In my opinion, you assigned “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” to us as the first story of the course because to show how the author illustrates that the people who come into our lives, even in the most unusual circumstances can change our outlook on the world. The dead man is brought to the village and cared for by the women. At first the women are overtaken by his beauty and physique. Slowly the drowned man becomes Esteban. Esteban evolves from a nameless corpse to a loved member of the community in just a short time as the villagers make him a part of their family. Esteban’s greatness inspires the villagers to rise up and transform their village into something of greatness. The villagers a commit to, “paint their houses gay colors” and “break their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs…” so the people would be, “suffocated by the smell of gardens on the high seas…” It is strange to think of a bloated dead man being able to inspire a small village and bring them together to transform their mundane lives into something extraordinary. However, the author teaches that every once in a while someone washes up into our lives and makes a difference. Most of the time it is unexpected and might not be what we had in mind, but is exactly what we need
Daily Archives: February 1, 2023
I believe you assigned “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” to us as the first story of the course because it shows how someone we don’t know; a stranger, can have such an effect on us and change our perspective on life. Before “Esteban” is found near the beach their life was ordinary, but once they see him in this lifeless condition they begin to imagine what he would’ve been like. They go as far as saying that his name is Esteban, that he’s a thoughtful and sincere man like no other. They begin to compare their own husbands to them and cry with joy at the thought of him being “the more destitute, most peaceful, and most obliging man on earth”. They can’t help but feel bad for him and his passing. I love how the story ends because although Esteban has passed away he will forever live in their memories and in their village. The villagers accept that their life will change including the way they live. They make it their duty to paint their front doors vibrant colors, have wider doors with high ceilings, and strong floors as well as planted flowers on cliffs, in remembrance of him. So they can happily say this is Esteban’s village.
I think that this was assigned to us as our first story of the course because it is showing us how a person can change the way people think, and how much of a change they can make in others. All of the women in the village decided to take care of him, and make him a responsibility to them. They all made sure he that he was in good condition even though he was dead, and made sure he had clothes, also have a funeral happen where the women live. In the story they described him as tall and strong, and the men in their village became jealous because of how the women were acting with Esteban. Then it came to a realization that Esteban had made a change in the village, and the women and men came together. The villagers were looking at Esteban and thought that he was not confident in his size, and so then the people in the village started working together as a team to prepare him a funeral. He made an impact towards the people to better themselves and their lives.
I feel like this story was assigned as the first story of this course to show us how much a stranger can influence others. While it is not a common situation to be in, there are certain things in this story to relate to. When the women see this handsome man, they give him a worthy name and make clothes for him. They don’t know him and even while dead, he makes such a big influence on the women. After finding out he doesn’t belong to any of the neighboring villages, they decide to take in his influence and rebuild their village in memory of him. The look on his face and the size of his body caused them to change their way of thinking and living even though they never knew him. I feel like this relates to how we feel compassion for people all around the world even though we never met them. A simple picture of someone who looks sad can cause thousands of assumptions on why the person may look that way. Many people feel compassion for people naturally and want to help them in any way possible. Maybe not in the way the story tells, but in other ways we are able to.
I think that this story was assigned to show the great change the washed up drowned man brought to the village. The woman took care of the dead man making him new clothes and preparing him for a proper funeral service in their village. The man was so big that it was hard for the woman to accommodate for him and take care of him, the big man brought the whole village together to try to identity who he was, the other men in the village where getting jealous because a dead man was getting all the attention from the woman. The people of the village realized that the man was sincerely and had no control of his giant size so he was ashamed of his troubles for being so big. This changed the whole village the occurrence of this drowned washed up man made the village see how ashamed he was of his size and they made their houses bigger doors wider and taller ceilings so his memory could live on without having to worry about his big awkward size. Search Modes All Images News Search Modes All Images News Search Modes
