Handsomest Drowned Man

7/29/2019 Handsomest Drowned Man

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Magical Realism

The Handsomest DrownedMan in the World

By: Gabriel García Márquez

Presentation By: Matt, Laura, Brittany, Haley



Characters

• Esteban: – Drowned in ocean, washes up in small fishing village

– Not known by anyone in village or surroundingvillages

– Taller and more handsome than any of the men of the

village – Dynamic character

• At first appears to be some sort of extraordinary being, perfectin every aspect, being the “[…]tallest, strongest, most virile,and best-built man they had ever seen” (702).

• Later, when women of the village realize that he probably

struggled to completer everyday tasks with his epic size, hesuddenly becomes “[…]so defenseless, so much like their menthat he opened the first furrows in their hearts” (705).

– Described from the village women's point of view,exists as they describe him

• Described as if he was alive



Characters (cont.)

• Villagers: – 3rd person narrator describes Esteban as he

appears in the eyes of the Villagers

– Village Women:

• Adore Esteban, compare their husbands to him• Provide only description of Esteban in story

• Protagonists, as they support Esteban, because he didnot mean to bring any trouble to the village

– Village Men:

• Initially dislike Esteban‟s presence, because their wivescompare Esteban to them

• Antagonists, as they detest Esteban and all the troublehe causes the village

– Come to like Esteban when they see that “[…]he wasashamed, that it was not his fault that he was so big orso heavy or so handsome […]” (705).



Setting and Conflict

• Setting:

– Unnamed fishing village with little land

– Overlooking sea

• Conflict:

– Man (village women) vs. Man (village men)



Plot Structure

• Exposition – body of “Handsomest drowned man” discovered on shore by

children

– Body covered with crust of mud and scales

• Rising action

– Women clean and dress the drowned man, prepare him forfuneral• Decide to call drowned man Esteban

– Women comment on how handsome Esteban is, compare him totheir husbands

• Husbands jealous of Esteban

– Women realize that Esteban “[…]must have been [unhappy] with

[his] huge body” (703). • Begin to pity Esteban

– Men confront women over Esteban, claiming there need not besuch a fuss over a dead man

– Upon seeing Esteban‟s face, they recognize his humanity, andhow ashamed he must have been, causing everyone so muchtrouble



Plot Structure (cont.)

• Climax – Esteban‟s funeral held, Esteban put to rest in ocean

– Once they realize Esteban is going to leave them, the villagersbecome aware of how desolate and dry their village anddreams are when compared to the grandeur of Esteban

– Esteban put to rest in ocean• Falling Action – Villagers realize that without Esteban, “[…]they were no

longer all present, that they would never be” (706).

• Resolution – Villagers propose changes to village made to honor Esteban

• Houses built with “[…]wider doors, higher ceilings, and strongerfloors, so that if so that Esteban‟s memory could go everywhere”(706).

• Flowers planted to so that Esteban‟s memory would beacknowledged by any passing sailors



Realistic Elements

• The man later known as Esteban is found

dead by the ocean.

• The basic setting of an ocean is ideally

realistic.• The villagers and the village itself is ideal

because they are ordinary people living in a

stable but prehistoric environment.

• The villagers have a funeral for Esteban.



Magical Elements

• Esteban‟s appearance and physicalfeatures seem unreal and impossible. – He is very handsome although he is dead.

– He is very tall and large.

• The villager‟s reaction to Esteban alsoemphasize the magical elements. – “That a dead man can have so much influence

on a village full of people who seem to finddrowning victims on their beach creates a sensethat this event is something extraordinary”(Wilson,ed. 83).



Magical Elements

• The setting and unanswered questions thatpertain to the story also adhere to its magicalelements. – “The mythical namelessness of the village and the

historically vague setting add to this perception” (Wilson,ed. 83).

– “The village seems to be like a fairytale land since it hasno definite location and the people are isolated from theoutside world” (Wilson, ed. 83).

– Not only does the village have an unknown name and

location, but the villagers are also nameless. It issignificant that Esteban is given a name and the villagersare not because it means that Esteban is more importantthan the villagers.



Purpose

• The purpose of the unidentifiable land is to show

how the land relates to the lives of the villagers.

The villagers do not have fun. They live life dry

and miserable. Their land is similar in that it is

small, boring, and dull.• The purpose of Esteban is to show how a village

can come together and work hard to improve their

lives. He shows the reader how life can change

and how it should be because he himself is notordinary. Because of the differences between him

and the villagers, Esteban shows how being

different is a reward.



