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Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Handsomest Drowned Man

1485 Words6 Pages

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is known for his magical realism twists on fictional short stories, one being “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.” This story is about a village that has a large man, later named Esteban, who floats ashore one day from the ocean. They pull Esteban out of the water and up to their village; however he is too big for the village homes and needs more supplies than the village could provide. They try to accommodate his needs by making him special clothing out of old sails and nice linen, and make, a bed out of multiple tables with blankets and pillows. As time passes people come to visit from other villages seeing if Esteban belonged to them. However, as more people came, more people left leaving Esteban village-less. …show more content…

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s birth in a small town named Aracataca, Colombia in 1927 to a family living in poor conditions influenced his future long before he would recognize it. He grew up with his grandparents who began his love of storytelling (Williams 107.) As a young child his grandfather would tell him and his brother stories of local legends and history while his grandmother would teach them stories of wealth of traditions, superstitions, and folklore (“Gabriel Garcia Marquez.”) While growing up Marquez lived in a small home with a family of four. His grandparents were forced to work long hours for upper class individuals in order to hold on to their home and to provide the bare necessities for Marquez and his brother. As Marquez grew older he attended University of Bogota intending to find a path to establish a career; however, in 1948 the university closed due to civil warfare and he was forced to transfer to University of Cartagena …show more content…

After taking care of Esteban for about a month the people of the village decided to give him a burial back out at sea. From the village’s experience with Esteban the people feel like they have an identity from working for Esteban. The people refer to themselves as “Esteban’s Village.” They would paint their houses colorful colors to honor him and build new places just to be able to hold a person as great as Esteban. Following the experience with Esteban, the village felt like needed a long term transformation; a transformation that created a high productivity that a man like Esteban would have had in honor of him . This change was brought about due to what the lower class viewed the Upper Class member, Esteban, to be like: powerful, motivated, and active. (Millington) His control on the village was still present even when he wasn’t. This shows how such a simple interaction among classes can cause such a drastic change in the quality of a group of people's life. Before Esteban they were lost and confused, and while after they were determined, passionate, and overall

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