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Faith is like our humanistic features. We are all born with limbs and fingers,
but we exercise them differently. In turn we get different bodily shapes and
tones. Keeping things in perspective faith is similar; we all view faith on
different levels and understand them from our own experiences. In today's world,
society views faith as religious in content. Denise Levertov presents
"Living While It May" (911) to prove that faith lies within all
things. "The young elm that must be cut/ because it's roots push at the
house wall/ taps and scrapes at my window/ urgently-but when I look round at it/
remains still. Or if I turn by chance, / it seems it's leaves are eyes, or the
whole spray/ of leaves and twigs a face flattening/ it's nose against the glass,
breathing a cloud, / longing to see clearly my life whose term/ is not yet
known." (911). It seems that Levertov uses the tree as a symbol of faith.
The elm is always there watching the persona, having faith that she will still
be there each day. This is not religious in content yet it is a rather humble
experience of faith. You see faith the belief you have in a person or thing's
character; it is not based on any proof.
Marquez uses a different example in her child's tale "A Very Old Man With
Enormous Wings" (828) when a couple outside the norm discovers such a man.
They are told that this pathetic looking old man is an angel, they marvel at the
idea. People from all over come to see the angel. Even Father Gonzaga comes to
meet God's assistant.
Alien to the impertinences of the world, he only lifted his antiquarian eyes and
murmured something in his dialect when Father Gonzaga went into the chicken coop
and said good morning to him in Latin. The parish priest had his first suspicion
of an impostor when he saw that he did not understand the language of God or
know how to greet His ministers. Then he noticed that seen close up he was much
too human: he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his
wings were strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by
terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of
angels. (829)
Marquez points out the paradox in life. She is using a misunderstood family to
marvel such a wonder in their hometown. The only problem is the Father doesn't
believe the creature to be a true angel of God. He makes this judgment by
confusion through facts he has learned. There is not a "How to Notice an
Angel" book for this town to use. However, this selection does bring to
mind how faith really works. Since faith is not based on hard evidence it makes
situations such as this one, a hard call to make. Now this family is stuck with
a pathetic looking old man with very enormous wings, and they treat him like the
chickens in their coop. Pelayo and Elisenda used him to make money and fame;
they took no interest in him as an angel, because Father Gonzaga determined that
this creature was not one of Gods.
Paradox and symbolism come hand in hand. We are all in a state of paradox when a
situation arises and we question our faith. Sometimes symbolism can help cure
our doubts about the faith we question. Faith is to symbolism as question is to
paradox. Levertov's elm tree showed us unconditional faith by symbolism and
Marquez's family showed us doubt by paradox.
Postscript
I enjoyed writing this seminar paper. I think I enjoyed it so much because I am
familiar with Marquez's story. I wrote my midterm essay on this when I was in
101. I find the story fascinating and wondrous. I chose it again for this paper,
and also added some of my own distinctions. I feel more confident about this
paper than most.
Works Cited
Levertov, Denise. "Living While It May". Bridges. James R. Belser and
Steve Pensinger. New Bakersville: "McGraw". 904
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings".
Bridges. James R. Belser and Steve Pensinger. New Bakersville:
"McGraw". 828-832
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