The first two short stories in the collection both center on the arrival of an unusual man in an ordinary rural town. However, whereas one story emphasizes the stranger’s significant and positive impact on the lives of the villagers, the other story exposes the failures and hypocrisies of the townspeople who take advantage of the stranger’s arrival. This juxtaposition demonstrates the versatility of humankind’s reaction to the world around them and the way that rural groups tend to assimilate, responding to phenomena with either love or fear.

The title “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” sets expectations for the villagers’ reactions to the appearance of the titular man. The uncanny reaction to the man’s appearance, rather than the fact of his drowning, suggests that the story doesn’t take place in conventional reality, where people might normally take offense to a drowning, but in a reality where hyperbolic attributes have extraordinary effects on people, akin to curses or superpowers. The mystery of the man’s extraordinary beauty inspires intimacy among the villagers and overshadows the mystery of his death. In addition, the text describes the man as being extraordinarily tall and heavy, but this doesn’t bother the villagers. The story never gives any clue about the drowned man’s origins, yet the villagers are compelled to bestow an identity on him to create the illusion of familiarity. This informs the thrust of the story: The drowned man matters less than what the village chooses to do about his arrival.

Significantly, the village’s decisions over the man’s invented history are agreed upon by consensus, as is evident in their decision to name him Esteban. This way, the relationship to the drowned man becomes social, rather than individual and exclusive to specific villagers. Even the decision to designate relatives to Esteban among the villagers becomes a community vote. This underscores an idea that Leaf Storm touches on: The introduction of a foreign element can significantly impact the life of a single community, so that all the individuals who compose it are inspired or forced to change. However, unlike the leaf storm, which drives the residents of Macondo away from their ruined town, the brief duration of Esteban’s stay in the seaside village awakens the townspeople’s most sympathetic attitudes, such that they eventually become defined by their relationship to Esteban and his wondrous beauty. This presents a counterpoint to The Violence of Social Exclusion by showing how the community moves to radically include Esteban in their culture.

In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” García Márquez juxtaposes the sacred and the profane by evoking the idea of an angel who has become impotent in the midst of a raging storm. As in the story of the drowned man, this story posits that conventional reality isn’t as emotional as magical reality. What drives the story forward are the emotional reactions of the characters who behold the story’s uncanny elements. The character of Father Gonzaga tries to distance the character of the old man from the notion of an angel, yet the priest’s authority in spiritual matters doesn’t stop people who seek relief from illness and disability from visiting the man in the hopes of receiving an angelic miracle. After his first interaction with the old man, the priest warns the people against falling for the “carnival tricks” of the Devil.

The phrasing of the priest’s warning foreshadows the story’s later plotline, in which the popularity of a carnival attraction that functions as a morality tale for children overshadows the lure of the angel’s potential healing power. The difference between the two attractions is the spider-woman’s willingness to engage with her audience. She seeks a crowd, while the old man remains indifferent to his exoticization. The people dehumanize the old man because they see him as being entirely different from them. Accepting the interpretation that his wings mean he’s an angel, they exoticize the old man as a way of asserting power over him, upsetting the traditional belief in angels’ spiritual superiority to humankind.

For the farmer and his wife, the townspeople’s growing interest in the old man as a spiritual agent compels them, thematically highlighting The Impact of Social Dynamics on Moral Responsibility. The prospect of growing rich by charging people to see the angel supersedes the couple’s concern for the old man and his frail condition. Only when their son’s illness worsens after he spends time in the chicken coop with the angel do Pelayo and Elisenda let the angel stay in their shed, where he can be sheltered from the elements and begin to heal. His improvement with warm weather reflects his status as a mortal being, while his flight reflects the transformation of hope born of compassion.

In addition, the story suggests a deeper connection between the old angel and the young son of Pelayo and Elisenda. Elisenda theorizes that the angel came to take the soul of their sick son but failed by becoming sick himself. Toward the end of the story, the parallel between the two characters continues as the angel starts to mirror the boy in affliction and action. This suggests an interpretation of the angel as a representation of the boy’s spirit. The last time the boy is mentioned is when he goes off to school. Pelayo and Elisenda treat the old man as an inconvenience, but they also become concerned for his health. As he regains his angelhood, he takes care to do so out of his adoptive parents’ sight, resonating with the growth of their son’s inner child that takes place away from Pelayo and Elisenda. This is why Elisenda doesn’t respond to the angel’s flight with alarm, but with relief, as it would resonate with her son’s developing capacity to live for himself.