Magical Realism

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the

WorldBy: Gabriel García Márquez

Presentation By: Matt, Laura, Brittany, Haley

Characters• Esteban:

– Drowned in ocean, washes up in small fishing village– Not known by anyone in village or surrounding

villages– Taller and more handsome than any of the men of

the village– Dynamic character

• At first appears to be some sort of extraordinary being, perfect in every aspect, being the “[…]tallest, strongest, most virile, and best-built man they had ever seen” (702).

• Later, when women of the village realize that he probably struggled to completer everyday tasks with his epic size, he suddenly becomes “[…]so defenseless, so much like their men that he opened the first furrows in their hearts” (705).

– Described from the village women's point of view, exists as they describe him

• Described as if he was alive

Characters (cont.)

• Villagers:– 3rd person narrator describes Esteban as he

appears in the eyes of the Villagers– Village Women:

• Adore Esteban, compare their husbands to him• Provide only description of Esteban in story• Protagonists, as they support Esteban, because he did

not mean to bring any trouble to the village– Village Men:

• Initially dislike Esteban’s presence, because their wives compare Esteban to them

• Antagonists, as they detest Esteban and all the trouble he causes the village

– Come to like Esteban when they see that “[…]he was ashamed, that it was not his fault that he was so big or so heavy or so handsome […]” (705).

Setting and Conflict

• Setting: – Unnamed fishing village with little land– Overlooking sea

• Conflict: – Man (village women) vs. Man (village

men)

Plot Structure• Exposition

– body of “Handsomest drowned man” discovered on shore by children

– Body covered with crust of mud and scales• Rising action

– Women clean and dress the drowned man, prepare him for funeral

• Decide to call drowned man Esteban– Women comment on how handsome Esteban is, compare him

to their husbands• Husbands jealous of Esteban

– Women realize that Esteban “[…]must have been [unhappy] with [his] huge body” (703).

• Begin to pity Esteban– Men confront women over Esteban, claiming there need not be

such a fuss over a dead man– Upon seeing Esteban’s face, they recognize his humanity, and

how ashamed he must have been, causing everyone so much trouble

Plot Structure (cont.)• Climax

– Esteban’s funeral held, Esteban put to rest in ocean– Once they realize Esteban is going to leave them, the

villagers become aware of how desolate and dry their village and dreams are when compared to the grandeur of Esteban

– Esteban put to rest in ocean• Falling Action

– Villagers realize that without Esteban, “[…]they were no longer all present, that they would never be” (706).

• Resolution– Villagers propose changes to village made to honor Esteban

• Houses built with “[…]wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors, so that if so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere” (706).

• Flowers planted to so that Esteban’s memory would be acknowledged by any passing sailors

Realistic Elements

• The man later known as Esteban is found dead by the ocean.

• The basic setting of an ocean is ideally realistic.

• The villagers and the village itself is ideal because they are ordinary people living in a stable but prehistoric environment.

• The villagers have a funeral for Esteban.

Magical Elements

• Esteban’s appearance and physical features seem unreal and impossible.– He is very handsome although he is dead.– He is very tall and large.

• The villager’s reaction to Esteban also emphasize the magical elements.– “That a dead man can have so much influence

on a village full of people who seem to find drowning victims on their beach creates a sense that this event is something extraordinary” (Wilson,ed. 83).

Magical Elements• The setting and unanswered questions that

pertain to the story also adhere to its magical elements.– “The mythical namelessness of the village and the

historically vague setting add to this perception” (Wilson, ed. 83).

– “The village seems to be like a fairytale land since it has no definite location and the people are isolated from the outside world” (Wilson, ed. 83).

– Not only does the village have an unknown name and location, but the villagers are also nameless. It is significant that Esteban is given a name and the villagers are not because it means that Esteban is more important than the villagers.

Purpose• The purpose of the unidentifiable land is to

show how the land relates to the lives of the villagers. The villagers do not have fun. They live life dry and miserable. Their land is similar in that it is small, boring, and dull.

• The purpose of Esteban is to show how a village can come together and work hard to improve their lives. He shows the reader how life can change and how it should be because he himself is not ordinary. Because of the differences between him and the villagers, Esteban shows how being different is a reward.

