God performs his divine acts in many ways. Jesus could perform miracles of healing and create food out of nothing. These are the most conventional ways we see divine intervention at work. Almighty God, however, does not prefer these standard methods. Instead, it prefers to act in ways that we humans can only begin to understand. This is especially true of the short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. In the story, a winged man falls from the sky without any meaning or purpose. The man is shrouded in mystery. Nameless and unable to communicate with the native villagers, he lives among them. His intentions are never truly known to either the reader or the villagers. However, the biblical parallels present in the story help us unravel the mysteries behind this strange old man. By analyzing the meaning of these allegories, we can better understand the old man's purpose and, at the same time, learn more about the hidden moral teachings and criticisms present in the story. When they first find the old man, the villagers claim that “he is an angel” (Marquez 1). There is no denying the divinity of this man, but he seems to represent much more than the ordinary angel. In fact, the old man he does not at all resemble the typical image of an angel. Rather than being a young and pure angel, he is “too human” with his “unbearable smell”. His angelic wings are even “spread with parasites” with battered feathers (2) This contrasting imagery, however, does not completely undermine the old man's divinity; rather, it draws attention to his lackluster appearance. The disappointments we feel about the old man along with his particular characteristics make him strikingly similar to that of the tragic heroes of the Bible ; he is the...... middle of paper ......h to make Elisenda understand how grateful she should be to the old man. It is almost sad to realize how corrupt human nature has become this, we learn that we must all become more humble to improve the human condition. The biblical parallels in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” are essential to understanding its themes. While it is true that the themes of this story can be understood without using the biblical connection, their meaning would not be the same. All biblical parallels allow us to deepen our understanding of the themes. The story itself is an entire allegory and without incorporating this fact we would not be able to fully recognize the overall meaning of the themes. Looking beyond the story as a single work, we can see how it connects to countless other lessons and reasons why we should improve our lives..