The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

After a rainstorm Pelayo and his wife Elisenda see a man in their courtyard that has
wings. The couple tries to communicate with the old man and tie him up. Then a neighbor
informs them that the man is actually an angel. This causes the entire village to want to see the
old man. Along with that the couple then worries about their child and their own safety. For
Pelayo and his wife Elisenda their motivation was their child. They are a family and so that was
important to them when they saw the old man. The old man I do not know what his motivation
was because he was patient with the people being around him and looking at him while being
tied to the wire. One unconscious conflict was between the old man and the family, because he
was tied up for a long time. They did not know who he was and maybe he just wanted to be
free and the family did not consider that. They just left him tied up. A conscious conflict would
be between the old man and the priest. The priest when he went to look at the old man tied u
he was questioning what he was, because he was not an angel according to his study while
being a priest. He was not sure who or. what the old man was and why he was there, and he
wanted to prove to the people of the town that the old man tied up was not an angel. The
priest was not able to sleep because he was thinking of the old man that was supposedly an
angel. The priest was insomniac and that would take a toll on his mental state. Also, the old
man was not very talkative so this could be him being sad and that he is tied up, so he stays in
one place. He could be depressed because he is tied up and does not know how to leave that
state of mind, until the end when he is free and flies away.

House Taken Over by JULIO CORTÁZAR

Two siblings inherit a house and they are not very interesting as they do the same thing
every day, the siblings can be seen having an ego that is not that big, both characters do
correspond to the parts of the tripartite self because both are not able to find love, so they stay
home and do what makes them feel comfortable. When the house does get haunted. They still
do their everyday activities like nothing happened, Irene still knits, and her brother is still
reading. Nothing changes and that is, so they do not have to worry about what is happening in
their house. I think that this work reflects on Julio Cortazar’s personal psychology, perhaps the
writer was trying to forget a certain moment in his past. The characters did not really think
about the part of the house that was taken over and so maybe in the writer’s real life, in order
to not feel afraid, he tries to forget that part of his past. Irene and her brother did not think of
the part of the house that was taken over so they can live a more peaceful life but that is really
what is haunting them. You can see more in their behaviors that they do not want to face their
emotions and mental state because when they have to, they just rather go back to their
hobbies. When they are busy doing what they enjoy doing it keeps their minds off what the
issue may be. It is not good to ignore what is happening inside the mind and them doing so only
makes their day turn into a routine.
 Works Cited
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." North Dakota State
University, translated by Gregory Rabassa, 2007,
https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MarquezManwithWings.htm.