“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings; A Tale for Children”

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings; A Tale for Children”, was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1955. I have a sentence that sums up exactly how I feel about this story: What in the world??? I don’t even know where to start when talking about this story. Part of me wants to think that this was the child’s guardian angel and was just saving the baby in a very different round about way…maybe? But, why was the angel so old? Why were there crabs in the house? What was the point of the spider-girl? Its things like this that make me wonder what the point to this story was (if there was one….). Also, its title “A tale for Children”, really? At what point did this story resemble anything of a children’s book? I felt like many of the characters and subplots were far too complicated and uninteresting for a child to enjoy. I’m not worried that I don’t understand this story though, because I went through a couple people’s blogs and was reassured that I am not the only person who is struggling to comprehend its purpose. Also, why were the people that found the angel so un emotionally attached? Wouldn’t you think if an angel landed in your yard you would want to keep it happy? Because if it is in fact an angel, it could possibly have a lot of friends in some really high places. Although, the world in this story is obviously not our own so maybe an angel meant something different in that culture. In the end, although it seemed very strange and unfulfilling, I couldn’t seem to stop reading it. I found myself consumed with trying to figure out what the purpose of each character was and how it was going to end. So maybe that was the whole point to the story…? Haha I have no idea.