Introduction
This story revolves around the tendencies and nature of human beings pertaining to how they react to the supernatural forces and beliefs in the society. It is about how the human beings respond to the supernatural forces. The main theme or idea in this story is the response to supernatural forces by human beings in the society and the extent of faith and belief. This rests in the old man with wings in relation to the healing of [the child. The girl who turned into a spider also gives the basis and foundation for this theme of human nature response to supernatural forces.
In this story, the old man with wings was treated can like an odd thing rather than a supernatural thing in the society without consideration of his nature. The perception of the society towards the old man is that is he is more of a human being than the purported angel is. The old appeared to the society as a common human being with wings rather than a supernatural being a perceived just because of healing the sick child. The status of the old man as an angel raised debates and arguments going against as well as questioning the power of that old man. The people claimed that the old man could not be an angel due to lack of splendor and dignity. The appearance of the old man could not convince the society to be an angel due to his dress code and social status. The people have already exploited the old man to the extent that they are bored with the old man.
In the context of the girl who turned into a spider, it was not easy to interpret so it contrasted with the case of the old man. The people could not just interpret or understand the mystery behind this as compared to the case of the old man of which they disputed very easily based on his dignity and general appearance. The girl turned into a spider by disobeying her parents. The spider-girl clearly narrated the issue to the society with clarity of which they took it for granted rather than questioning the whole thing as they did to the case of the old man with wings. The story therefore gives a reflection of human perception towards the supernatural beings. The contrast of the two cases shows the confusion of the people in society in appreciating the supernatural forces in relation to the complexity of the matter at hand.
The story of the old man with wings clear brings out the contrast of the supernatural forces with the natural details. This involves some complexity in the way people perceive each of them. In this story, It was not easy for Pelayo to differentiate when her house the crabs infested her house compare to the angel who infested her house. . This therefore led to several questions and debates raised about this issue of contrasting natural and the supernatural things.
The angel in the story possessed the characteristics of an animal but the author described him in a humanly manner. The society therefore perceives the angel as an imposter because it lacked the dignity of human beings. The society regarded the angel to be a rag picker than the perceived angel. The society treated the old man in an inhuman manner despite the fact that [he bears human characteristics. The story of the old man contains many mysterious and strange circumstances making it not easy to believe and understand.
This story of old man helps to expose the cruelty of human beings in relation to the dependent and weak people in the society as well as those who are different from others in various aspects of life. This is because Pelayo and Elisenda kept the angel in the chicken pen as well displaying it for profit purposes. The couple never treated the angel in a special manner despite the fact that they are benefiting from it. The story shows us that the entertainment of strangers is associated with untold benefits. The old man refused to leave in order to benefit the poor couple; this shows compassion as opposed to cruelty of the society towards the angel. The old man generally brought prosperity to the poor couple since they benefited from the angel by displaying it to the public. The angel appeared to be magical to the society.
The story of the old man generally entails is geared towards making people to interpret events of life. The strange character of the old man leads to many interpretations from the public showing different reactions of the society towards the complex situations and events in the society. The society tried to interpret the old man I different leading to confusion among the people in relation to the mystery of the old man with wings. This shows the fact that people think from their own perspective. People give their own interpretation and presentation of events.
In conclusion, the story of the old man with wings tries to bring out the way the society interprets things in different manners pertaining to both the natural and supernatural characteristics. This often leads to a mystery due to the complexity of circumstances. The society is seen to interpret the story of the old man in different ways claiming that he ca not be an angel due to lack of dignity.
