Irony and the Fragility of Life in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia - Book Report/Review Example

The rough winds had pushed him down and there he was, to stay. Both people helped the angel out but not for free. As news spread quickly of the newfound spiritual being, Elisenda and Pelayo decided to make a profit off of their findings. The child they had was getting better. The more the angel was taken care of, the better the child got. But people did not understand and struggled to make the obvious connection. The angel was waiting for its time to fly. He was not here to bring death to anyone. But he himself could be considered dead because he was of no use.

He could not really physically help anyone, several people feared him and even a pastor considered him to be “devil-like” which is extremely ironic. Towards to end of the story, the angel flies away into the distance and he is no longer an annoyance to the people who “cared” for him. He was awaiting his own freedom, his time to really fly. While being part of that word, he was ridiculed, and meshed in with the “extraordinary” characters from a typical circus. He endured and he persevered.

His goal was to fly. As he took flight, death could not hold him down. He ascended and in wonder, became a distant spot. All life is similar to this angel. At some point, we too want to spread our wings and become that distant thought, the spot, the thing that we can barely see as we glide into the universe of wonder and the afterlife. When we come to save, we come to heal. As the angel was saved, his unique powers also healed those around him. The angel, though battered was helped, and reached out his arm to help others, maybe even unknowingly.

Humanity is extremely fragile. As we see frailty and irony in this story, we can easily apply its concepts and emotions to our own lives. Without the very breath we have been given, receiving life is impossible. One must be well in order to move on. Sometimes we take advantage of the world around us. When we see the opportunity, we forget to realize that humans have souls and that create pain, and profiting from that pain only results in us being wounded creatures. We forget to realize that it is our soul that moves on and not our physical body.

The people in this story were very concerned with the physicality of the angel. They were astonished, however, that as his heartbeat, it seemed to be impossible for him to be alive. It’s similar to the awe and wonders a mother experiences when her premature baby grows up to be a perfectly healthy child. All humans will try to take advantage of their situation but at some point, even flying off into the distance can be a relief, as it becomes an out-of-body experience. It becomes an experience that has no words of explanation. Just awe!

Watching one’s self exit this life, we are assured into the next with open arms and a new self. The fate of the main characters in the story was changed based on the way they treated themselves, the angel, and the world around them.