an angel who came there to take their sick child but he was knocked down by the rain. They kept the angel in the chicken coop. They informed some villagers about the event. The news spread so fast and so many people came to see him. They made a plan to take entry charge to see the old man. In this way they earned a lot of money from the common people’s whim.

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