Section B:Literature
Unit-1 Short Stories
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. How does the narrator describe the weather and its effects in the
exposition of the story?
The narrator set up the picture
of a rainy day to describe the weather and its effects in the exposition of the
story. The rain falls continuously for three days and makes the land and houses
filled with rainwater. During the rainy season, the sky and sea were changed
into ash grey colour and the sand of the shore glimmered like powdered light,
which had become a hash of mud and rotten shellfish. The light sparked was so
weak and hard to see.
b. Describe the strange old man as Pelayo and his wife first encounter
within their courtyard.
When Pelayo and his wife first
encountered the strange old man, they noticed him dressed in the manner of a
rag picker. He had a bald head and looked almost completely shaved. His mouth
was almost empty with no sans teeth remaining. His large and dirty buzzard
wings were half-plucked and entangled in mud.
c. Why did Pelayo and Elisenda imprison the old man in the chicken coop?
Pelayo and Elisenda imprisoned
the old man in the chicken coop thinking that he is an angel and he was there
to take their child.
d. Why was Father Gonzaga not sure about the old man being a celestial
messenger?
Father Gonzaga Was not sure
about the old man being a celestial messenger because the old man didn’t know
how to greet ministers and also didn’t understand the language of god. Father
noticed this when he said good morning in Latin, he just murmured something in
his dialect which father didn’t understand.
e. Many people gathered at Pelayo’s house to see the strange old man.
Why do you think the crowd assembled to see him?
Many people gathered at Pelayo’s
house to see the strange old man because he was unique and strange with his
buzzard wings. People thought of him as an angel or messenger of god and
thought of making some fun with him.
f. Some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange
man. What are these miracles?
In the story, it is mentioned
that some miracles happened while the crowd gathers to see the strange man.
Those miracles were the blind man who couldn’t recover his eyes but grew three
new teeth, the paralytic person who couldn’t walk but almost won the lottery
and the leper whose shore flourished sunflowers.
g. State the irritating things that the people did with the strange old
man.
The people gathered at Pelayo’s
house also did some inhuman and teasing tasks with the strange old man. Such
irritating things include throwing stones at the old man and burning his side
with an iron rod. Which made him injured and he was not capable of moving. He
laid there like a dead man for half an hour and woke up full of tears. People
pulled his feathers too.
h. How and why was the woman changed into a spider?
The reason behind the changing
of the woman into a spider is lightning. Without any permission, she went out
to dance and when she was returning from the forest a massive lightning strike
shattered the sky and a bolt of brimstone hit and converted her into a spider.
i. Describe how Elisenda saw the strange man flying over the houses?
Elisenda saw the strange man
flying over the house from her windows while she was chopping vegetables in the
kitchen. While doing so, she felt a breeze and moved to the window to check whether
it is. She then saw the elderly guy was trying to fly and after a while, she
saw that he succeeded to fly and vanished as quickly.
Reference to text
a. The arrival of a strange old man at Pelayo’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?
The appearance of a strange old
man at Pelayo’s courtyard produces many suspicions and explanations. According
to the neighbour woman, he was an “angel” who came for their child, but the
poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down. When Father said Good
Morning in Latin, he muttered something in his dialect which father couldn’t
understand.
Father Gonzaga was not sure about the old man
being a celestial messenger because he (old man) did not understand the
language of God or know how to greet His ministers. He looked much too human,
he had an intolerable smell of the outdoors, and the backside of his wings was
sprinkled with parasites. There was nothing about him measured up to the proud
dignity of angels. So Father told to the viewer that an old man who has wings
wasn’t an angel. But the crowd didn’t pay attention to Father Gonzaga.
According to the doctor, the strange man
couldn’t be alive for a long time. He found so much whistling in the heart and
so many sounds in his kidneys. It seemed the body of an angel was complete as a
human organism but he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them too.
In my opinion, these three people give three
different kinds of variations to a strange old man because they are all
involved in different types of activities and they all see the strange old man
with their different views. An old woman believes in things like an angel,
ghosts, etc. Father Gonzaga was a person who believed in god and interpreted
everything with proof. And a doctor was a person who see the strange old man as
his patient.
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 storyteller narrates the
commonplace 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.
The story ‘a very old man with
enormous wings’ belongs to the genre of ‘magical realism’, a genre perfected by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novels. Following are the five magic realist
happenings from the story:
At the beginning of the story Pelayo saw a
very old man, lying face down in the mud in his garden who couldn’t get up in
spite of his tremendous efforts which also had wings. The writer here uses
Magical realism techniques through the word ‘enormous wings’ of an old man.
This show that an old man belongs to another universe or world.
When Pelayo and Elisenda tried to talk with
the strange old man, he answered in an unbelievable dialect with a strong
voice. It shows the example of a magical link in the sense that he was from
another mysterious world.
After seeing the old man, the old woman called
him the “angel” who came for their child, but the old man is so old that the
rain knocked him down. The word ‘angel’ itself justifies the magical link in
the story.
The modification of the woman in spider for
having disobeyed her parents by going out to dance without any permission to a
spider. In his childhood, she had crept out of her parent’s house to go to a
dance, and while she was coming back through the dark forest after having
danced all night without permission, a massive thunderclap hit and through the
crack came the lightning bolt of brimstone that changed her into a spider. This
also links the story to magical realism techniques.
As shown by the story, the doctor failed to
treat the old man. According to the doctor, the strange man couldn’t be alive
for a long time. He found so much whistling in the heart and so many sounds in
his kidneys. An old man became weak and sick. His feathers had fallen down. But
quickly his feathers regrow again and fly in the sky. This also links the story
to 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?
The author introduces the
episode of a woman who became a spider for having disregarded her parents by
going outside to dance without any permission. The scene of shifting a woman
into a spider is somewhat breaking the attention of an old man, I think, the
author brought this shift in the story is to show another example of magical
realism. The intention of the author was to show us the greed of humans. In the
beginning, Pelayo, and Elisenda take care of a strange old man when they
benefit from him by charging five cents admission to see. But when a spider
woman comes and people pay less attention to an angel, they do not care about
him. Old man drags here and there. The house of an old man collapse due to rain
and sun but they didn’t repair it.
d. The story deals with the common people’s gullibility. How do Pelayo
and his wife take advantage of common people’s whim?
The story ‘A
Very Old man with Enormous Wings’ deals with the common people’s gullibility.
Pelayo and his wife saw an old man with wings in their garden. When they wanted
to talk with him, he answered in an impenetrable dialect with a strong voice.
They were unable to understand his language. So they called an old woman who
was a witch. She called an old man an “angel” who come to take their child but
he is so old that the rain knocked him down. Pelayo pulled him out of the mud
and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop. A short time
afterwards the child woke up without a fever and with a desire to eat. They now
felt like magic just happened. Then they felt generous and decided to put the
old man on a raft with fresh water and provisions for three days and leave him
to his fate on the high seas.
But when they get early in the morning and saw
that, their courtyard was full of crowds and they were amazed by seeing that.
The news of the angel spread like a fire. People didn’t even listen to Father
Gonzaga’s voice that he was not an angel. Pelayo’s wife got an idea to charge
five cents admission to see an angel. They gathered a lot of wealth from it and
built a luxurious house for themselves.