Treatment• Esteban is treated like a stereotype. He is the

typical hero in a fairytale.– “Oftentimes in our culture, celebrities live lives completely

removed from ours, yet people sit around fascinated by them. They endlessly discuss their beauty, their clothing, and what they do with their time. And here, we have this same thing happening. This handsome drowned man who lived his entire life completely removed from this tiny village is suddenly now almost being worshipped by the villagers” (Renee).

• Esteban is presented as a perfect man.– The women compare their men to Esteban and believe that they

are no match compared to him. – “They make assumptions based on Esteban's looks and begin to

fantasize about his accomplishments” (Renee).– “The women’s thoughts and constant pondering over Esteban is

very much like the fawning over today’s celebrities. In this world we often categorize people into Angelina Jolies or Brad Pitts and consider them to be perfect in all aspects of their lives. This is very much like how the village women treat Esteban. He is a celebrity to them” (Renee).

Characters’ Reaction

• At the beginning of the story, the villagers thought nothing of their land and took no pride or care of it.

• At the end of the story, the villagers analyze their homeland and use the resources they have to plant flowers on cliffs, dig for springs, make their house door wider, their ceilings higher, their floors stronger, and the front doors painted with cheerful colors.

Characters’ Reaction

• The village women are most impressed with Esteban because he is the tallest, strongest, most virile, and most best-built man in the village. He is also very handsome and appears to be a peaceful and proud man, although poor.

• The village men, however, want to get rid of Esteban as soon as possible. When the take a look at him and consider how and why the women are so impressed by him, the come to an understanding that Esteban is a special person who must be honored and loved.

•Real feelings; love, pity, jealousy, frustration•It is the women who magically and imaginatively create his name,

Esteban, and his life story•Part of the magic of the story is the way their imaginations stretch

to accommodate the wonder of Esteban“They thought would have had so much authority that he

could have drawn fish out of the sea simply by calling their names and […] springs would have burst forth from among the rocks“

(703).•Extraordinary height, their imaginations create the possibility that "maybe the ability to keep on growing after death was part of the

nature of certain drowned men".•Seen through the gaze of the villagers, their ordinary world takes

on extraordinarily small and meager proportions, from their beds, to their clothes to their men

•Yet, it also made kinsmen of them all, symbolizing how their encounter with his extraordinary body transforms the ordinary

village, leaving magic in their lives long after he has gone, as their minds, lives, houses and streets are forever transformed by his uncommon presence “She always includes details that give

reality to fantasy, help us believe in the unbelievable”. -Peter S. Prescott, a reviewer for Newsweek

Relationship Between Real & Unreal Elements

• From the size of the beds to the size of the shoes available amongst the villagers, there was nothing big enough or strong enough to fit the drowned man

• The men made such references as his body weighing as much as a "horse," a house was not big enough for his body

• They thought that the night's steady wind and the restless sea had something to do with the handsomest drowned man

• "But they also know that everything would be different from then on, that their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban's memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams, and so that no one in the future would ever dare whisper the big boob finally died, too bad, the handsome fool has finally died“ (706).

• “…and the hidden strength of his heart popped the buttons on his shirt”• Children had no idea he was a dead man so in the beginning they used him to

play with-when the adults discovered their gruesome play-mate, they hardly

recognized him as a man because of all the crust, mud, and scales on him• “The Handsomest Drowned Man illustrates the manner in which Gabriel

Garcia Marquez utilizes a heroic figure to revolutionize mundane reality” (160) – George R. McMurray

Dreamlike Qualities

VILLAGERS• days of the week• “After midnight the whistling of the wind died down, and the sea fell into its

Wednesday drowsiness”. (703). • Wednesday describes the drowsiness of the people

-normally the villagers are running low on food-offers the people no excitement in their day - is considered to be a “tiresome” day-not interesting-”…when has there ever been such a fuss over a drifting corpse, a drowned nobody, a piece of cold Wednesday meat” (705).

• Thursday describes the beginning of excitement again-fishermen normally return from the sea on this day bearing food-interest returns

ESTEBAN• Time is everlasting for Esteban, while the villagers have been on the structured

days of the week cycle, Esteban symbolizes the freedom of time after death and how it never really stops or starts for him.

“…Esteban’s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams…” (706).His memory is everlasting, after death time seems to be irrelevant

“They let him go without an anchor so that he could come back if he wished and whenever he wished…”(706).

