Agnes Scott College

Compare and contrast the different portrayal of the spider-girl and the angel. Is there a wider purpose behind this contrast? “A very old man with enormous wings” Gabriel García Márquez.

please give me the ans within 300 words.

Asked by
Last updated by Aslan
Answers 1
Add Yours

Initially the old man's arrival is greeted with interest but much like the Spider Girl he becomes something of a freak-show. The thought does cross the villager's minds that there may be something special about him but when the priest dismisses any angelic precepts the old man is relegated to carnival status.

A travelling carnival show 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"

There are parallels between the girl and the old man. Both are misunderstood and hence humiliated. Although the Spider-girl entertains the crowed, she is still mocked and ridiculed. The old man is a Christ-figure of sorts and the Spider-Girl represents the meek and exploited. Marquez's masterpiece sounds very much like a Biblical parable.