After reading “The Handsomest Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I feel that this story was assigned to us as the first story of the course to demonstrate how strong imagination is. (Maybe some stories we read will be focused on imagination). In this story I took notice of how strong the idea of “Esteban” was. Many people gravitated towards him, many wanted to be him, and many wanted to be with him. Without knowing him, everyone glorified him and placed him on a pedestal, only based on stories that they heard, through the power of imagination.
Very often in death, people bring out the best of the person, and this is how they commemorate them. In “The Handsomest Drowned Man”, Marquez made it important to showcase “Esteban” as a god-like figure, in my opinion. A god is someone who is worshipped, or looked up to, by others. Everyone in the story was making Esteban seem as a role model, or the person to be, or be with. This was all done through imagination which, to me, made the story seem like a “realistic myth” that was told back in the day.
One thought on “Raiza Mallol Discussion 2”
I agree with your view on the use of imagination. I read the piece, and felt similar. The people of the village gave the stranger a name and back-story. The writer was so imaginative, he provided the villagers with an imagination to envision what Estaban’s life was like while living.