Time

• Columbian culture-Gabriel grew up in similar town, reason he recreated this town was to recreate a better village, wishing Esteban came when he was living there

• Influence of an outsider, different than them, bringing change to their society

-changes in villagers and look of village

Cultural/Political Message

Theme 1

• Myth and Human Condition:The tendency for people to create myths The human imagination seeks the explanation for the unknown (Wilson, ed. 82)supporting text: “They thought that if that magnificent man had lived in the village, his house would have been made form a mid-ship frame held together by iron bolts, and his wife would have been the happiest woman” (703).

Theme 2

• Beauty and Aesthetics:A person of beauty often receives more respectThe villagers realize the lack of beauty in their own village (Wilson, ed. 82)supporting text: “But only when they finished cleaning him off did they become aware of the kind of man he was, and it left them breathless” (702).“They were going to break their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs […]” (706).

• Esteban represents the Greek Titan Prometheus who gave fire to mankind and as punishment was chained to a mountain and is the “messenger of hope, beauty, and solidarity” (McMurray 148). ☼ Esteban’s gift, instead of fire,

was kindness and sincerity.☼ Esteban’s physique matches

that of Prometheus

Symbolism1

Symbolism 1~Critics & Text

CRITICS:

“‘The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World’ is reminiscent of the myth of Prometheus, the Greek hero who gave fire to mankind. Esteban’s gifts, however, are beauty, hope and human solidarity, the keys to happiness and the best antidotes for human degradation” (McMurray 120).

TEXT EVIDENCE:

“Not only was he the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man they had ever seen, but even though they were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination” (702).

Symbolism 2

• Esteban = change and hope “[…] men and women became aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man” (706). “Esteban’s departure creates an awareness of the emptiness of their own lives have been. They believe, however, that things will change from the size of the buildings in the town to the flowers that will be cultivated, everything will be better in the town” (Williams 97).

Allusion

• The story alludes to Homer’s Odyssey – mentions the Sirens.supporting text: “Some sailors who heard the weeping from a distance went off course, and people heard of one who had himself tied to the mainmast, remembering ancient fables about sirens” (706).– Refers to the crying during Esteban’s funeral and the crying is

like the luring songs of the sirens.– Esteban is a “myth”

Figurative Language

• Imagery:“He had the smell of the sea about him, and only his shape gave one to suppose that it was the corpse of a human being, because the skin was covered with a crust of mud and scales” (702).

• Simile:“They walked about like startled hens, pecking with the sea charms on their breasts, some interfering on one side to put a scapular of the good wind on the drowned man” (705).

Figurative Language cont.

• Metaphor:“The village was made up of only twenty-odd wooden houses that had stone courtyards with no flowers and which were spread about on the end of a desertlike cape” (702).

• Personification:“[The captain] would say in fourteen languages, look there, where the wind is so peaceful now that it's gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun's so bright that the sunflowers don't know which way to turn, yes, over there, that's Esteban's village” (706).

“They wanted to tie the anchor from a cargo ship to him so that he would sink easily into the deepest waves, where fish are blind and divers die of nostalgia and bad currents would not bring him back to shore” (705).

Biography- Significant Events

• March 6, 1928 – Born in Aracataca, a small town near the Atlantic coast of Columbia

• Lived with grandmother until eight years old, inspired by her storytelling

• Studied law at the University of Bogota, until it closed down in 1984 due to civil war

• Later, he switched to Journalism, studying at the University of Cartegena

• Published short stories and articles• After writing an article on the Colombian navy

carrying contraband cargo, moved to Europe to avoid wrath of Colombian government

Biography- Major Works

• Leaf Storm, 1954• No One Writes to the Colonel, 1958• The Evil Hour, 1962• Big Mama’s Funeral, 1962 • One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967 • Love in the Time of Cholera, 1988• Diatribe of Love Against a Seated

Man, 1988• The General in his Labyrinth, 1991.

Awards/Recognition

• “Considered by many to be Colombia’s foremost writer” (Mark Scott).

• Oprah's Book Club Best Novel nominee (2004) : One Hundred Years of Solitude

• Venezuela’s Romulo Gallegos Prize : One Hundred Years of Solitude

• Books Abroad/ Neustadt International Prize for Literature : One Hundred Years of Solitude

• Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982

Writing Style

• “[my stories] reflect the reality of life in Colombia and this theme determines the rational structure of the books” (Garcia Marquez).

• Uses much figurative language• Often puts extreme detail into small

details• Treats magical elements as if they

were perfectly normal