The Handsomest Drowned Man Close Reading Essay

Sha-Dasha Poe November 12, 2012 2nd Period Close Reading Essay Digging deep within The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Gabriel Garcia Marquez intoduction of “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” already questions the story just from the thought of the title. How can a drowned man be handsome is the main question. The title of the story itself portrays imagery, allegory and imagery. This handsome drowned man is the main character of this whole story. To start with, this story is full of sea imagery.

The story starts off with children playing on a beach and notices something floating about in the sea. When the object eventually floats upun the shore, the children immediately starts to play with it. The object is described as a whale, a ship, and then a nasty sea monster. When Estebans body floated upon shore they removed the seaweed, jelly fish tentacles, and the remains of fish. We were told that he had the smell of the sea about him. The women of the town used a sail to make him a shirt.

The women also stated that if he were alive “he would have had so much authority that he could have drawn fish out of the sea by simply calling their names”. Later within the story, the women imagine “his soft pink sea lion hands” as he “stretched out like a sprem whale”. This drowned man is clearly known as an object of the sea. He comes from the sea in the beginning and eventually ends up back in the sea. The relationship of the drowned man to the sea initiates his role as a supernatural mythical creature that didn’t belong on earth as a human being.

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Furthermore, the author then goes to use allegory to represent the drowned man in comparison to something or someone else. The drowned man represents numerous mythical creatures and historical figures. First, the women of the village name him Esteban. At this very moment, Marquez has grabbed the readers attention as to who Esteban is and how did the villagers come about with this name. Esteban is another name for Estevanico which means a slave from the 1500’s who was suppose to be the first man born in africa to ever step foot in the mericas. Esteban became legendary in Latin America and was given a list of incredible skills. Marquez also stated that the younger women hoped that the drowned man was Lautaro. Lautaro was a military leader of the Native Americans. The handsomness and masculinaty of the drowned man inspires the young women that he is Lautaro. The representation of Esteban and Lautaro shows a hidden message of leaders in comparison to the drowned man. The author also used historical leaders to illustrate the meaning of the drowned man.

Also, the author describes the town in the beginning as “twenty odd wooden houses that had stone courtyards with no flowers”. Throughout the story the women imagined that if the drowned man was alive, he would have put so much work into his land that springs would burst through and that he would have planted flowers along the cliff. At this point, we notice the contrast beteen the villagers and the drowned man. The drowned man brings much color and liveliness to the grey town of the villagers.

The drowned man also brings the thought of springs and flowers to the village. As the woman began to prepare his funeral, they went to go get flowers from neighboring villages. They then told the other women about the drowned man and they too followed the villagers to bring flowers t the funeral. After the other women seen the drowned man, they also startede to admire him and went to seek more and more flowers. The flowers symbolize the ability of someone who’s great to seek out others to do something great.

They also symbolize love and respect to those who once lived. In Conclusion, the author used three literary devices to explain and bring out hidden messages of the story to grasp the reader’s attention. This is a great way to keep readers interested in the story’s theme/central message. At this point, we now know that Marquez likes for the reader to dig deep within to understand the essential thought of the story. He used a drowned man to bring out the greatness of a whole village and to change their whole aspect of life within their own village.

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