Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

As you read this classic short story from the Columbian magical realist master, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, notice how the plot is steered by both conflict and character. The magical elements keep the conflict external. We don’t get mired in the anxieties of a single character.

A link to the story:

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MarquezManwithWings.htm

And of course, with Marquez, a discussion of writing  style is mandatory. Here is one good definition of Magical Realism. Notice that magical realism has a realistic setting and the “magic” typically goes unexplained. Pico Iyer wrote this tribute in Time when Marquez died in in 2014: “Gabriel Garcia Marquez…Remembering a Miraculous Life.” In class, we’ll also watch this brief video produced by the BBC when Marquez died in 2014: https://youtu.be/ayCyrEXlA8U?si=o38IMwbwm2xKhkeg

f