thINK

thINK

A Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children is a short story about a fallen angel. The short story shows someone remaining calm and patient through terrible events and eventually leaving to find a better place. This angel is an old man who is near death with parasites in his wings. Because this man does not have all the angel-like qualities, Father Gonzaga questions if he is really an angel or not. What is the meaning or lesson behind this story? What qualities of the old angel help support the meaning or lesson of the short story? There is a major comparison in how the family reacted and how the old angel reacted to these unfortunate events. Ironically, the angel has to live in unhealthy, horrendous conditions to become healthy and strong enough to fly away.

Through all the bad events one man can go through, there is always a good ending to come.. The bad events include the following: the way the family and the town treated him, the conditions he had to live in, and the eating habits he had to learn. The family treated him like he was a burden even though they were the ones who held him captive. All of the people of the town treated him like he was a circus animal or a freak attraction. He had to live in a chicken coop where chickens pecked at him to get the parasites out of his wings. That coop was also rarely cleaned. The food he got to eat were table scraps from the family and whatever the people of the town had to throw at him. At the end, the old angel grew stronger. He grew his wings and his strength back. Clumsily, he flew away to find a better place.

This old angel had many qualities to him that helped him become stronger to find his way out of that situation. The angel never did try to harm anyone who was mean to him or tossed things at him. That shows that he was kind and could keep himself under control. He also had patience. People threw stones at him. Chickens pecked at him and pulled his feathers. Not once did the man move or make a single gesture towards the birds. At first the man was weak and could barely move or fly, but at the end he became a little stronger and could fly again. The old angel was found laying face down in mud because he could not lift himself back up with his weak attempts. He was able to fly away at the end. This shows kindness, patience, and strength.

It is easy to compare how to family reacted to the angel and how the angel reacted to the family. Because the family took advantage of him and made money because of him, that proves how selfish they are. They fenced in their yard and charged people money to see the new attraction. The angel patiently sat in his chicken coop and waited for the torture to be over. The family saw the angel as a burden, but they kept him hostage anyways. “She kept watching him even when she was through cutting the onions and she kept on watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea.” Although the family was an annoyance to the angel, he never would have stayed there if he had a choice. The family kept him there.

The angel, who was a burden to the family, stayed in a chicken coop and continued to annoy the family as he patiently stayed there until he could fly away from them. There is always a happy ending. There is also always a way to escape the bad things in life. Father questioned him of what he really was, taken advantage of, and beaten down to nothing. There was an end for him. He was eventually able to fly away from it all.