Angels are one of the most primal archetypes of the supernatural realm, identical to humans in almost everything except wings, thus creating an inevitable moment of recognition: when an angel appears in this world, you will recognize him by his wings. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” author Gabriel Garcia Márquez plays on this recognition to use the title character to challenge cultural assumptions about deeply held religious traditions and spiritual beliefs. His story of a winged man who appears in a village without any explanation reveals the superficiality of real faith that hides beneath the thin glossy veneer of ritual; The inhabitants of Garcia Márquez's village become a collective symbol of the cruelty with which people treat things foreign to the narrow values ​​they used to define their culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The true nature of the title character is purposely left ambiguous by the author to leave that decision entirely up to the villagers. Although the old man's true nature and purpose are never revealed, his actions clearly indicate a lack of desire, will, or ability to do harm. By eliminating the possibility that the old man with wings represents a threat capable of causing conflict within their culture, his arrival becomes a moral lesson on how mistreatment of a stranger can be spurred when a community comes into conflict with their own cultural assumptions through unexpectedly facing a challenge to their cultural expectations. The theme of alienation runs through the story from the beginning, but it soon becomes clear that this is a particular kind of alienation. Although physically repellent and with a bearing completely at odds with traditional artistic representations of angels, the true nature of this theme only becomes evident when the town parish priest expresses his suspicion that the absolutely unique creature with wings is probably an impostor because “he has seen that they do not understand the language of God nor do they know how to greet his ministers”. This assumption is confirmed among the villagers only after his rejection of the mothballs and their blind acceptance of the shaky premise that they are "prescribed food for angels." Gradually, it becomes clear that this dark creature is not alienated from the villagers because of some inexplicable strangeness, but because of its explainable strangeness. Unable to resolve the contradiction of a man whose wings do not conform to the angel they know, they may rationalize a moral justice to their rejection on the basis of what is definitely not rather than what could be. Deemed an outsider and something that is alien to constructed cultural values, the old man can be unceremoniously thrown into a chicken coop without guilt as a reward for not being beaten to death. At that point the entire country realizes it and is therefore complicit. This dehumanization of a possible winged angel by forcing him into a coop built for winged food becomes an example of a response to alienation through ethnic prejudice "an ideology that makes an incomprehensible world intelligible by imposing on that world a "response system" simplified and categorical." (Seemann, 1959). The answer system in this case consists of "finding out whether the prisoner had a navel, whether his dialect had any connection with Aramaic, how many times he could stand on the head of a pin, or whether he was simply a Norwegian with wings." .” Ethnic prejudice creates a/2088565