Infrahumanization and Marginalization of "the Other” in “Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes” by Gabriel García Márquez

Abstract

“Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes,” or “A very old man with enormous wings,” is a short story by the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. It describes a poor couple, Pelayo and Elisenda, who discover an old man with huge wings in their courtyard after a storm. They are unsure about what he is, whether he is an angel or an old man, so they trap him in a chicken coop and charge people to see him. Instead of accepting the old man and treating him with kindness and empathy, the villagers isolate and exploit him because he does not fit their definition of what is considered normal. This is symbolic of how societies often objectify and marginalize those who are different. Nick Haslam and Michelle Stratemeyer, authors of “Recent research on dehumanization,” state in their article that infrahumanization is “a subtle form of dehumanization in which uniquely human emotions are denied to outgroups relative to the ingroup, and which occurs even in the absence of intergroup conflict” (25). Therefore, to what extent does labeling individuals through social and political categories function as a means of infrahumanization, and how does García Márquez portray this through his characters’ actions? In this presentation, I will argue that reducing a person’s emotional and human complexity allows societies to distance themselves from those who are viewed as different. By having the villagers label, categorize, and exploit the old man without much thought, García Márquez emphasizes the dangers of denying others emotional depth and individuality, therefore demonstrating how infrahumanization promotes marginalization and prevents genuine empathy.