"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

Vocabulary-pg.678

1.Stench-Offensive smell



2.Impeded-held back or blocked



3.Magnanimous-generous;noble



4.Reverence-attitude or display of deep respect and awe.



5.Frivolous-not properly serious.



6.Impertinences-Insults



7.Ingenuous-too trusting.



8.Prudence-cautiousness



9.Cataclysm-Disaster



10.Providential-fortunate



11.Affliction-suffering;distress



12.Lament-feel very sorry.

Reading Check Questions-pg.690

1.What do Pelayo and Elisenda think the old man is? What does their neighbor think? and Father Gonzaga? Pelayo and Elisenda thought the old man was a lonely castaway from some foreign ship. The neighbor thinks he is an angel. Father Gonzaga thinks he is an imposter.





2.How does the winged old man change the lives of Pelayo and Elisenda? They charge money for people to see him, and eventually become wealthy.





3.What miracles are attributed to the old man? They compare him to one of the survivor fugatives of the celestial conspiracy.





4.What happens when another novelty, a spider-woman, comes to town?


She ruins the angel's reputation by crushing him completely.





5.What human shortcomings might Garcia Maquez be satirizing in this story? I think that the way the towns people react is the main one in this story. When they throw things at him, and burn him with iron, they all intended to laugh at him.





6.Do you think the old man is a divine figure or an evil one, or neither? Explain your view. I think that he is a divine figure. If he were evil, he wouldn't have stayed so calm all the time, and would have found a way out of the coop. If he wasn't either, I don't think he would have had the wings.





9.What details in this story illustrate the style of magic realism-that is elements of fantasy mixed with the commonplace? Details such as the description of his wings on page 683 show that magic realism contains both fantasy, because you know that the story could have never happened, and commonplace, because the detail allows you to picture as if you were there.





10.Which of Garcia Marquez's images did you find most startling and memorable? How does the author use these images to create the story's mood and tone? I think that the image of this big fancy new home built next to a small run down chicken coop is the most memorable image, because it makes you feel sorry for the old man. It makes the mood depressing, and sad. The worst part is that he also talks about how happy the family is, and that shows how much they care about the old man.

Plot Diagram

1.Conflict-The couple finds the old man with wings outside in the mud.





2.Rising Action-Citizens from all around gather to observe the creature, and make conjectures on what he is. Pelayo starts to charge admission.





3.Climax-The spider-girl comes in and gets all the attention.





4.Falling Action-The old couple build a rather large house, and keep him in the old chicken coop. After the coop is destroyed, he lives in an old shack. They couple pays no attention to him, except when they thought he had died.





5.Resolution-The Old man with enormous wings sprouts new wings, and flies into the horizon.





6. Antagonist/Protagonist-Pelayo&Elisenda/The old man with enormous wings.





7.Point of View-3rd limited





8.Irony-Situational. The man never got better, and he kind of just took off.

Author Summary

Gabriel García Márquez

1. Born on March 6, 2007, he is 82 years old today.

2.He won the Nobel Piece prize in literature in 1982.

3.He is married(1985) with two kids.

4.He is known for his short storys magic realism themes.

5.In early March of 2000, he was diagnosed with cancer.



Worksheets

Vocabulary Development-"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

1.C 5.A 9.A

2.B 6.C 10.B

3.A 7.C 11.C

4.B 8.C 12.A