Religion as a Synonym of Ignorance Essay

Is the church as solid and strong as it experiencems? In The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Garcia Marquez uses witching(prenominal) realism to ch on the social unitenge religious beliefs hence, proving organized religion is not what is seems. To begin with, when the elder human being with enormous wings lands in Elis closurea and Pelayos courtyard and after(prenominal) concluding that the man must be someone who survived a wrong they call their neighbor to see him. Their neighbor proclaims right a vogue that he must be an nonp beil. Her reaction to the man with wings is pu hope influenced by faith.She blindly assumes things based on what she has been taught her all life Hes an ideal, she told them. He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow traveller is so old that the rain knocked him down. (Garcia Marquez 1) This shows how religion influences the interpretation of various events hence, restrict them to find a deeper or more nubful significance to any place. Pelayos reaction is guided by fear and insecurity, which somehow is pictured in the story to symbolize that the Church institution, generates fear instead of preach Gods tidings.How Garcia Marquez describes the holy man is a critique to the Church callable to the fact that it is described as a ragpicker in a no-count condition and extremely old. Pelayo judges the saint on his appearance. Wasnt the angel supposed to look all white, attractive and divine such as church says? If he was this counseling, then Pelayo would most likely honor and pry him kinda than treat him like an animal this doesnt only ruin the idea the Church has about an angel, but also results very disappointing, meaning that after all, religion results to be a disappointment.Garcia Marquez clearly describes how Colombian confederacy is, and how ignorant they are due to religion. The town expresses hope and expectations are the angels visit. Many had big dreams and had relied on this angel to p ut an end to all their problems as if he was sent down from God. These expectations however are not rational they are based on their beliefs and the emotions that this angel had generated. serviceman in general are always looking for the easy way out and the simplest way to put their problems to an end.This angel served as the answer they had all hoped for likewise, religion does this in a daily basis. Religious people rely the blame on God for what happens around them, whether its good or bad, it is the easiest way to justify lifes actions limiting humans get of thinking for themselves therefore, they are ignorant. As we go further, critiques towards religion and ignorance continue. One of the strongest is probably when founding father Gonzaga, gives his verdict about if the visitor was an angel or not.He tells people the Old Man is not an angel in consume of his appearance, and when he tries to communicate with him in Latin he gets no reaction that being the case, ignorance t akes over again and people believe churchmen simply because of the attitude they have in society. Catholics often believe the Church knows everything about life, and so they must believe everything they say as if they could not think for themselves.Father Gonzaga felt somehow threatened by the angels straw man because he could no longer be in the position he was and the angel would be seen as superior to him due to his divinity. The parish priest had his starting signal suspicion of an imposter when he saw that he did not interpret the style of God or know how to greet His ministers. (Garcia Marquez 2). He takes value of the situation when the Old Man does not answer in the language of jesus, ridiculing him and making himself look once again closer to God rather than the Old man.In addition, the final conclusion about that the old man is a norwegian sailor once again ridicules the Church viewing such absurd assumptions nevertheless, he dares to create comparisons to argument his final word about the impostor the angel was, He argued that if wings were not the indwelling element in determining the difference between a lurch and an airplane, they were even less so in the recognition of angels. (Garcia Marquez 2). Furthermore, taking the whole Church as a character compared with the angel himself we can see the contrast of true religion and the human representation of it.Meaning that the angel symbolizes religion itself, and the church represents the institution that has corrupted this divine word. Church manipulates everything to be more powerful. In contrast, the angel is extremely patient, he isnt unnatural by what people were doing to him and through magical realism, Garcia Marquez manages to create a situation in which church and humans can be looked upon ridiculously because the angel uses all of the things against him to grow strong and flee wherefore, religion is a large authority and more valuable than church as an institution.To conclude, t hroughout the whole story we can witness how Garcia Marquez uses magical realism fusing the reality of Colombian society and the divinity and fiction of an angel. He generates a critique towards religion stating that religion acts as a blindfold and limits humans to think beyond what they are taught to believe in hence, we can understand that religion in the story can perfectly fit as a equivalent word for ignorance.