A common feature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's stories is his use of Magical Realism (Williams 95). By combining miraculous elements with realistic details in his short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," Marquez causes fantasy and reality to live side-by-side (McMurray 27). The old man with enormous wings is considered to be an angel who ultimately represents the mysterious and unfamiliar elements in life. Even more mysterious or magical is the appearance of the lady spider. The angel and human-like spider do not just represent the supernatural, but also something foreign; they stand out in the crowd as being different from the rest of society. Representing reality are the townspeople, who are truly fascinated by the angel and anything else that is different from what society considers being normal, which is the story's main focus. Marquez uses Magical Realism in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," to exemplify society's cruelty and ignorance towards and fascination with, those things which are different, unique and unknown.
             Upon analyzing the story for magical and mystical elements, one immediately recognizes many aspects which can be described as such things, the most prominent being the old man with enormous wings. At the beginning of the story Pelayo discovers, "...a very old man, lying face down in the mud...impeded by his enormous wings" (Marquez 289). This old man is described by a wise neighbor woman to be an angel. Unlike the beautiful, bold, sexless individual with gorgeous large wings that most people imagine an angel to look like, this angel is described as having, "...huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked...and very few teeth in his mouth" (Marquez 289). Marquez has taken an image that one is familiar with and distorted it into something unfamiliar, creating a magical element within the story.
             Although the angel is seen as a magical figure...