A VEry WEird Story With A DEep meaning

I chose to interpret A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children. This story is about a family, Pelayo and Elisenda, and their encounter with a creature that they think is an angel. The family does not know what to do with the angel so they put him in a chicken coop. They call in a Father, named Gonzaga, to help determine what to do with the angel. When the Father speaks to him in Latin and the angel does not reply, the father takes it as a sign that he is an imposter possibly sent by the devil. He decides to write a letter to the Papacy in Rome to ask what he should to with the angel. The family then decides to charge a fee to see the angel and they accumulate an enormous fortune that they use to build themselves a mansion. There is a part in the story when a circus comes through and there is a girl who has been turned into a spider because she disobeyed her parents. This is the part of the story where readers go WHAT? I indeed went WHAT when I read it. While in the cage, people plucked out his feathers thinking that they would heal them but instead weird things happened. The story ends with the angel growing back his wings and flying away which causes the mother, Elisenda, to let out a sigh of relief.

I believe this text needs to be interpreted because I do not believe people really understand what this story is about. This story, to me, has a deeper meaning than what most readers think. I think people read this story and go “wow that was weird.” But I think otherwise. Although it is weird, it had a deeper meaning to me. You have to really think and focus to really get its meaning. The true meaning can be missed if the reader of this story isn’t reading it deeply. This story is about recognizing an opportunity when it presents itself, or a blessing in disguise.

I believe this story is about how we take things for granted. The angel, I believe, was there for a reason and the family failed to learn and understand why he was there. Early in the story the neighbor says, “He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down.” Maybe he was there to heel their child and I think he did because he got better after the angel arrived. I also believe this story is about appreciating things more than we do. This family had an angel come visit them and they treated him like he was an animal. They put him in a chicken coop for heavens sake. I would like to believe I would have taken him inside and taken care of it but instead they charged money to see him. He was an attraction to them not a celestial being to be honored and revered. The end of the story is probably the most important to me and to the story as a whole. The angel is flying away and Elisenda lets out a sigh of relief. She thought the angel was nothing but a nuisance, although he had provided a way to build a bigger house and healed their child of his cold. Maybe this was one of the reasons he was there – so that they could build a nicer house to keep out the craps. I think this is part of the story but not the full reason. People say that blessings come in disguise. Sometimes we may not realize that what we think is a nuisance is actually a blessing in disguise. Maybe this is the true meaning of the story.

I also found similarities between this story and the story of Job. They both endured pain and suffering. They both endured to the end. The author writes, “The angel was the only one who took no part in his own act.” It’s like Job. He had no control over what was happening to him but he endured. Just like the angel. They were both actors in a cruel situation but refused to be provoked.

I was doing some research on this story and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and found out why he incorporated the spider girl. He was attempting to show our human nature and our desire for attention. Marquez writes, “A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals.

I think my interpretation allows for further understanding of this story. I think most people would read and go wow what the heck did I just read, but if read slowly it has a deep meaning to it. Like I wrote earlier, the story is about appreciating things and not taking them for granted. It’s about realizing that things that seem like an annoyance could be a blessing. You have to understand why the angel was there to understand the deep meaning. By staying in the cage he allowed the family to raise enough money to build a bigger house. He also healed their child. My interpretation helps to appreciate the story for more than just a story. It’s a kind of philosophy. It’s something we should all take to heart. God puts people or circumstances in our life for a reason and we might not know why at the time. I think we need to live with more focus.

We, like Job and the angel, have to learn perseverance and endurance through tough situations. I think we can all learn a lesson from A Man with Very Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children. 

I really enjoyed reading this story. It grabbed my attention from the start and kept it throughout the story, which is a very hard thing to do. The people were shocked by the appearance of the angel at first. He did not look like what they imagined a normal angel would. He was dressed in rags and his wings had bugs in them. He had hardly any hair or teeth. He was unable to communicate with the people and when he didn’t speak Latin, Father Gonzaga thought he was an imposter. He smelt like a human. Father Gonzage was convinced he was a creature from Hell. Anyways, I’m not sure where I’m going with this but all this stuck out to me while reading this story. Maybe it’s that we judge people by how they look and how they smell and just assume we know what kind of person they are by these things. Maybe the Angel represents some of us. Down on our luck, everything is going wrong, we can’t seem to break out of our situation that we find our self in. We feel like we’re in a cage and everyone is looking at us and poking at us with sticks because we don’t fit into their idea of normal. We try to communicate with people but we just can’t seem to. Anyways, that’s just some of my interpretation.

I don’t understand why the angel was there in the first place.  Why did they not like angels at this point in time? What celestial conspiracy had they survived? I thought it was pretty twisted to make money off of the angel. They charged people to look at it and treated it like an animal, no respect or honor at all.

I did really like this story it is probably my favorite.  

The Questions of Omelas

This story is unlike anything I have ever read before. I didn’t like the story in the beginning because it failed to get me interested in it. But as the story went on and it got to the part were it talks about the child locked in the closet with no window’s and has to sit in its own waste. This is the part of the story that I honed in on.

I was not sure what the author was getting at when she starting describing why the child was locked up in the closet but as I read I began see why. A world without evil would be a fairytale land. Without evil how could we really enjoy happiness?

Le Guin writes, Their bitter tears fry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality and to accept it.  Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of splendor of their lives . . . They know that they, like the child, are not free . . . It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture. . .