Treatment

• Esteban is treated like a stereotype. He is thetypical hero in a fairytale. – “Oftentimes in our culture, celebrities live lives completely removed

from ours, yet people sit around fascinated by them. They endlessly discuss their beauty, their clothing, and what they do with theirtime. And here, we have this same thing happening. This handsomedrowned man who lived his entire life completely removed from this

tiny village is suddenly now almost being worshipped by thevillagers” (Renee).

• Esteban is presented as a perfect man. – The women compare their men to Esteban and believe that they are

no match compared to him.

– “They make assumptions based on Esteban's looks and begin tofantasize about his accomplishments” (Renee).

– “The women‟s thoughts and constant pondering over Esteban is verymuch like the fawning over today‟s celebrities. In this world weoften categorize people into Angelina Jolies or Brad Pitts andconsider them to be perfect in all aspects of their lives. This is very much like how the village women treat Esteban. He is a celebrity tothem” (Renee).



Characters‟ Reaction

• At the beginning of the story, the villagers

thought nothing of their land and took no

pride or care of it.

• At the end of the story, the villagers analyzetheir homeland and use the resources they

have to plant flowers on cliffs, dig for

springs, make their house door wider, their

ceilings higher, their floors stronger, and the front doors painted with cheerful colors.



Characters‟ Reaction

• The village women are most impressed with Esteban because he is the tallest, strongest, most virile, and most best-built man in the village. He isalso very handsome and appears to be a peaceful

and proud man, although poor.• The village men, however, want to get rid of

Esteban as soon as possible . When the take a lookat him and consider how and why the women areso impressed by him, the come to an

understanding that Esteban is a special personwho must be honored and loved.



•Real feelings; love, pity, jealousy, frustration•It is the women who magically and imaginatively create his name,Esteban, and his life story

•Part of the magic of the story is the way their imaginations stretch toaccommodate the wonder of Esteban

“They thought would have had so much authority that hecould have drawn fish out of the sea simply by calling their names and

[…] springs would have burst forth from among the rocks“ (703). •Extraordinary height, their imaginations create the possibility that

"maybe the ability to keep on growing after death was part of thenature of certain drowned men".

•Seen through the gaze of the villagers, their ordinary world takes onextraordinarily small and meager proportions, from their beds, to their

clothes to their men

•Yet, it also made kinsmen of them all, symbolizing how theirencounter with his extraordinary body transforms the ordinary village,

leaving magic in their lives long after he has gone, as their minds,lives, houses and streets are forever transformed by his uncommon

presence “She always includes details that give reality tofantasy, help us believe in the unbelievable”. -Peter S. Prescott, a

reviewer for Newsweek

Relationship Between Real & Unreal

Elements



• From the size of the beds to the size of the shoes available amongst thevillagers, there was nothing big enough or strong enough to fit the drownedman

• The men made such references as his body weighing as much as a "horse," ahouse was not big enough for his body

• They thought that the night's steady wind and the restless sea had somethingto do with the handsomest drowned man

• "But they also know that everything would be different from then on, that theirhouses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so thatEsteban's memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams, and sothat no one in the future would ever dare whisper the big boob finally died, toobad, the handsome fool has finally died“ (706).

• “…and the hidden strength of his heart popped the buttons on his shirt” • Children had no idea he was a dead man so in the beginning they used him to

play with

-when the adults discovered their gruesome play-mate, they hardly recognized him as a man because of all the crust, mud, and scales on him

• “The Handsomest Drowned Man illustrates the manner in which Gabriel GarciaMarquez utilizes a heroic figure to revolutionize mundane reality” (160) – GeorgeR. McMurray

Dreamlike Qualities



VILLAGERS• days of the week

• “After midnight the whistling of the wind died down, and the sea fell into itsWednesday drowsiness”. (703).

• Wednesday describes the drowsiness of the people

-normally the villagers are running low on food

-offers the people no excitement in their day

- is considered to be a “tiresome” day

-not interesting-”…when has there ever been such a fuss over a drifting corpse, a drowned nobody, apiece of cold Wednesday meat” (705).

• Thursday describes the beginning of excitement again

-fishermen normally return from the sea on this day bearing food

-interest returns

ESTEBAN• Time is everlasting for Esteban, while the villagers have been on the structured days

of the week cycle, Esteban symbolizes the freedom of time after death and how it neverreally stops or starts for him.

“…Esteban‟s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams…” (706). His memory is everlasting, after death time seems to be irrelevant

“They let him go without an anchor so that he could come back if he wished and wheneverhe wished…”(706).

