The short
story "" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells of the reaction of a seaside village to the
arrival of an old man with large wings like an angel. However, the wings are damaged by a
rainstorm and the man can no longer fly. Instead of treating him with respect, the family in
whose yard he lands locks him in the chicken coop and charges admission for the villagers to
observe him. The old man is a popular attraction until a girl who has been changed into a spider
arrives in town as a carnival act. The chicken coop eventually falls apart, and as the old man
crawls about the family's house, he begins to heal. In the end, his feathers grow back and he
becomes strong enough so that he is able to fly away.
This story is an
example of a genre of literature known as magic , a type of literature that has realistic
settings but also deals with elements of the fantastic. The story contains only one line of
direct dialog and very few lines of indirect dialog.
Dialog serves several
purposes in literature and stories. It assists in character development, provides information,
advances the plot, and gives immediacy and dynamism. Refraining from the overuse of dialog,
Marquez causes the reader's perspective to step back from the immediacy of the situation and see
the story in a broader sense, as a sort of myth orthat reveals aspects of the human condition.
The characters, in turn, function as archetypes that reflect various facets of humanity. The
priest, for instance, becomes a theological authority figure, and the child represents the
innocence in human nature that is able to approach and appreciate the incomprehensible or
spiritual.
The story works only because the reader is able to suspend
disbelief and accept the elements of magic realism as if they were true. Too much dialogue would
have broken the spell of the suspension of disbelief that Marquez manages to cast over his
readers.
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