REFLECTION ON THE NOVEL

HANDSOMEST DROWNED MAN IN THE WORLD

BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
This essay focuses on the influence of the drowned man in a village. It
stresses on the invention of Esteban that somewhat changed the villagers
lives.
It the beginning of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story, an object has
washed up on the shore of a beach with a nearby village, and the children
are playing with it. They don't notice at first, but eventually they realize it is
a drowned man. This leads the men of the village on a quest to find out
whos the man and if he belongs to any of the neighboring villages. The
women however, react differently to the man's corpse. They notice that he is
much larger, heavier, and built than the men of their village. They begin to
scrape and trim and clean the man and the more that is revealed of his body
the more the in awe the women become. Having read this, I was intrigued on
what the drowned man really looked like as women adored him that much. I
have some notions that he may be so handsome and if I am the place, I
would do the same.
I dont understand when the women give the man the name Esteban.
As I remember, Esteban in Spanish and Greek literally means crown. I believe
women see that this man clearly superior to the ordinary village men and
made them think he belongs to them. The village is transformed by this man.
When the men finally disposed of the body by throwing it into the ocean,
they all come to the realization that from now on "they were going to paint
their house fronts gay colors to make Esteban's memory eternal.
This man's presence had not only affected this single village, sailors
and women from nearby villages heard weeping and rumors and they
traveled with flowers to attend his funeral. There was a silent but significant
change in the villages. They didn't know where he came from or who he
really was, but Esteban had affected them all. This is an example of magical
realism through the idea that this man was much greater than all other men.
He was dead, but somehow didn't possess the characteristics of a corpse. He
did not have a hopeless expression on his face, and he had deep sea plants
on his body as if he had been in an abyss and somehow was still fully intact
and not devoured by sharks. Subtle hints like these throughout Marquez's
story contribute to the magical realistic and melancholy tone.
I really enjoyed reading this story. Is about fantasizing, it takes you into
an island where everything is small and tiny. One day a big and tall man that
had drowned floated into this island. The villagers took this drowned man
and fantasized with him. They named him and then named the village after
him. The women shaved, bathed, and praised him that the men began to get
jealous. I don't blame them. I am just simply taken by the story.
The villagers in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World have no
less practical needs, but this does not stop them from inventing Esteban. I
thought that the villagers attempt to create an identity for the drowned man
as absurd, but I believed that their attempts ultimately portrays as
purposeful. It tells the story of a strange outsider coming into a small village
and influencing the people. The strangest part is that the influence they have
is based almost entirely on the assumptions the people make about the
outsiders rather than on any concrete facts they can know about them.

Because of this, the role of the outsider is not to interact or be an agent of

change but to reveal more fully the qualities of the people that are already
present, and to reveal their innate inclination to change or keep things the
same. How I wish, same will happen to our country so something would
change.
"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" explores what it means
for a person to be great, and what effect such a person can have on those
who admire him or her. Admiration can be directed outward, but at some
point, the story teaches us, it turns inward, toward the self, and manifests as
a desire for self-betterment.