Time



• Columbian culture

-Gabriel grew up in similar town, reason

he recreated this town was to recreate a

better village, wishing Esteban came when he was living there

• Influence of an outsider, different than

them, bringing change to their society -changes in villagers and look of village

Cultural/Political Message



Theme 1

• Myth and Human Condition:

The tendency for people to create

myths

The human imagination seeks the

explanation for the unknown (Wilson,

ed. 82)

supporting text: “They thought that if that magnificent man

had lived in the village, his house would have been made

form a mid-ship frame held together by iron bolts, and his

wife would have been the happiest woman” (703).



Theme 2

• Beauty and Aesthetics:

A person of beauty often receives more

respect

The villagers realize the lack of beauty

in their own village (Wilson, ed. 82) supporting text: “But only when they finished cleaning him

off did they become aware of the kind of man he was, and itleft them breathless” (702).

“They were going to break their backs digging for springsamong the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs […]”(706).



• Esteban represents theGreek Titan Prometheuswho gave fire to mankindand as punishment was

chained to a mountain andis the “messenger of hope,beauty, and solidarity”(McMurray 148).☼ Esteban‟s gift, instead of fire,

was kindness and sincerity.☼ Esteban‟s physique matches

that of Prometheus

Symbolism1



Symbolism 1~Critics & Text

CRITICS:

“„The Handsomest DrownedMan in the World‟ is

reminiscent of the myth of Prometheus, the Greek herowho gave fire to mankind.Esteban‟s gifts, however,are beauty, hope andhuman solidarity, the keys

to happiness and the bestantidotes for humandegradation” (McMurray120).

TEXT EVIDENCE:

“Not only was he the tallest,strongest, most virile, andbest built man they had

ever seen, but even thoughthey were looking at himthere was no room for himin their imagination” (702).



Symbolism 2

• Esteban = change and hope

“[…] men and women became aware for the first time of thedesolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards,the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendorand beauty of their drowned man” (706).

“Esteban‟s departure creates an awareness of the emptinessof their own lives have been. They believe, however, thatthings will change from the size of the buildings in the townto the flowers that will be cultivated, everything will be betterin the town” (Williams 97).



Allusion

• The story alludes to Homer‟s Odyssey

– mentions the Sirens.

supporting text: “Some sailors who heard the weeping from a

distance went off course, and people heard of one who had

himself tied to the mainmast, remembering ancient fables

about sirens” (706).

– Refers to the crying during Esteban‟s funeral and the crying islike the luring songs of the sirens.

– Esteban is a “myth”



Figurative Language

• Imagery:

“He had the smell of the sea about him, and only his shape

gave one to suppose that it was the corpse of a human being,

because the skin was covered with a crust of mud and scales”(702).

• Simile:

“They walked about like startled hens, pecking with the seacharms on their breasts, some interfering on one side to put a

scapular of the good wind on the drowned man” (705).



Figurative Language cont.

• Metaphor:“The village was made up of only twenty-odd wooden housesthat had stone courtyards with no flowers and which werespread about on the end of a desertlike cape” (702).

• Personification:“[The captain] would say in fourteen languages, look there,where the wind is so peaceful now that it's gone to sleepbeneath the beds, over there, where the sun's so bright thatthe sunflowers don't know which way to turn, yes, over there,

that's Esteban's village” (706).“They wanted to tie the anchor from a cargo ship to him sothat he would sink easily into the deepest waves, where fish

are blind and divers die of nostalgia and bad currents would

not bring him back to shore” (705).



Biography- Significant Events

• March 6, 1928 – Born in Aracataca, a small townnear the Atlantic coast of Columbia

• Lived with grandmother until eight years old,inspired by her storytelling

• Studied law at the University of Bogota, until itclosed down in 1984 due to civil war

• Later, he switched to Journalism, studying at theUniversity of Cartegena

• Published short stories and articles• After writing an article on the Colombian navy carrying contraband cargo, moved to Europe toavoid wrath of Colombian government



Biography- Major Works

• Leaf Storm , 1954

• No One Writes to the Colonel , 1958

• The Evil Hour, 1962

• Big Mama’s Funeral, 1962

• One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967

• Love in the Time of Cholera, 1988

• Diatribe of Love Against a Seated Man, 1988

• The General in his Labyrinth , 1991.



Awards/Recognition

• “Considered by many to be Colombia’s foremostwriter” (Mark Scott).

• Oprah's Book Club Best Novel nominee (2004) :

One Hundred Years of Solitude • Venezuela’s Romulo Gallegos Prize : OneHundred Years of Solitude

• Books Abroad/ Neustadt International Prize for

Literature : One Hundred Years of Solitude • Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982



Writing Style

• “[my stories] reflect the reality of life inColombia and this theme determines

the rational structure of the books”

(Garcia Marquez).

• Uses much figurative language

• Often puts extreme detail into small

details

• Treats magical elements as if they

were perfectly normal



Handsomest Drowned Man

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