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A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Bellwork 2/15/2018-Read “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Page 406 to 409
Alata will be here soon...
Journal Entry:
- What kinds of things have you experienced in your life that are seen as cruel? What about compassionate experiences? Any miracles?
10 Minutes
Our miracle: Finishing this presentation at 3 AM in the morning…(And Abdulhadi betrayed us)
Objectives- Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of The Very Old Man
with Enormous Wings.- Student will evaluate and report their notes of “TVOMwEW” on a reduction.
Agenda in other words...- Do bellwork- Get bored listening to us- Break- Get bored again - Play a game that will “have you on your feet”.- Leave class and have a nice day :)
Author Info -Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1 of 2)
- Born: March 6, 1927, Aracataca, Colombia (Say it ten times really fast = 0 extra points)- Died: April 17, 2014, Mexico City, Mexico- Who is he: Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known as Gabo; one
of the greatest writers of the 20th century
- Style: Straightforward, linear, descriptive- Can expect certain elements like humor but he really doesn’t follow a certain style.
“In every book I try to make a different path [...]. One doesn't choose the style. You can investigate and try to discover what the best style would be for a theme. But the style is determined by the subject, by the mood of the times.”
- Known to leave out seemingly important details and events so the reader is more engaged in the development of the story.
Author Info ( 2 of 2)Common themes in his text:
- Magical Realism: Combines more conventional storytelling with vivid fantasy
- Solitude: Essentially displaying characters having a sense of loneliness or more specifically, isolation from society as a whole due to their differences from the normalities
- La Violencia: Ten year civil war in Colombia. Many of his works have subtle references to this time period.
García Márquez received the Nobel Prize in Literature on December 8, 1982.
Upon García Márquez’s death in April 2014, the President of Colombia, called him "the greatest Colombian who ever lived."
The good & easy stuff...Title: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Genre: Magical Realism
Point of View: Third Person (Limited Omniscient) <-
Setting: Pelayo and Elisenda's Courtyard, Spanish-speaking country; time when Catholic Church ruled.
Hadous taught us well... Jk got it from Sparknotes.
Plot (1 of 2)- A man by the name of Pelayo is killing crabs during a rainstorm in an attempt to aid his ill child.
Upon doing so, a mysterious old man with large wings is discovered and is taken in by Pelayo and his wife in the hope he is an angel.
- A neighbor woman states that the family should club him to death due to his abnormality but after their child recovered, they could not reach that conclusion.
- Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, contain him within a chicken coop that gradually attracted large crowds which got the attention of the local priest, Father Gonzaga, who did not approve of the old man’s angelic status due to his inability to speak Latin.
- Due to rumors of his existence spreading, people from everywhere begin to believe he possesses powers that can make miracles occur and so they come to him for answers. This large attraction enabled Elisenda to begin charging people to see and talk to the old man. Although during this process, he is abused to grab his attention by having his feathers plucked and rocks thrown at him.
Plot (2 of 2)- Father Gonzaga attempts to keep the town properly running after all the chaos and then suddenly a
new story appears in town. A rumored spider woman is roaming the town who had her body turned into that of a tarantula after she had disobeyed her parents with only her human head remaining.
- People quickly forget about the old man even after the “miracles” he had done in the past. Consequently, Pelayo and his wife were already quite wealthy at this point due to the attraction the old man had caused.
- For years, the old man resided with them, still in the chicken coop and eventually a shed.
- Eventually, Pelayo and Elisenda realize that the old man is about to die but to their surprise, he recovered and had his feathers grow back.
- One night he just flew off and Elisenda is relieved.
Break for 10 seconds
Karacters- The Old Man: Very old man with enormous wings. Caged in a chicken coop; people from all over come
to see him. Speaks in a dialect that no one understands. One supernatural quality: his patience.
- Pelayo: Finds the Old Man in his courtyard. He makes a lot of money exhibiting the Old Man, builds a mansion and sets up a rabbit warren.
- Elisenda Wife of Pelayo. Gets very tired after cleaning up after the crowds that come to see the Old Man. Proposes charging an admission price.
- The Child: Son of Pelayo and Elisenda. Sick when the Old Man is discovered.
- Father Gonzaga: Priest who suspects Old Man of being an imposter. Reports incident to his superiors.
- The Neighbor Woman: The wise neighbor that knows supposedly knows everything. Suggests that the Old Man is an angel coming to take their sick child to heaven.
- The Spider Woman: Spider is a carnival attraction. Was a young girl who snuck out of her parents house to go to a dance.
Three Significant Quotes➢ ”His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in the mud. They
looked at him so long and so closely that Pelayo and Elisenda very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar.”
○ Shows the devastating appearance of the old man and how he contradicts the normal view of an angel
➢ “What surprised him most, however, was the logic of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them too.”
○ Author is attempting to show a relationship between the supernatural and normal human world and how their viewpoints on us could be seen as abnormal
➢ “‘He's an angel,’ she told them. ‘He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down.’”
○ The old man was seen as a grim reaper, waiting to take the soul of the sick child
SymbolsWings: Represent power and freedom of not only the humanspirit but the physical status as well.
