Gabriela Garcia Marquez: "A very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" tells the story of a small village who's monotony is disturbed by the arrival of a very old man with enormous wings. He lands in Pelayo and Elsinda's yard as they are killing crabs. I believe the story works as a criticism of the catholic institution as well as human nature. 
Marquez criticises the church through Father Gonzaga's superiors in Rome when he mocks the unnecessary and lengthy hierarchy: " Nevertheless, he promised to write a letter to his bishop so that the latter would write his primate so that the latter would write to the Supreme Pontiff in order to get the final verdict from the highest courts." The amount of people Father Gonzaga has to go through to speak to a superior is just ridiculous, especially when these superiors completely fail to be interested on the nature of this so called fallen angel, but instead concentrate on ridiculous and irrelevant details such as whether " his dialect had any connection with Aramaic, how many times he could fit on the head of a pin, or whether he wasn't just a Norwegian with wings." Marquez is clearly mocking the churches arcane medieval theories and insinuating how literal minded and out of touch with reality the church is. In the end, the old man simply flies away, implying that the wisdom of the church was all together unnecessary and didn't contribute to the resolution of the mystery at all. 

Marquez also criticizes human beings in general, primarily through Pelayo and Elsinda and the other villagers. Their narrow mindedness seems to prevent them from really understanding the meaning of life. The "wise neighbor woman" has know it all solutions to every situation, therefor never really analyzing and thinking about the situation in itself. Father Gonzaga desperately looks for a procedure to follow instead of dealing with the situation at hand, contacting his superiors in Rome that are worthless of advice. And finally, Marquez mocks human nature through all the pilgrims and sick people that come to see the fallen angel with their own selfish concerns. Even  Pelayo and Elsinda show the same selfishness. Instead of taking care of the old man, they lock him up like a savage and turn him into a circus animal and a means to make money: " Elisenda, her spine all twisted from sweeping up so much marketplace trash, then got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel." 
Another main theme of the story could be how people treat differences. This old man with enormous wings is not like anyone else these villagers have ever seen. But instead of treating him with respect and dignity, he is locked up and turned into a circus animal, an attraction for people all around the world to come look at.