43 pages • 1 hour read
Gabriel García MárquezA Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Reading Check
1. Which character finds a very old man in the mud?
2. Where does Pelayo put the old man?
3. What distracts the townspeople from observing the old man with wings?
4. What do Pelayo and Elisenda do with the money they raise from charging admission to see the old man?
Multiple Choice
1. When Elisenda and Pelayo first meet the old man, what do they find strange about him?
A) The old man has wings.
B) The old man is poorly dressed.
C) The old man speaks a different language.
D) All of the above.
2. How does Father Gonzaga decide that the old man is not an angel?
A) The old man speaks the Devil’s tongue.
B) The old man has the mark of Cain.
C) The old man does not understand Latin.
D) The old man eats food like a human.
3. What is the old man’s only supernatural virtue from the town’s perspective?
A) The old man has endless patience.
B) The old man can cure hunger.
C) The old man can transform his physical being.
D) The old man encourages the townspeople to believe in God.
4. Who or what does Father Gonzaga turn to for help in dealing with the old man suspected of being an angel?
A) The old women in the town
B) Rome
C) The government
D) His Bible
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the author characterize the setting at the beginning of the story?
2. How do the townspeople treat the old man in the chicken coop?
3. As time goes on, what happens to the old man’s condition?
4. How does the old man react to his improving condition?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Reading Check
1. Pelayo finds a very old man in the mud. (Paragraph 1)
2. Pelayo puts the old man in his chicken coop. (Paragraph 4)
3. The townspeople lose interest in the old man with wings when a spider-woman comes to town. (Paragraph 10)
4. Elisenda and Pelayo use the money they earn from charging entry to see the old man to build a mansion. (Paragraph 11)
Multiple Choice
1. D (Paragraph 2)
2. C (Paragraph 5)
3. A (Paragraph 8)
4. B (Paragraph 9)
Short-Answer Response
1. The author characterizes the setting at the beginning of the story as ominous. Crabs have been killed by rain, the world is described as “sad,” and the sky and sea are “a single ash-gray thing.” (Paragraph 1)
2. Many of the townspeople gather to throw food and stones at the old man in order to make him stand up and show his wings. Others make a pilgrimage to the old man, believing him to be an angel that can solve their problems. (Paragraph 8)
3. As years go by, the old man’s physical condition deteriorates. The feathers of his wings peel, and the family finds him roaming through their home. Furthermore, he stops eating and starts losing his eyesight. (Paragraph 12)
4. The old man is careful to make sure no one notices his condition improving. This allows him to fly away tentatively and secretly with only Elisenda as his witness. (Paragraph 13)
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By Gabriel García Márquez