I think she saying that without a little bit of evil the whole town of Omelas could not exist. It’s almost like their entire existence is tied to the fate of the child. The child is what makes possible the splendor of Omelas, but at what cost?

Pain, sorrow, guilt, and evil are necessary to have joy, happiness, and beauty. Without ugly how would we know beauty? Without pain and sorrow how would we know joy or happiness?

I think these are the questions that the author is asking through this story. I leave you to answer them.

The Figurative Language of Phlippians

The Book of Philippians is probably my favorite book of the Bible because it is so encouraging. Paul is encouraging the Church in Philippi and uses some figurative language to do so. The figurative language is hard to spot, at least for me. I read it slowly and still came up pretty empty in finding some. He does talk about the fruits of righteousness, the cause of Christ, he mentions his imprisonment quite a few times. He says For me to live is Christ and to die is gain, which is kind of figurative language I think. He’s saying that either in life or death, He is happy and God’s Will will be done. His use of phrasing is almost poetic to me. It’s a true statement.

Paul writes

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests of others.”

I don’t see any figurative language in this but it’s a good scripture and is something people, especially politicians should read!!

Paul talks about how Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men. He refers to Jesus as becoming a common man so that we can see Jesus as a man who though was equal to God was also a simple man who faced the same things we face day to day.

Paul also talks about how every knee will bow. This is figurative in that he is referring to how people bow to kings and other authority figures. He’s showing that God is above everyone.

I tried to find more figurative language but my search came up empty. I love reading Philippians and it encourages me every time I read it. 

The Man Who Came To Dinner

The Man Who Came To Dinner, was an interesting play. I enjoyed most of the play but at some points during the play I lost interests. Some of the characters were just plain annoying. The Character, Lorraine Shledon, annoyed the daylights out of me. I enjoyed most of the other characters, especially Dan Prevett’s.

The main character, Mr. Whiteside, was a mean and pervasive man. He gets aggravated with almost every character. On the program there is a quote that sums up Mr. Whiteside: "Is there a man in the world who suffers as I do from the gross inadequacies of the human race?" Whiteside sees everybody’s inadequacies. He sees in the nurse her inadequacies to bring his medicine and take care of him on time. Maggie is inadequate because she fell in love.

I really enjoyed the character of Beverly Carlton. He was really funny and every time he came on stage I woke out of my boredom. I also enjoyed the crazy German doctor who brought Mr. Whiteside a roach farm. Banjo was also an awesome character. His horn cracked me up and every time he mocked Lorraine I lost it. My favorite part of the play was were they locked her up in the mummy sarcophagus and shipped her away.

The play was a little ruff. The cast seemed to be struggling through there lines and the play seemed rushed at certain points. I accredit sum of the mistakes to first night jitters. The play overall was a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. It was funny but lacked significant story for as long as it was. I lost interest at several points during the play. I felt myself wanting to sleep on more than one occasion.

I think I’ll watch the movie and see how it is.

11-11-2010

Dr. Fettke describes in his essay the differences between normal and abnormal as it refers to creation. Normal people are those who engage in normal relationship and communication with other humans and creation. He explains that for the mentally challenged this communication and relationship with other humans might be deemed abnormal because of their disability. He poses the question, “Just how are categories of normal and abnormal understood in the light of creation?” I have often pondered this question myself. Just what is normal and abnormal and who defines it. Dr. Fettke describes normal as being created in God’s image. I like this definition a lot, simply because we all are made in God’s image. It’s a beautiful thing to think about.

Dr. Fettke description of the “life force”. He explains that all have been created by God’s Spirit with their own unique “life force” that expresses God’s true intention for them. He believes that the disabled are marked by God in their creation and are not problems to be solved. Wow what a great point. It’s sad that the mentally disabled are defined by their disability. People just right them off without ever giving them a chance. They were created for a purpose because God does not make mistakes. Dr. Fettke writes that mental disabilities are not God’s  mistake or the product of human sin or demonic activity.

When I see and mentally challenged person, all I see is the disability. Its sad and I’m making a giant effort not to see just their disability. God has designed us all with a purpose. We are to fulfill that purpose to the best of our abilities. Mentally challenged people have a role to play and they are just as influential as you and me. So next time you see or meet a mentally challenged person make sure to smile. He’s always watching!

November 8 - Trip To Alliance

Today we took a trip to Alliance. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different things they offer for mentally disabled people. They offer them a chance to make money. They teach them skills that they can use to get a job out in the world. The educate them in everything from spelling to computers. One guy we saw loved nascar and he was watching a race when we came in the room. They are allowed a certain amount of time to serf the web. It's really cool to see mentally disabled people succeeding in life. They all seemed to have so much determination to succeed. I really think a lot of the workers at Alliance. Dealing with mentally challenged people is no easy task, it takes patience. The world is a lot better place because of them. I often wonder what life looks like through a mentally challenged person. They always seem so happy and care free.

Going to Alliance helped me visualize the play The Boys Next Door better. The play itself is pretty good. It is really funny and I thought of the movie the Ringer the entire time I was reading it. I had to read the whole thing today because I was behind but reading it all at the same time was helpful. Being around mentally challenged people really made me thankful that I am who I am. It made me appreciate the freedom that I have. I can go and come as I please and live my life the way I want to. Why is it that we forget to appreciate the little things in life? The ability to walk, talk, see, and hear. These are all important things that we forget are blessings. I know I take them for granted, we all do.