The Spider Woman: Represents the disloyalty people display intheir faith. (The quick change from the old man to the spider woman). They choose the more interesting, easier route in life that provides them with the most satisfaction.
Light and Dirt: Representing the quick two-sided view people have in society. Something that appears ugly will stay ugly and something appearing ordinary or astonishing will remain that way and isn't seen in other perspectives.
Storms: Represent the old man himself and how he is nothing compared to the previous storms as he is of a much higher degree and will cause chaos in the entire town.
ThemesThe Coexistence of Cruelty and Compassion:
- Decide to put the old man to sea on a raft but then imprison him in a chicken coop to make a profit. A contradicting yet beneficial theme to those who are in control of the cruelty and compassion, but hurtful to the victim.
Human Reception of the Supernatural:- Two Supernatural events: Old Man and Spider Woman- Everyone has a different interpretation of the Old Man and his wings.- Status as an angel is endlessly debated.
Humans Must Interpret Events:- The old man is representing a random strange event that has occurred in the lives of any normal
person. Interpretations are made by different people depending on one’s perspective of him; as if there is no single universal concept that can be followed within it.
So what?
We don’t know, life goes on...
Kahoot Link
Go to: Kahoot.it https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=91a04a3f-ffbf-488e-89b9-fb6c724e2465
(We will provide the game pin, RELAX!!)
Winner gets 10x0 Formative EC!
Bellwork 2/16/2018Journal Entry:
- What is one thing that you have not told your parents? Do you feel guilty about it?
10 Minutes
- Alata: My mom still thinks I come early to class and Hadous still thinks I can’t find a parking spot.
- Ok that second part was a joke...- Alhussein: I’m only religious on Fridays. I only feel guilty on Fridays.- Hammoud: I’ve won 22 solo games on fortnite so far. No I don’t feel guilty.
Why I can’t find a parking spot...
Winner from yesterday’s KahootAre you ready?!?!
Drum rolls....
3
2
1
Fatima Ajami
+ 10 Formative Points
THE BLACK CAT
AIRING NOW
Just listen for today...
Author Info - Edgar Allan Poe
- Born: January 19, 1809, Boston- Died: October 7, 1849, Church Home and Hospital, Baltimore, MD- Who is he: American writer/poet and has been recognized as a central figure for romanticism due to
his short stories and poems- Style: Gothic, dark romanticism, symbolic, sometimes included humor- Considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
<- When Hadous gives you an essay, weekly reading, and a presentation due on the same day.
Plot (1 of 2)- Unnamed narrator is writing a story from his prison cell of how everything in his life. Since he will die the next day, he
wants the readers to know the story...- Kind man who loves animals and has lots of them. As he gets older, grows a stronger bond with the animals. Taking
care of his pets and hanging out with them is his favorite thing to do. - He gets married. His wife loves animals too, and fills the house with them. One of these is a humongous, all black,
super-smart cat named Pluto.- He starts drinking and as a result starts physically and verbally abusing his wife and pets. One night, he comes home
completely drunk, thinks Pluto doesn’t want to hangout with him: he grabs the cat and cuts his eye out with a pen-knife.
- One day, he hangs Pluto from a tree. The night he kills Pluto, the man's house catches fire and burns down. They lose all their money in the flames. Next day, there is a crowd in his bedroom, looking at his bedroom wall. On the wall is a picture of a "gigantic cat" with a rope around its neck. This bothers him for a long time.
- One night when he sees another black cat, looks just like Pluto, but has a little white spot on his chest. The man takes the cat home.
- Man hates the cat when he discovers its missing an eye. After some time, his wife shows him that the white spot on the cat's fur has grown and has formed an image of "the GALLOWS!"
Plot (2 of 2)- One day he and his wife go down to the basement of the old house.
- The cat follows them. Gets irritated from the cat and tries to kill it with an axe. The woman tries to stop him, and he "burie[s] the axe in her brain," killing her.
- He decides to hide the body in a space behind the cellar wall. Cat is also missing.
- On the fourth day after the murder, the police arrive unexpectedly at the narrator’s apartment. He’s cool and calm the whole time.
- The police don’t show any curiosity and prepare to leave
- The narrator, however, keeps trying to put away their suspicion. He comments upon the solid craftsmanship of the house and taps on the wall (The one with his wife’s body) with a cane.
- In response to the tapping, a long, loud cry is heard from behind the wall.
- The police break the wall and discover the hidden corpse. Upon its head sits the missing cat.
Do you notice the parallelism?Answer: Karma is a...
Similarities- Cruelty and Compassion:
- Man was cruel to the animals, yet his wife showed compassion towards them.
- Appearances of Things: - Interpretations are created by different people depending on their perspective of the
appearance of something. In the case of the first short story, the old man, and the second short story the black cat with the missing eye
- Relieved Sensation: - The endings seemed to have a similar concept of relief within the main characters. Elisendas
relief of the old man finally leaving, and the reader’s relief of the dead woman found with the cat on top of her
- Freedom and Confinement: - Wings and writing. Chicken coop and prison cell.
Kahoot Link
Go to: Kahoot.it
(We will provide the game pin, RELAX!!)
Winner gets 10 Formative EC!
