The reason that this story was the first to read in this course could be to help us students with our imaginations. This could be because “The Handsomest Drowned Man In the World” is filled with imagery from the beginning to the end. Right from the very beginning we are told that some children find it and think it was a ship, but later change their mind and think it’s a whale. When the body washes up on the shore we are given even more descriptions of the body on how it is covered in various things from the sea. As the story progresses we learn about how heavy he is, what he smells like, his body features, and even see how the women in the village clean him up using various tools. By the end of the story everyone in the village is enchanted by the body who they name Esteban and we learn about how they change things in their village to fit Esteban’s body size.
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One thought on “Alvin Tan Discussion 2”
I agree Alvin. This short story did strengthen the imagination. The story gives many descriptors as to what Esteban would look like, smell like, etc. We’re able to try and put ourselves in the villager’s shoes and try to imagine how they felt seeing him and how their behaviors would change admiring Esteban. I think it also helps us to analyze why the people in the story change how they act around the body and connect their emotions to real-world examples to get a better picture.