The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World By: Jack Biemer, Nicole Zabinski, Lindsey Beale, Maria Rendo, Sarah Moore

Summary- • Characters: • Esteban- (protagonist) • Grown man who was found dead in the ocean by village children. • Handsome, strongly built stranger. • Women put a personality to him that matches his physical features (kind, innocent, good-natured) • Inspires the villagers to examine their lives and to beautify their village • “Esteban really exists not in the corpse, but mainly in the minds and the bodies of the villagers” (701, Short Stories for Students).

Summary- • Characters: • Villagers- (antagonist) • None of the names are revealed- enhances the idea that they work and live as a group • They knew Esteban was a stranger because “they simply had to look at one another to see that they were all there” (701). • Not many people in their village • Acts more like a large family rather than a clan

Summary- • Setting- • Unnamed island • Has the feel of a faraway land because there is no exact location and the villager’s isolation. • Very Primitive (used a wheel-less sled to take Esteban to his funeral), so it could take place in a prehistoric era or just be so isolated that it doesn’t develop quickly • Garcia’s Marquez’s inspirations- • Very similar to his childhood home • Ocean liners show that it is a real place that can be visited. • Represents something that is magical or mystical, but also real. (Relates back to the concept of Magical Realism)

Summary- • Plot Structure- • Exposition: Introduced to the village. Very small, isolated, primitive, and not motivated. They are not working towards achieving anything-other than existence. • Rising Action- The drowned man is found and carried to land. The women are amazed by his large size and beauty, and eventually the men are too. They assign a personality to Esteban that they think matches him.

Summary- • Climax: Esteban’s funeral. His body is returned to the sea, and the villagers realize they will never be the same. In that moment they “realize the narrowness of their dreams”(701) and strive to improve their village. • Falling Action and Conclusion: The village now has a new vision for the future. They will clean up and beautify their village.

Analysis Questions- • (Write this under ‘Questions for analysis of Magical Realist Fiction’, back of first page)

Realistic Elements • Normal people • Village life • Characters wondering where a body came from • Women being interested in a handsome man

Magical Elements • The villagers’ reactions to Esteban’s arrival • The way the villagers give the drowned man a personality • The fact that Esteban becomes more real/alive than the living villagers • Only Esteban has any personality and individuality

Function of Magical Elements • According to literary critic George R. McMurray, “Esteban [is] the messenger of hope, beauty, and human solidarity.” • Motivates the people of the village to strive for ideals above and beyond what they had previously attempted

Function of Magical Elements • The men and women of the village “become aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams” (706). • Esteban’s mystery allows the villagers to fantasize about his past

Treatment of Magical Elements • The magical elements are mirrored in the actions of the villagers

Characters’ Reactions to the Magical Elements • The women and men of the village change and make changes to the village for the benefit of Esteban • Esteban evoked a reason for change and acceptance among the villagers

Relationship Between Real/Unreal Elements • Finding a drowned man is a natural occurrence • The body becomes important to the women of the village, who become obsessed with it

Dreamlike Qualities • Although the women of the village know nothing about the body’s past, they imagine him as the most perfect man on Earth • Even after being drowned, Esteban is still the most handsome man the villagers have ever seen

Treatment of Time • The story occupies a timeless era: it doesn’t say when the story takes place • Time is treated normally; time is chronological

Political/Cultural Message • Society’s infatuation with celebrities and inability to see their flaws and overlook their facades of perfection • The importance of heroes in society • Occasionally people of power are voted because of their charisma, and not by what they stand for

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE (Write this under ‘other’ in your packets, back of second page)

Figurative Language: Imagery • “The first children who saw the dark and slinky bulge approaching through the sea let themselves think it was an enemy ship”(702) • “But when it washed up on the beach, they removed the clumps of seaweed, the jellyfish tentacles, and the remains of fish and flotsam, and only then did they see that it was a drowned man” (702) • “The village was made up of twenty-odd-wooden houses that had stone courtyards with no flowers and which were spread about on the end of a desert like cape” (702)

