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Icarus or An Angel

In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez, readers start with a sick boy and a family trying to care for him by clearing crabs. While this family takes care of their son, a man with huge wings crashes onto the beach near them. They decide to exploit him for financial gain. They put him on display and charged people to see him and touch him. The clergy of the area suspect him of being an angel. They then start to stop having revenue when a girl who was changed into a spider is brought into the village. Eventually, after quite a bit of time, the man with wings can escape. In the closing, we can see that the mother can see him fly away, but she doesn't care.

In true short story fashion, we don’t get to know the characters of this story very well. We get to how the community interacts with new events and each other. I thought Márquez did a good job of letting us know about the plot and the allusions in the story.

The narrator is impartial throughout this story. We don’t have an unreliable narrator here. While I don’t know if it would have made the story better or worse, I would have loved to see an unreliable narrator, maybe even in the first person from the child who was sick. I think the 3rd person point of view wasn’t the best for this. I would have preferred a first-person view from someone in the story.

I think this story highlights the goldfish quality of humans. Many of us have short attention spans (how and why we have those can be debated another time). In Márquez’s story, when the girl who was turned into a spider for disobeying her parents (which by the way, what in the actual hell, that is messed up) shows up in town, everyone flocks to her. The narrator does an excellent job of portraying the cruelty of man, and how we make a spectacle of those who are suffering. Everyone moves away from the man trapped in a cage, to the young girl trapped in a different type of cage. Even when the girl is gone, the town has gotten its fill of the man and is now bored of him.

Can we talk about the family? Respectfully, they are bitches, assholes if you want to be polite. I find them to be reminiscent of diarrhea. They take someone who is a being capable of making informed decisions and use him for financial gain. This characterization is done well. The narrator is impartial, letting us learn our anger without truly commentating on it.

I feel the need to point out the final scene of the story. The man escapes and the woman watches him do so. She is like “Good riddance.” What an asshole. I think the best way to present an antagonist in a short story is how Márquez did it here. The antagonist is a bad person and we don’t have to spend time debating it, we can just focus on the meat of the story. I prefer having people who I can hate from the beginning.

I think it is interesting how they portray the man with wings. We are led to assume that the man with wings is an angel. He can perform miracles when touched, however, they are of the useless variety. My opinion is that useless miracles happen for two reasons. First, he is injured. When he crashed, he most likely became injured. Kinda like how when you hurt your ankle, you start to limp. The other reason I think these useless miracles occur is because he is not giving them willingly. They happen because random people touch him. I think in the old man’s prime, he is able or was able to perform full-bodied miracles. Now the next question is if this man is a (biblical) angel. I think this is what we are led to believe, however I think there is a chance that man is a reference to Icarus. However, if this is a reference to Icarus (or an angel for that matter), then I think it is not very well portrayed. I think a better portrayal of emotion and action from the angel could help to better define what exactly we are dealing with. If this is Icarus with some god-touched powers from who-knows-where, then we should be seeing a frantic man. Someone who is fighting against everything around him, slapping away anyone who touched him. With an angel, we should see some typical portrayal of prayer, or maybe something divine to help the old man. If this is a fallen angel, then maybe some cursing of God or maybe the author describes the beauty of the man (as fallen angels are supposed to be stunning). I just think something along those lines, or honestly, something wildly out of the ordinary would make the story better.

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Allusion Central: "The One Who Walk Away From Omelas"

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, readers explore a city celebrating some type of festival. The narrator is never identified, but they tell us about the joy and love of Omelas. The narrator tells us about how these citizens are not simpletons, they are about as advanced as you or I. There are no soldiers in this city, as there is no need for violence. We quickly find out that these people are somehow only able to have this joy because they have locked up a child. In this story it tells how all the children are eventually shown this captive, and some of those children (and sometimes adults) decide to leave the city, heading to an unknown place.

“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is entirely an allusion to a variety of things. The city of Omelas is filled with a joyous population that enjoys a variety of delights at their fingertips. Oh, but we can’t forget how these hedonists came to be. They enjoy these things because of a small child locked in the basement. We’ll call them “ The Captive” for now. The Captive is hidden from view most of the time only making an appearance when the children are shown it. This part of the story is an allusion to the rich versus the poor, or better explained, the crushing of the poor for the benefit of the privileged. The Omelas population is a stand-in for the entitled and rich of our world, the people who are constantly gaining. I appreciated the easy slip from the descriptive joy of these people into how they enjoy these privileges. While it is not described how they benefit (which I did not enjoy as much) from the captive, it is stated that they do. I feel that The Captive is a stand-in for many different oppressed minorities, especially the disabled, BIPOC, and queer groups. I find myself going back to the “ugly laws.” The ugly laws were a group of laws that kept those with visible disabilities (or those who were not so skinny) from basically participating in their community. I think that this is a direct call to that grouping of laws, it would fit within the time period.

There is not necessarily a main character or protagonist in this story, just groups and an individual. There are the residents of Omelas, the ones who walk away from the city, and the lone child in the basement of the public building. I think this was the most effective route that this story could have taken. It’s a wide snapshot as that is what the allusions were most useful for. I think this also personally helped me feel the helplessness of the situation of the lone child.

