A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

what is the significance of the spider-lady in a very old man with enormous wings?

why did the author need to include the spider woman in the story. what is her significance? what is her purpose?

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Last updated by Chante C #584732
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While the "angel" comes to them rather mysterious way. He simply just shows up in Pelayo's yard. The Spider Girl is part of a travelling carnival show that comes to the village. The main attraction happens to be a spider-girl. The villagers are intrigued. Tickets to see here are cheaper and she entertains the crowd where as the shy angel recoiled at the attention. The crowd also liked the morality tale behind the spider girl. Disobey your parents and God, or something, turns you into a spider. The crowd has all but forgotten the angel,

"A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals"

THe angel is sullen and withdrawn. He is not intended to be a spectacle, like the Spider-Girl, but becomes one just the same. In this sense they share the similarity of fate handed down by twisted human nature. The old man is given more of a sense of "magic realism". He represents human blindness to beauty and mercy; he is a Christ- figure of sorts. The Girl represents something similar but certainly not to the same extent and not in an angelic context.

How does the author introduce the superstitious nature of the characters in the first paragraph?