The people around him appear cruel, unfeeling, violent, and horribly stupid by comparison, if judged only on their conduct in relation to this one old man with large wings.
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| The Rest of the World | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After finding the old man in their courtyard and consulting their 'wise' old neighbor woman, Pelayo and Elisenda are advised to club the old man to death. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lacking the nerve (but not the hardware) to club the old man to death, Pelayo and Elisenda planned to load him onto a raft with food and water for three days, and shove him off the sea. Mind you, he's done nothing but sit in the mud up to this point. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Before he's cast onto the sea, a crowd springs up to look at the old man and his wings. This delays his watery grave, and eventually Pelayo and Elisenda think of a way to make some money off of the old bird. (I guess I meant that pun.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| While the old man is cooped up and on display, numerous gawkers surround him with hot candles and oil lamps. While on one hand these are object intended for reverence, they're also exceptionally hot. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| At one point the old man is still and quiet for a few hours. The anxious crowds, seeking to test whether or not he's dead, decided that the best way to see if he's merely asleep is to stick him with a red-hot poker, foregoing the old "hand in warm water" trick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| When Father Gonzaga writes to his superiors in the church, rather than respond with any surprise, they ask whether he speaks Aramaic, how many of him could fit on the head of a pin, and whether the old man has a navel, of all things. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After the old man's celebrity is past, he is kept around by the family for some time to come after making them a fortune. The chicken coop collapses and they soon find themselves sweeping the old man out of various rooms of the house. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| So, comparing how things go in the story, you have an old man who doesn't speak a language anyone can understand, but it more or less fine being locked in a chicken coop, eating eggplant mush, and having things thrown at him. The people around him appear cruel, unfeeling, violent, and horribly stupid by comparison, if judged only on their conduct in relation to this one old man with large wings. |
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