A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and The Metamorphosis: An In-depth Comparison and Contrast - Essay Example

‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ and ‘The Metamorphosis An In-depth Comparison and Contrast In the story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and in the novella, “Metamorphosis” both of the authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka use the similar thread of ‘magical realism’ to stitch together the events and the physical and psychological interactions of human existence with stern reality of life. Both of the texts deal with the extraordinary events that are reasonably explored to focus a prying light on the clandestine and furtive corners of human nature. Consequently both individuals and the society are put into conflict with religion and religious faith, and thus the validity of all of the society, social values and religious faith are thrown into question. The story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” draws a vivid conflict-line between belief and disbelief, religion and secularism and at the same time, the psychological impact of the extraordinary on human mind revealed as ennui and greed. But in the novella, “Metamorphosis” religion and belief in God and supernatural are apparently in a reticent state. Even then the text focuses on human psychology while treating the extraordinary and the supernatural with ennui from a cultural point of view. Both of the texts are strikingly similar in their approach and this essay will explore the relationship between the religious and the secular in each story in an attempt to discover how each author comments on the human tendency to treat the extraordinary with ennui and human greed. By confronting the religious and magical with the reactions of the characters in each work, both authors have much to say about human nature and above all the negative aspects of the human condition which show themselves as a result of supernatural events. The two short stories are very similar in their discussion of the division between secularism and the sacred. There is an extremely strong symbolic use of food in both stories which makes deliberate reference to the bible. In ‘The Metamorphosis’, Gregor is assaulted with apples by his father when he ventures into the living room. In this scene “something or other thrown casually flew close [to Gregor] and landed in front of him. It was an apple. Immediately a second one flew after it” (Kafka 64). Kafka is at pains to underline that the particular fruit is significant by placing it within its own brief sentence. The religious symbolism is clear, since the apple is associated with the fall of mankind in the bible. This is the first time that Gregor comes into direct contact his father after his transformation and the meeting is significantly marked. By hurling the apples at his son, Gregor’s father loses his humanity. There is a similarly strong symbolism in the crabs which plague the house at the beginning of Marquez’s story. The opening lines state that “on the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs inside the house that Pelayo had to cross his drenched courtyard and throw them into the sea” (Marquez). The family is in a continual fight against nature but the symbolism of fish in this scene is a clear reference to a similar loss of humanity which takes place as the story continues. This symbolism reappears in both stories as a reminder of the abandonment of the Christian principles of love and forgiveness which is evident in both works. The apple remains lodged in Gregor’s back as a constant reminder of the lack of humanity his family shows him, until it becomes described as “the rotten apple.” This rotting coincides with the deterioration of his treatment by his family who by this point have stopped cleaning his room, barely find time to feed him and have filled his living quarters with un-wanted junk. The rot in the apple is representative of the rot in the hearts of the family who have abandoned Christian principles. So too in Marquez’s story does the symbolism of the crabs appear. Once the angel has been imprisoned Marquez comments that “in the middle of the night, when the rain stopped, Pelayo and Elisenda were still killing crabs” (Marquez). They have decided not to club the angel to death but their total failure to recognise its religious significance and importance is underlined by the symbolic use of the crabs to show their couple’s abandonment of religious principles. This is made abundantly clear in the rest of the story. The couple fail to value and adore the angel, but rather imprison it. So too in Kafka’s story the family imprison the son transformed into an insect and therefore fail to maintain their familiar love and devotion. Metamorphosis, so often associated with the beautiful blossoming of a butterfly, becomes abhorrent to the family in Kafka’s story. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the couple initially fail to recognise the angel for what he is but once they talk to him “he answered in an incomprehensible dialect with a strong sailor’s voice. That was how they skipped over the inconvenience of the wings and quite intelligently concluded that he was [a sailor]” (Marquez). Once their neighbor identifies him as an angel their initial instinct is to kill him. However, since “they did not have the heart to club him to death” (Marquez) they instead consider the slightly more humane option of setting him free on a raft at sea. However once they realise that the angel attracts the interest of the local population, they put him into captivity and even charge people to come and see him, totally ignoring his religious significance. In both stories this tendency to maintain a distance from the divine and miraculous is therefore clearly marked. Indeed, rather than inspiring religious awe, both events are met with horror, greed and finally ennui. When Pelayo first meets the angel he runs to his wife, “frightened by that nightmare” (Marquez) filled with horror at the appearance of the angel. Similarly when Gregor mutates into an insect his family initially feel nothing but instinctive revulsion. When Gregor tries to communicate with his mother she is terrified and when he approaches her she “screamed all over again, hurried from the table, and collapsed into the arms of his father” (Kafka 29). There