Gabriel García Márquez was known for the way he created vast intertwining plots and dense narratives within his works . His world is primarily that of provincial Colombia, where medieval and modern practices and beliefs collide both comically and tragically. In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", there are several themes that can be taken from the story. Márquez made the theme of cruelty and compassion coexist through the actions of Elisenda, Pelayo and the old man and the theme of patience evident through the actions of the old man. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Pelayo and Elisenda were starting their day by killing crabs because it had been raining for several days. They thought the stench of crabs made their child sick. It is then, as Pelayo was crossing his courtyard, that he discovers the old man. All Pelayo knows is that the man has very large wings, is apparently senile, speaks an incomprehensible language, disoriented, and homeless. Pelayo and Elisenda make comments and consult a neighbor who tells the reader what they believe, the old man is an angel. It is their first thoughts about what to do with the old man that begin to show the theme of the coexistence of cruelty and compassion. The theme of cruelty and compassion is established immediately with the narrator's description of how Pelayo, Elisenda, and the town first handle their interaction with the angel. Against the judgment of their wise neighbor, for whom the angels of those times were the fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy, they did not have the heart to beat him to death. They felt magnanimous and decided to put the angel on a raft with fresh water and supplies for three days and leave him to his fate on the high seas. When they went out into the courtyard at the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence, throwing things to eat at him through the openings in the net, as if he were not a supernatural creature but a circus animal. In this short story we can see the perfect example of how society treats others who are different from us. In the story, everyone treated the old man very badly because of his huge wings, which is not normal for humans. Pelayo and his wife Elisenda caged him in the chicken coop like an animal. The whole neighborhood showed up to see the old man. It reminds me of a zoo setting. However, they treated him like a circus animal. They threw rocks, breakfast scraps and fruit peels at him. They teased him, disturbed him and annoyed him. At a certain point they also burned the old man's side with the hot iron. For this reason the old man became seriously ill. He passed out for so many hours they thought he was dead. So, this clearly indicates our society's attitude towards those who are different from us. Pelayo and Elisenda have plenty of opportunity to lean more towards the side of compassion, letting go of the old and going their own way. Instead of leaning more into compassion, they move deeper into the realm of cruelty and even greed. Elisenda, with her back all twisted from sweeping away all that market rubbish, then had the idea of ​​fencing in the courtyard and charging five cents to see the angel. The city and surrounding area did nothing to help the old man, but instead made the cruelty and greed worse. The most unfortunate invalids on earth came in search of health: a poor woman who had been counting her heartbeats since childhood and was short of numbers; a Portuguese who.