After three days of raining, there were several events that transpired; there were an outstanding amount crabs arrived to the village, a baby boy became sick, and the very old man with enormous wings was found in the back yard of a families house. These were normal events but the people of the village used it to justify tradition. The author uses this scenario to express that having a generalized set of “rules” that are in place to uphold a traditional way of thinking could be justified by almost any general situation. Garcia adds contrast to this by the old man being found face down in the mud when the family discovered him which was the abnormal situation. Once they arrived to the old man, the communication between them was impossible; they could not comprehend the what the old man was saying due to the unrecognizable language he spoke. They speculated that the old man angel. Still, they wasn’t sure what or who he was. As a result, they locked him coop until they could find out more information of what or who the old man is.
Once in the chicken coop, the old man suffered through several events and speculations. There was an old woman that was credited to know everything about life and death and told the family that the old man was not an angel. She imagined that an angel could not appear in such a hideous fashion like the old man did. Next was the priests evaluation; he determined that the old man was not and angel due to the old man`s inability to comprehend Latin language and his appearance did contain the “mortal characteristics.” In parallel the old man was speculated to be there to take the ill boy away from the village. No one could pin pint the significance of the old man. Gabriel uses this scenario to describe how the old man was not “traditional” therefore he was rejected by the society. It also expresses how people treat outsiders. According to pbs.org, during that time frame America was to bring 350,000 Mexicans to America for the labor surge(http://www.pbs.org/latino-americans/en/timeline/). This is a reflection of how Gabriel felt when writing the story. Mexicans were brought to America to help but, they are seen as inferior due to their nature. Furthermore, they were never fully accepted tho be a of the scoceity.
As a result, the old man became an exhibit. The viewings of the old man was popular for a while until something new arrived. There was woman transformed into a tarantula due to disobedience. She quickly became more popular than the old man because she interacted with the people of the village. Meanwhile, the old`s health started to fade and it seemed as if there is a possible chance of him dying. The old man grew new feathers on his wings and flew away as a villager watched. This expresses how the old man endured as much torture that he could possibly endure and now transitioned to another place to seek acceptance.
This story is an example of how society choose what to follow based on the attributes of an authority figure. The old man suffered from a series of judgments that lead to the rejection of the villagers. Eventually the old mad reached his tolerance level and went to seek another place to be. The judgments passed by the specific people was of bases of tradition. Because of people that held particular positions within the community they have the ability to uphold the conformity.
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