When reading A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings the biggest thing that struck me as odd was not the existence of the “angel,” but instead the reaction of the of villagers to the “angel.” I am not a member of any church, but I’ve picked up on some aspects of religion from popular culture and visits to my conservative hyper-religious family. One thing I’ve noticed is that it is encouraged to fear the Lord and his wrath.
The villagers in the story seem to have no concept of fear when it comes to dealing with the “angel.” Surely there is some unwritten rule in religion that frowns upon capturing and keeping an angel in livestock-like conditions. Also, isn’t there a a commandment that tells people to love their neighbor. I know angels aren’t our neighbors, but I would think that followers of religion would put angels on an even higher pedestal of respect. In disrespecting the angel, the villagers didn’t seem to have any fear of the wrath of the lord. This makes me question how devout the villagers truly were.
~Simone Paul
Story Power 
This really confused me too. It made no sense to me that the townspeople would treat supossable one of the holiest beings in their religion. The priest even without meeting him thought that he was not an angel. They treated him like an animal and not having any power at all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that the angel was punishing the village people by simply leaving. They didn’t show fear or respect toward their God in that moment so the angel decided that they didn’t deserve his presence in their village anymore. Due to their disrespect, the angel deemed that they were beyond saving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I 100% agree with you. If this story is based off of the religious follwings of a church, shouldn’t we love everyone, even if they look different than us? Especially an angel who is a symbol of guidance and protection. The townspeople are technically not folowing their faith, which mnakes me think that people just belive int he church just to say they believe in the church, and not actually folllow it. But, religion is tricky because if people take everything from the Bible too literally, things can get out of hand. On the contrary if they don’t follow it literally, they can be judged by others. This story made me think a lot about religion and all the ins and outs and ups and downs of beliefs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I also agree with you. The people of the town claim that he is an angel, but then proceed to burn him with a iron in order to get a reaction out of him. It seems that they are either not fully convinced that the angel is real and somewhat want him to prove them wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I also agree. The towns people, rather than praising this man rejected him instead. If this is a religious story then why would they treat an angel like such. I think that they lost the right to his presence by the end of the story, being the reason that he left. Their negative response and misconception of his purpose lead him to be removed by the end of the story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree! I was confused by the townspeople, if they really believed he was an angel, why would they treat him like that? In their mistreatment of the old man, the townspeople completely neglected their religious beliefs and instead showed absolute cruelty.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed. It was odd how the villagers believed the man to be an angel but ultimately did not care about that and flocked to whoever they could get more of a reaction out of (spider). It was like all the villagers were looking for was entertainment, and when they could not get any more, they left. The angel was nothing more than a toy to play with for the villagers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree, the people of the village completely disrespected the angel. The village seemed like they didn’t really care if he was really an angel they just wanted a reaction because he looked different from everyone else.
LikeLiked by 1 person