In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," is the man an angel or a human being?

It is really impossible to say if the man is an angel or a human being. The title of the story implies that he is indeed a man with wings; but the story and the symbolism behind the man resist interpretation. He is described as everything from an angel to a sailor. He is depicted as a buzzard and a hen "among the fascinated chickens." To some, he should be "the mayor of the world,"...

It is really impossible to say if the man is an angel or a human being. The title of the story implies that he is indeed a man with wings; but the story and the symbolism behind the man resist interpretation. He is described as everything from an angel to a sailor. He is depicted as a buzzard and a hen "among the fascinated chickens." To some, he should be "the mayor of the world," and to others a "five-star general." The old man with wings is interpreted in many ways by the villagers and there is no final verdict. At the end of the story, he flies away and is seen as nothing more than "an imaginary dot on the horizon."

There is no explanation for what the old man is or how he came to be. He does not respond to the villagers questions and cannot speak. In contrast, the spider woman who comes to town is able to explain her predicament clearly, and her story has a moral. Her story is "full of so much human truth."

Unlike the spider woman who can be understood so easily, the old man has no explanation. The villagers, though initially fascinated by the old man, soon neglect him and flock to the spider woman. Like the old man, Garcia Marquez's magical realism resists interpretation and is a departure from more straightforward and easily understood literature.