43 pages • 1 hour read
Gabriel García MárquezA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The crux of magical realism is its blending of the supernatural with the natural, familiar, and mundane. “A Very Old Man” contains several fantastic elements: the old man with wings who may be an angel, the talking spider woman, the carnival acrobat with wings of a “sidereal bat,” the “unfortunate invalids” with strange illnesses, and the “consolation miracles” that ruin the angel’s reputation (Paragraphs 7, 10). These characters give the story a fairytale-like tone, which the narrator’s observations strengthen. When the story notes that the angel’s “only supernatural virtue seemed to be patience” (Paragraph 8), it is teaching a moral lesson the way a traditional fairytale would.
However, this fairytale doesn’t rely solely on fantasy to make its points; instead, its supernatural elements appear alongside more realistic ones, like the old man’s baldness, or the chicken coop the family imprisons him within. What’s more, the story approaches its outlandish plot from a psychologically realistic angle. For example, the old man’s plight as a captive outsider is made even more tragic by his apparent resignation to his fate; he remains reticent and unresponsive, highlighting his mystique but also his depressing isolation.
By Gabriel García Márquez
Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon
Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
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Death Constant Beyond Love
Death Constant Beyond Love
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Eyes of a Blue Dog
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In Evil Hour
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Innocent Erendira
Innocent Erendira
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Leaf Storm
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Love in the Time of Cholera
Love in the Time of Cholera
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Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
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News of a Kidnapping
News of a Kidnapping
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No One Writes To The Colonel
No One Writes To The Colonel
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Of Love And Other Demons
Of Love And Other Demons
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude
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One Of These Days
One Of These Days
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Strange Pilgrims
Strange Pilgrims
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The Autumn of the Patriarch
The Autumn of the Patriarch
Gabriel García Márquez, Transl. Gregory Rabassa
The General in His Labyrinth
The General in His Labyrinth
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The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
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The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
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