A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
Explain the meaning of the concluding paragraph of the story.
need as soon as possible
need as soon as possible
The Old Man grows new feathers in December, keeping his improvement a secret and singing sea shanties to the moon at night. One morning, as Elisenda cuts onions in the kitchen, the angel tests his wings. He appears clumsy at first, but eventually flies off to the horizon, leaving Elisenda very relieved indeed. Elisenda has had to clean up after the Angel, chase him from room to room, until he finally takes off. Maybe the Angel is the art-arriving uninvited in the courtyard-and the husband and wife the artists. Perhaps the Angel never belonged among people-he was never an Angel at all as a real body, but becomes divine only as an idea. At any rate, the Angel flies off into the horizon, vanishing from reality, becoming purely imagined and remembered. Which, as a piece of the divine, and as a piece of Marquez's own imagination, is exactly where he belongs.