is no attempt to understand or communicate with Gregor but rather an instinct to push him away. Recognising this Gregor himself retreats to his room where he is taken care of, at least initially, but his sister and later his mother. At this stage there is, therefore, some compassion in their hearts, but not enough to overcome their revulsion when they see him. In Marquez’s tale too there is a brief period of compassion for the angel. Before it becomes clear that it can make them money, Pelayo and Elisenda consider the idea of freeing the angel. There is also a partly positive reception from some other members of the community who recommend that the angel be made “mayor of the world”, a “five-star general” or that he should be “put to stud in order to implant the earth a race of winged wise men who could take charge of the universe” (Marquez). While there is clearly an aspect of using the angel for gain, there is also recognition of his importance and the need to allow him his freedom. However the couple ultimately decide to imprison him for financial advancement. He is assaulted with a variety of food as visiting people attempt to get a reaction from the angel and forced to live in a chicken coop. He is not only exploited through greed for money but also through a greed for health. A variety of people approach the angel searching for cures to their illnesses, from “a poor woman…counting her heartbeats” to “a Portuguese man…because the stars disturbed him” and “a sleepwalker who…[undid] the things he had done while awake” (Marquez). They do not care that he is being kept in such conditions but require simply that he cure them. Although Father Gonzaga does not sanction the religiosity of the angel, the invalids flock to him all the same, ignoring the power of the Church in preference for a quick fix to their problems. Gregor, too, is both taken care of and yet abandoned. While his sister tries to discover what food Gregor likes and his mother tries to rearrange his room, neither of them are interested in attempting to meaningfully communicate or interact with him. Their compassion is ultimately overcome by their own horror at the situation. They choose to interpret the change as a terrible rather than a miraculous event. Eventually ennui becomes the overwhelming reaction to both events. Once a woman who has been turned into a spider comes to town in Marquez’s story and the angel no longer makes them money, Pelayo and Elisenda abandon him to his own devices barely caring what happens to him. The chicken coop gradually disintegrates until “the sun and rain had caused the collapse of the chicken coop” (Marquez) and the angel is allowed to roam free. In this improved situation the angel gradually grows more wing feathers and is able to fly away. Elisenda’s reaction to this clearly indicates the degree to which she no longer cares about the angel; “Elisenda let out a sigh of relief, for herself and for him, when she watched him pass over the last houses, holding himself up in some way with the risky flapping of a senile vulture” (Marquez). She has no desire to stop him but is rather relieved that she doesn’t have to deal with him anymore. Indeed, as Marquez comments “The owners of the house had no reason to lament. With the money they saved they built a two-story mansion with balconies and gardens and high netting so that crabs wouldn’t get in during the winter” (A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings ). They use their money to isolate themselves entirely from the angel and God and thus have no more need of him when he eventually flies away. Gregor is also the victim of ennui. Eventually his family ceases to care about him and he is largely forgotten. His sister “exhausted from her daily work, had grown tired of caring for Gregor” (Kafka 73) and no longer properly cleans or feeds him. His room is filled with junk and his family increasingly resents him because “they could not leave this apartment, which was too big for their present means, since it was impossible to imagine how Gregor might be moved” (Kafka 70). It is clear that the family do not want to move due to the shame of taking Gregor with them and so, when Gregor finally meets a fate far worse than the angel’s and dies, the family are simply relieved. Gregor has become a burden for them in the same way that the angel had for Pelayo and Elisenda and they are quite simply happy that he is no longer in their lives. When they send the lodgers away and intend to move house “Mr. Samsa, together with the women, left the banister, and they all returned, as if relieved, back into their apartment” (Kafka 94). They finally begin to look to the future and think no more of the hapless Gregor. These various forms of greed and selfishness are set in a language of magical realism which acts in strong contrast to the very earthly concerns of the characters. In the face of the supernatural and miraculous the protagonists remain firmly attached to their earthly needs and desires. The surreal illnesses in Marquez’s story are put in juxtaposition with equally bizarre ‘miracles” such as “the blind man who didn’t recover his sight but grew three new teeth, or the paralytic who didn’t get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers” (Marquez). These miracles are, however, interpreted as a sign of a mental illness on the part of the angel and again the magic is drained from the situation by those in contact with it. Similarly none of Gregor’s family attempt to understand or investigate the metamorphosis but meet this surreal event with the very terrestrial emotions of repulsion and resentment. It is clear, therefore, that many parallels can be seen between the two texts. Although they may differ on the nature of the supernatural event which takes place and Marquez’s text is more overtly religious, both stories trace the revulsion, in Marquez’s case greed and ultimately ennui of the characters involved. They both demonstrate a clear detachment of the characters from the potentially wondrous nature of the event which has befallen them and in this way both authors make a strong comment on the inability of humans to marvel, to accept and ultimately to love. Works Cited Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Nanaimo: Planet PDF, 1999. Marquez, Gabriel G. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” 7 Feb. 2004. 02 Feb. 2009. Read More