WINGS OF OPPRESSION: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF POWER RELATIONS IN GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ’S ‘A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS’

Abstract

The study uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the complex power relations in Gabriel García Márquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Analyzing narrative patterns, the words spoken by characters and their relations, symbols throughout the text, the research explains how and in what manner language and the use of discourses perpetuate or subvert the power relations within the text and addresses social problems such as colonialism, religion, and social classes. In the events of the story ways of how the villagers dehumanize, exploit and disregard the value of the angel and disregard the plight of such a figure in society is represented. The opposition of religious authority that the character of Father Gonzaga represents is criticized for decisions in the best interest of the institution rather than good-hearted Catholicism; similarly, the angel as a product symbolizes the suffering of the workers under the capitalist system. Instead, the angel presents a subtle defiance to these power structures and the cold shoulder people with suffering receive when attention is momentarily paid to them. Thus placing the narrative in socio-political framework, the study shows how Marquez unmasks system of domination and objectification and the role of language in creating, perpetuating and subverting power relations in societies.