Figurative Language: Imagery • “But when it washed up on the beach, they removed the clumps of seaweed, the jellyfish tentacles, and the remains of fish and flotsam, and only then did they see it was a drowned man” (702) • “They could see him in life, condemned to going through doors sideways, cracking his head on crossbeams, remaining on his feet during visits, not knowing what to do with his soft, pink, sea lions hands…”(703) • “…, even they might have been impressed with his gringo accent, the macaw on his shoulder, his cannibal-killing blunderbuss, but there could be only one Estaban in the world, and there he was stretched out like a sperm whale, shoeless, wearing the pants of an undersized child, and with those stony nails that had to be cut with a knife” (705) • Gringo- in Latin America, that of a foreigner, especially a person from the United States or England

Figurative Language: Personification • “… mother’s always went about with the fear that the wind would carry off their children,…” (702) • “…, they noticed his the vegetation on him came from faraway oceans and deep water and that his clothes were in tatters, as If he had sailed through labyrinths” (702) • “After midnight the whistling of the wind died down, and the sea fell into its Wednesday drowsiness” (703) • Wednesday drowsiness- an idiom peculiar to this type of fishing community. Wednesday can be considered to mean roughly “Tiresome”

Figurative Language: Personification • “… mother’s always went about with the fear that the wind would carry off their children,…” (702) • “…, they noticed his the vegetation on him came from faraway oceans and deep water and that his clothes were in tatters, as if he had sailed through labyrinths” (702) • “After midnight the whistling of the wind died down, and the sea fell into its Wednesday drowsiness” (703) • Wednesday drowsiness- an idiom peculiar to this type of fishing community. Wednesday can be considered to mean roughly “Tiresome”

Themes- • (Write this under ‘Themes’ in your packet, second page)

Myth and the human condition Myth and the human condition explains the tendency for people to create exotic stories to help explain their world. • “They thought that he would have so much authority that could have drawn fish out of the sea simply by calling their names and that he would have put so much work into his land that springs would have burst forth and he would be able to plant flowers among the rocks”(703).

Versions of reality • Which of the drowned man’s qualities were real, and which qualities were given to him. • Is the drowned man really Esteban, or does Esteban symbolize something completely different?

Death and how we deal with it • The people of the village initially treat the dead as simply dead, but after Esteban, they seem to have a new found respect for the dead. • The village started by treating him as a random children's toy, but at the end, they treat him like a king. They treat him as if he was alive, and this change in attitude changes their lives for the better.

Transformation • The villagers change their lives after Esteban’s visit. Also, the image of Esteban changes throughout the story. • “…because they were going to paint their house fronts gay colors to make Esteban’s memory eternal, and they were going to break their backs digging for springs among the cliffs and planting flowers”(706).

The power of one • The power of one shows how one person or thing can have a drastic improvement on peoples lives. • “But they also knew that everything would be different from then on, that their ceilings would be higher and their floors stronger so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere”(706).

Beauty and aesthetics • The villagers’ perception of this dead man is in direct proportion with his beauty. • As the villagers see Esteban in different stages, like him covered with seaweed or him all dressed up, they see him in different myths and fantasies.

Biographical Information of Garcia Marquez- • (Write this under ‘Biographical Information’ in your packets, last page)

HisLife- • Born on March 6, 1928 in Aracataca, Colombia • Raised by grandparents: • Grandfather “was my umbilical cord with history and reality” (García Márquez). • Grandmother “source of magical, superstitious and supernatural view of reality” (García Márquez). • Lived in Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Italy, France, the US, and Spain. • Studied Law

Highlights- • Gabriel García Márquez: a man of the coast (verbally outgoing and superstitious) • Wrote for El Universal, El Heraldo, and El Espectador. • 1st regular movie critic in Colombia. • Awarded with an honorary doctorate from Columbia University. • One Hundred Years of Solitude: • Italian Chianchiano Prize • Best Foreign Book in France • Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982

Analysis- • “Utilizes aheroic figure to revolutionize mundane reality” (Mary E. Davis). • “But they also knew everything would be different from then on, that their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings […]” (706). • “A constant feature of García Márquez´ style has been his fusion of Greek, Spanish, and American literary models and mythology” (Mary E. Davis). • “The fantastic details of the stories of García Márquez raise questions about reality” (O´Neil, Ed.).

Analysis- • “A preference for open form, a refusal of closure, a deliberate provocation of the reader to create for himself the meaning of the narrative elements” (Mary E. Davis). • “In addition, each work is touched with deep melancholy” (O´Neil, Ed.). • “Look there, where the wind is sopeaceful now that it´s gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun´s so bright that the sunflowers don´t know which way to turn, yes, over there, that´s Esteban´s village” (706).

THE END

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World