I read many great works this past summer, but I particularly enjoyed "The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I love that the story is teeming with symbolism and can be interpreted in many different ways. Maybe I interpreted it wrong, but frankly, I don't really care. To me, it was a story about a selfish humanity that was blinded by their stereotypes and expectations. The angel represented the magnificent, beautiful things in life. Unfortunately, the people of the village, representing humanity as a whole, quickly decided that the angel didn't meet their expectations of what an angel should be, and quickly lost interest in him. My favorite quote from the story is "Then he noticed that close up [the angel] was much too human. . . Nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels." Marquez beautifully conveys the idea that if you go about life with a closed mind, you miss out on all the beauty and wonder of the world.
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