Coffee house #4 Midterm Draft

Aiden Rivera 

Midterm Essay, ENG 2001 

Oct 19, 2020 

In the End All is Well 

After reading and carefully analyzing the two stories, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Marquez and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, I’ve come to realize that they have more in common than I previously thought. At a first glance you wouldn’t think of many similarities. Mainly because one is occurring during the civil war and seems more realistic while the other is more mythical or fake by adding an old man who is an “Angel”. But looking deeper you see the main character and gothic element similarities that these two stories share. Bierce and Marquez both write stories where the main characters are coerced into traumatic situations that ultimately lead to their return to normalcy.  

In the story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, the main character is an old homeless man with wings who is taken in by this couple. The couple has the old man live in their shack. They let him live there because they believe he is an angel and he has some correlation to their son, who was sick, get better. The old man proceeds to live with and get fed by this couple. At first it was an act of kindness till the tourist began to come see the old man. After this began to occur the couple began to take profits from the people coming to see the old man. Turning him into a circus act more or less. The wife didn’t want the old man there but once the money came along it became less of a problem. People would even throw things at the old man, treating him as if he was worthless. By the end of the story the old man’s wings opened wide and he flew away into the sky. The question here is how does the old man relate to the other character and where does he return to normalcy?  

In the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, the main character Peyton Farquhar is standing on a bridge 20 feet above the water moments away from being hanged. In these few minutes the story takes place we basically go into Peyton’s head and view a back story on how he got into this situation. He was a southerner during the civil war who wasn’t accepted into the confederate army. But he had passion for the cause and would do whatever he could to help. The people about to hang Peyton are from the northern army. Towards the end of the story Peyton is sent off the bridge to hang but the rope snaps and he seems to get away. We end with Peyton seeing his family again and giving his wife a hug. Only to find out it was all in his head. He dreamt that he got away and saw his family again in his final moments. The fact was he didn’t get away but instead those were his final thoughts before his sad death. The question in this story is again how does Peyton relate to the old man and does this count as a return to normalcy? 

The two characters, Peyton and the old man both experience trauma that sooner or later makes them return to normalcy. Let me explain, the old man was going through the trauma of the people who would come pay to see him. He was viewed as just a show and the story doesn’t directly say it, but he was betrayed by the couple that took him in. The initial goal was to be good hearted people, but it turned to greed. This very well could have hurt and traumatized the old man more. With Peyton now, his trauma was a little clearer. He was moments away from dying. The trauma was all there. He too was betrayed, because he dedicated himself to the cause of the south and they never even took him in as a soldier. He did what he could on the side because of how much the cause meant to him. The biggest betrayal was that they never showed up to save him and although once again the story doesn’t say it, I’m sure they didn’t come after he died either. Meaning his death was in vain. Both these characters share trauma, they share the betrayal of the people around them.