After reading “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World” by Gabriel Marquez, I’m confused why this was assigned as the first story to read. In the title it says this is a “ tale for children”, but this was a very difficult read. The beginning threw me off completely as it mentions the kids discovering the body first and then proceeding to play with the dead corpse. This was very weird in my opinion because I could never imagine kids playing with a dead corpse, let alone human. As the story progresses it starts to get a little clearer and I thought I had an idea of the main focus. The villagers knew at first glance that the drowned man wasn’t from their village because everyone knew each other. The way Marquez describes the drowned man physically plays a big role in the changes shown from the villagers in my opinion. Marquez describes the man being very tall, strong, and built unlike anyone they’ve seen. I assumed that since their village is relatively small, and probably filled with the same groups of people, this drowned guy was by far the most drastic occurrence for the villagers at the moment. The appearance of the drowned man and how different he looked from all the other male villagers sparked the women to contemplate and hope for change.
