Daily Archives: February 3, 2022

The story “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” was assigned to set the tone for the rest of the stories that we will be reading in class which will most likely have some type of mystic feel to them. I thought it was interesting how the most interesting to happen in that village was a dead drowned man showing up out of the blue which means that town is one of those peaceful towns where nothing really happens. The mystic aura of some dead man showing up and yet cannot be identified adds to the mystery which is what I think the women were mostly attracted to. The women were mostly the ones imagining things up about him and were mostly why the town was influenced to be and do better, well that and the obvious fear of dying and being unidentified and forgotten. People mostly never talk ill of the dead and especially not when they are “handsome.”

“The Most Handsome Drowned Man” is a story based off of perceptions. The villagers perceive this larger than life, elegant looking man and immediately make all manner of assumptions about his poise and demeanor, even though they had absolutely nothing to go off of besides the actual dead body in front of them. They had nothing going for them before this man washed up on their shores, and so the sense of wonder that they felt was amplified. I feel that this sets up the atmosphere for the course ahead of us: we are to take the unmoving, lifeless words in front of us on our screens and build worlds and context around them. With each new reading we are to be the village Before and After Esteban, coming out with a new understanding and view of the world. This piece serves as an appetizer for the works to come, which will likely be even more intriguing.

In this story, the author used an overstatement to create a magical, mythical to capture our attention. He described the dead man as the main character in the story. By reading this story I can see that the small village was poor, before the dead man arrived the houses had stone courtyards with no flowers. Very little space on the island. When they found Esteban, his presence transformed them to think bigger and different. The beauty and the splendor of the dead man inspired them to change the village’s view. I do not personally think a dead could bring anything that could benefit a village, but the story makes me rethink, it ends with a great vision of the transformation of good looks. While I was reading this story, I thought they were going to keep his body or do a great burial ritual since they loved him so much. But no, they dropped him off like any dead body. However, in memory of Esteban, their houses would have wider doors higher ceilings, and stronger floors. This symbolizes the town rebuilding itself and starting new opportunities.

I think The Handsomest Drowned Man by Gabriel García Márquez was assigned as the first reading of the semester to serve as an encouragement for the participants of the course to tap into, explore and express our imagination. The short story introduces a realm where the environment and the people are realistic, except for Esteban’s character. By bringing a small piece of wonder into a world of normalcy, García Márquez prompts his readers to have an open mind for the occurrence of such miracles and to look for them in their lives and, perhaps, even their minds. Therefore, I believe that the objective of this assignment was to let us feel safe in freely expressing our truth in our writing during this course, even if it leads to the establishment of a world that might seem odd at first. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone’s imagination has in store for us.