The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the

World

A Tinge of Magic: A Portrait of Reality through Myth and Magic Realism

The Gist

Village children discover a whale washed up on shore, but soon discover that it is actually a dead man.

The villagers are astounded at the dead man's size and weight. He is “the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man they had ever seen”(1).

The village people are so amazed that they all put there best efforts to make sure the dead man has a proper funeral.

Claude Levi-Strauss and the Myth

Myth's are composed of “mythemes”, which when, combined, reveal the meaning of the text.

Myth's are a manifestation of the thought's and ideas of a society.

The pattern of a myth makes it “timeless; it explains the present and past as well as the future”(861).

Mythemes: Objectification of the

Body Upon initial discovery of the body, the children

play with him, “burying him in the sand and digging him up again” (1).

The men compare the body to that of a horse, remaining unsure of his humanness, due to his skin being “covered with a crust of mud and scales” (1).

The dead man is dragged along the floor throughout the village.

Mythemes: Humanization of

Esteban Once the women discover the dead man's beauty,

they begin to dress and groom him, assigning qualities to the dead man, as well as a name: “They noticed too that he bore his death with pride, for he did not have the lonely look of other drowned men who came out of the sea or that haggard needy look of men who drowned in rivers” (1).

The women make assumptions of the dead man's life, naming him Esteban and imagining him with much authority and a very happy wife.

The women pity him, for he must've been rather unhappy and burdened with his large body.

Even the men soon feel sympathy for him too, feeling the sincerity in the dead man.

Mythemes: Canonization of the Body

The women hand sow new clothes for the dead man from bridal linen. They hang holy relics from his neck

Village sees the dead man as having power over nature: “It seemed to them that the wind had never been so steady nor the sea so restless... and they supposed that the change had something to do with the dead man”(1).

The people are in awe of the beautiful dead man, they wonder about his life and envision him as a leader.

People from all over came to the village to witness the dead man's funeral and lament his death.

Mythemes: Change brought on by the

Handsome Dead Man Esteban inspires change in the village: The people

“knew that everything would be different from then on, that their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban's memory could go everywhere”(3).

Esteban eternally shapes nature: “the wind so peaceful now that it's gone beneath the beds...the sun's so bright that the sunflowers don't know which way to turn”(3).

The villager's paint their houses bright colors to preserve Esteban's memory and “they were going to break their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs so that in future years at dawn the passengers on great liners would awaken... and the captain would have to come down...[and say] yes, over there, that's Esteban's village”(3).

Mythical value?

The structure of Marquez's “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” illustrates how a society comes to be affected by a phenomenon they truly believe in.

The dead man inspires change and the village offers itself as a type of shrine to him.

The mystery of the drowned man causes the people first to objectify him, then to humanize him, sanctify him, and finally to dedicate their village to Esteban.

The Use of Magic Realism

Marquez incorporates magic in his short story mainly through the handsome dead man. He is abnormally large and is compared to a sperm whale and described as weighing as much as a horse.

Cesar Caviedes describes Marquez's style as the “use of ghostly atmospheres to evoke a strange spirituality and exoticism” (101).

Marquez assigns powers to the dead man; Esteban has the power to affect natural elements such as the wind, the sea, and the sun.

The Role of Magic Realism

Marquez brings meaning to the magic, creating logical thinking.

Marquez's use of seemingly real characters like the captain in his dress uniform, with his astrolabe, his pole star, and his row of war medals” (3) enhances the appearance of truth.

Marquez's use of imagery to depict the village creates a whole other world, unknown to the reader, in which anything is likely to occur. The intermingling of magic with reality further enables the reader to believe.

The Moral

Marquez's story is structured into various themes, which when combined, tell the “story”, embed an idea into the reader's mind that is timeless, that is, it is not only something that has happened, but is happening, and can happen in the future.

Marquez's incorporation of magical elements within a world, unknown and mysterious, but nevertheless real, enhances the reader's ability to absorb the “truths” behind the myth.