Talk:A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2021 and 27 April 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): L.Jentes. Peer reviewers: Anonymous249, Gatah111.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 16:44, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mwillmer. Peer reviewers: Ashalexandra, QuiteCurious.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:11, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Themes Reassessment
I intend to make adjustments to the Themes heading, fixing the writing to make it more encyclopedic, and deciding whether or not the themes claimed accurately reflect the story. I would love for someone to check over my work, once the edits are made. L.Jentes (talk) 19:09, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Not Encyclopedic
The following wording is not encyclopedic (bold mine):


 * "In fact, if you look at the title, you will see that its complete title is "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children." Upon first reading, you may think this is the *last* thing you'd want to read to your child! But think of the stories of the Brothers' Grimm. Those tales also were gruesome but contained some moral lesson, created not only to excite but to instruct."

Encyclopedias do not say "you". Secondly, they do not use exclamation marks, speaking directly to the reader. Also, they don't give advice, make pleas, or requests to the reader like, "think of the stories of the Brothers' Grim". Perhaps a better way to word this would be:


 * "Subtitled, "A Tale for Children", the story's message is aimed at children despite its darker aspects, in similar fashion to the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm."

--Daniel 16:20, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Character summary
The "Character summary" section is ridiculous, it looks like it was written by a 10 year old oblivious to any metaphors. It should be changed drastically to include the main metaphorical message of the story - human attitude towards religion and the critique that humans would rather have the religion as "an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea" than to have it present, in flesh, walking and stumbling around them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Adriatic HR (talk • contribs) 16:20, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

Edits
This needs a great deal of rewriting. I've added sections for the stage play and historical context, and a start at good sources. There's lots of scholarship on this story, so it can be a pretty decent article someday.

SarahTheEntwife (talk) 20:45, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

More articles to track down Some Thoughts on Gabriel García Márquez's 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' Detail Only Available By: Sheppeard, Sallye; Conference of College Teachers of English Studies, 2002 Sept; 67: 23-31.

'Detective Plotting' in García Márquez' 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' Detail Only Available By: Quinn, David; Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction, 2001 Fall; 2 (1): 50-60.

Angel in Excrement: García Márquez's Innocent Tale ('A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings') Detail Only Available By: Clark, John R.; Notes on Contemporary Literature, 1988 May; 18 (3): 2-3. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SarahTheEntwife (talk • contribs) 20:51, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Publication date
The article states that this story was published in 1955, and cites a single essay as evidence for that date, but everything else that I can find online states that this story was published in 1968. If so, that would invalidate the entire paragraph that describes this story as an allegory for the ongoing civil war in Colombia, although it could have been written about that war retrospectively. At any rate, further investigation is required to determine exactly when the story was published. 1955 seems far from conclusive. —Antodav2007 (talk) 01:03, 6 September 2015 (UTC)


 * The story was first published in Spanish in 1955. It was translated into English by Gregory Rabassa and published in 1968 in the New American Review and then in Marquez's book Leaf Storm in 1972. —Caper147 (talk) 23:39, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Issues with Themes Section
I find the Themes section quite bizarrely written and also potentially misleading. It makes some authoritative claims about the text without much in the way of citation, and also doesn't explain these assertions much at all.