Shaniyah Chisolm Discussion 2

I think Professor Conway assigned “The Handsomest Drowned Man” because Gabriel Garcia Marquez depicts all the qualities people strive for in one person. The man, Esteban, Is tall, strong, and handsome. Despite being dead, the people admire the man’s qualities without really knowing him.  The man had an impact on so many people without even doing anything to move them. He, himself, moved them, almost like a sense of leadership. It’s interesting to take into account Marquez’s cultural background considering he is Colombian. Machismo culture in Latin America is a very strong sense of masculine pride, though having negative connotations, it is ingrained in a lot of people, especially at the time of publication, 1968. To have one person embody that would be truly admirable for the people in the village, specifically men, as something to strive to be. There are themes of vanity and unity, bringing all sorts of people together in the village. I think this shows how easily a group of people can react when a manifestation of all attributes they find attractive come to life. In real-world examples, we see how figures with a large diverse audience such as political figures, celebrities, etc. have a charm to them that people are drawn to. They could do good, bad, or nothing at all and still have an effect on people’s behavior. The story helped us put ourselves in the character’s shoes and connect the descriptions given in the text to how we as the reader would react to get a better picture of how the characters in the story felt.