The narrator is never named, or gendered, but in my opinion, it is a woman (I don’t really have a reason, it just feels right). Throughout the story, it becomes obvious that she knows some, but not all. She doesn’t know the laws of the society, and some other specifics of that nature. She is directly talking to someone as if she is in a conversation. We aren’t sure if it’s to us or not, but I think it is. It’s almost like a TED talk presentation way, talking and explaining things, but only to us. We also see that this narrator has a basic understanding of what happens within the city, describing the celebrations and the joys of the people. I feel like it’s an author explaining her world and its people to us. I also feel, however, that she is not the only author in this world. I feel like the narrator has a partner in this that helped finish up the world. Kinda like she started a fire, and someone else cooked on it. I feel that she also has no hand in this world anymore. She is obviously not happy with what these people have done to this child for the sake of their joy, so why not do something about it? She is an outsider, looking in on a snow globe that she is too scared to shake.We also have to mention the ones who walk away from the city. The only reason—that the narrator tells us—that people walk away from the city is because of The Captive. They see him in his suffering and choose to leave their joy. Heroic, right? Wrong. That is the bystanders' way of doing stuff. I understand that one person may not be able to make a huge difference, however, you can always do something. The story says that one act of kindness towards The Captive will hurt the city. Slip something through the bars or under the door. In my opinion, anyone who decides to just leave because they don’t like how others are treated is a coward. It’s important to also mention that these people have a place in mind. The narrator is unsure of where this is, leaving us not knowing either. I think leaving us angered by this treatment was honestly the best storytelling route. I think this makes the story just a bit more realistic.

Le Guin, U. (2020). The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. In The Big Book of Modern Fantasy (pp. 228–232). essay, Vintage Books. 

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Elsa's Roadtrip? Review of Travels With The Snow Queen by Kelly Link

In Travels With The Snow Queen by Kelly Link, readers meet Gerda who has just had her boyfriend kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Gerda begins her adventure by following the trail of glass left behind by the Snow Queen (while barefoot). As she (us) makes the journey she thinks about how stories and epic adventures aren’t kind to women. Gerda first meets a talking raven who speaks of Briar Rose, a princess in the castle. Gerda ventures inside to discover that Kay (her boyfriend) is not there. She continues until she meets the Bandit Queen, who wishes to kill her. Someone who we only refer to as the “robber girl” says she wants Gerda as a sister instead of her being killed. She later gives Gerda boots for her feet and a guide to meet the old woman of Laplark. She helps to send Gerda on her way to the Snow Queen’s palace. Once inside, she realizes that Kay is cursed and will only be uncursed with a kiss. After all the awful things she has realized he has done, she decides to leave him as is. Gerda then meets The Snow Queen and realizes she is much kinder than originally thought. It seems the two of them will get along.

I loved this short story! I unexpectedly found the 2nd person POV to be both essential and fitting for this piece. It personally helped me to understand and sympathize with Gerda as she dealt with the led-down of the century with Kay. In my understanding of the story, I felt that the overall theme was female empowerment and the idea of bettering yourself despite/through your struggles. In the beginning, we as readers see that Gerda is wholly devoted to Kay. She was willing to travel with glass and snow pressed to her foot, without any protection from the elements, solely to get to her love. The first foreshadowing that we see of what Kay truly is, is his coat. It is wet and smells like a dog. I interpreted that to basically call him a dog in the social sense. I think one of my favorite parts of the story is the monologue she has at the beginning of her story. She talks about how fairy tales aren’t kind to women. They are always suffering, often in relation or connection to a man. One of the fantasy elements that caught my interest was the talking animals. They seem to both be a representation of something and also just exist within the story. The talking Raven that we meet immediately talks about how Kay doesn’t love Gerda (in all fairness the raven wasn’t wrong). Upon further reading, we as readers understand that this is probably because the raven is caught up on all the hot gossip in the castle and knows that Kay cheated on Gerda with Briar Rose. After that whole ordeal, we get to see Gerda’s “list.” And it is scathing. I felt like we obviously knew that she was angry with Kay, but seeing the list helped to add to my understanding. She slowly and methodically takes him mentally down a peg, from his habits, to how good he is in bed. This isn’t a new anger, just a re-exposed wound that had been building. The next character we meet (who has an impact) is “the robber girl.” I’ll call her RG for short. Within the first few seconds of the meeting, RG is already saving Gerda’s life by taking her in as her sister. Gerda explains her story to RG and RG immediately comforts her. I felt that this may have been the first time Gerda had experienced truly caring kindness in a while, even before Kay left with the Snow Queen. RG gives Gerda her boots because of her cut-up feet. It truly felt like a big sister watching after her younger sister. I felt that this was maybe the most important relationship Gerda made during this whole adventure. While it’s origin, was a little testy, it seemed to be the healthiest relationship available to her. I also had a sense that RG had dealt with a bull-headed man when she tapped Bae. Maybe that even RG had something to do with how Bae came to be in this form.

 I think it may also be important to point out that the community of elderly women knows the Snow Queen. They mention inviting the Snow Queen out for cards. This is a clue for how we really should interpret the queen. I also found the situation to be a bit funny. Old women know, but ignore the status of someone powerful to gossip. That is a nod to at least three different stereotypes.

One of the important interactions in the story, in my opinion, is when Gerda sees the Snow Queen before they talk. All of this story, we have had a builder-up to amazingly powerful, ethereal, statuesque women. And then she is introduced for the first time, and she isn’t what was expected. She doesn’t exactly meet her reputation. I think one of my favorite jokes in literature appears here. After all this travel, rivalry, and stupidity, this story leads Gerda to be offered a business opportunity. She accepts that one day Kay may be freed from his enchantment (hopefully never in my opinion). While saying this, her literary voice sounds very mature. Gerda (in my opinion) seems to accept her place in all the chaos, all of what she is meant to do. Overall, I really this reading and would highly encourage you to check it out.