The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

“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.”

The village women set the drowned man apart from their village men in another example of hyperbole. The villagers’ perception of the drowned man elevates him to the status of a fantastical being. The phrase “no room for him in their imagination” is ironic and foreshadows the role imagination will play in the creation of Esteban. Additionally, the narrative uses hyperbole to thematically develop The Way Imagination Shapes Reality.

“They thought that if that magnificent man had lived in the village, his house would have had the widest doors, the highest ceiling, and the strongest floor, his bedstead would have been made from a midship frame held together by iron bolts, and his wife would have been the happiest woman. They thought that he would have had so much authority that he could have drawn fish out of the sea simply by calling their names and that he would have put so much work into his land that springs would have burst forth from among the rocks so that he would have been able to plant flowers on the cliffs. They secretly compared him to their own men, thinking that for all their lives theirs were incapable of doing what he could do in one night, and they ended up dismissing them deep in their hearts as the weakest, meanest and most useless creatures on earth.”

This over-the-top imaginative description of the drowned man is another example of hyperbole. The village women believe that the drowned man is so masculine that if he lived in their village, his bed would be built from a ship and require iron bolts to keep it secure. They also imagine that he is so powerful he could command fish to jump out of the sea. In this way, the village women mythologize the man based on his physical stature and imagined charisma. In contrast, the women view their village men as the drowned man’s opposite, which develops the theme of Beauty and Individual Worth.

“They were wandering through that maze of fantasy when the oldest woman, who as the oldest had looked upon the drowned man with more compassion than passion, sighed: ‘He has the face of someone called Esteban.’”

The villagers’ naming of the drowned man develops the theme of The Transformative Power of a Stranger in a Community. The name Esteban is an allusion to the first African man to arrive in Latin America, “Estevanico.” García Márquez directly compares the drowned man to a Spanish folk hero to ironically underscore how the villagers imbue the washed up corpse with attributes of a legend. Additionally, the characterization of “the oldest woman” as compassionate rather than passionate suggests that she sees the man behind the myth. Whereas the younger women metaphorically wander through fantasy, the older woman has a more objective scope of reality. In receiving a proper name, the drowned man becomes humanized, further adding to his mythical qualities and situating his place among the villagers.

“After midnight the whistling of the wind died down and the sea fell into its Wednesday drowsiness. The silence put an end to any last doubts: he was Esteban.”

The personification of nature signals a shift in mood from awestruck to reverent. The stillness of the night shows that the spell of the drowned man’s grandeur has dissipated. In silently agreeing on the name Esteban over the charismatic Lautaro, the village women begin to see Esteban as a vulnerable man with flaws and insecurities. This shift in perspective furthers the thematic development of Beauty and Individual Worth.

“They could see him in life, condemned to going through doors sideways, cracking his head on crossbeams, remaining on his feet during visits, not knowing what to do with his soft, pink, sea lion hands while the lady of the house looked for her most resistant chair and begged him, frightened to death, sit here, Esteban, please, and he, leaning against the wall, smiling, don’t bother, ma’am, I’m fine where I am, his heels raw and his back roasted from having done the same thing so many times whenever he paid a visit, don’t bother, ma’am, I’m fine where I am, just to avoid the embarrassment of breaking up the chair, and never knowing perhaps that the ones who said don’t go, Esteban, at least wait till the coffee’s ready, were the ones who later on would whisper the big boob finally left, how nice, the handsome fool has gone.”

García Márquez draws inspiration from the oral tradition of magical realism and portrays it through his use of dialogue within the paragraph. Rather than sticking to standard conventions of writing, the author emulates oral tradition by simply including the spoken dialogue alongside the rest of the prose in the paragraph. This mirrors the way that myths were often passed down through oral storytelling. Additionally, the village women relinquish their idealized version of Esteban, which further develops the theme of Beauty and Individual Worth.

“He looked so forever dead, so defenseless, so much like their men that the first furrows of tears opened in their hearts.”

The women in the village can’t help but compare the drowned man to the men in their villages. At first, he transfixed them, and they believed him to be superior. When the imagined grandeur of Esteban’s life fades, the women are confronted with the truth of the drowned man’s mortality and realize how similar he is to their husbands. This epiphany thematically develops The Way Imagination Shapes Reality.

“So when the men returned with the news that the drowned man was not from the neighboring villages either, the women felt an opening of jubilation in the midst of their tears.

‘Praise the Lord,’ they sighed, ‘he’s ours!’”

Whereas the village men regard the drowned man as mere “Wednesday meat” (Paragraph 8), the village women show Esteban respect and compassion. No neighboring village claims the drowned man, so the women quickly claim him as their own. When the village men eventually embrace Esteban as a member of their small village too, the villagers unite their community. The villagers’ acceptance of Esteban thematically underscores The Transformative Power of a Stranger in a Community.

“Fatigued because of the difficult nighttime inquiries, all they wanted was to get rid of the bother of the newcomer once and for all before the sun grew strong on that arid, windless day.”

The village men return and are frustrated to see the women treating the drowned man with extreme care and reverence. García Márquez uses natural imagery to characterize the men and to highlight the significance of their later change in demeanor toward Esteban.

“He was Esteban. It was not necessary to repeat it for them to recognize him.”

When a village woman removes the handkerchief from Esteban’s face, the village men’s anger dissipates. The men see the man behind the myth, and the community unites in their respect for Esteban. This shared compassion for Esteban acts as common ground for the villagers and develops the theme of The Transformative Power of a Stranger in a Community.

“[I]f he had known that this was going to happen, he would have looked for a more discreet place to drown in, seriously, I even would have tied the anchor off a galleon around my neck and staggered off a cliff like someone who doesn’t like things in order not to be upsetting people now with this Wednesday dead body, as you people say, in order not to be bothering anyone with this filthy piece of cold meat that doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

The men are sympathetic toward the drowned man once they begin to recognize him as Esteban. García Márquez uses sharp word choices and the first-person point of view to characterize the men and explore their perception of Esteban. When the village women imagined Esteban’s pitiful life, they did so with reverence. In contrast, when the village men pity Esteban, they do so in a derogatory manner, referring to him as “meat” and a “dead body.” These two juxtaposed perspectives highlight the village members’ differing views of masculinity based on gender.

“That was how they came to hold the most splendid funeral they could ever conceive of for an abandoned drowned man. Some women who had gone to get flowers in the neighboring villages returned with other women who could not believe what they had been told, and those women went back for more flowers when they saw the dead man, and they brought more and more until there were so many flowers and so many people that it was hard to walk about.”

Neighboring villages unite to mourn and celebrate Esteban, highlighting the effect an unexpected arrival can have on the stasis of an isolated community. Flowers are a key symbol and represent the transformative power of imagination. Additionally, the funerary flowers are a symbol of change for the small, unadorned village. The villagers use flowers, which signify natural beauty, to color their desolate community and maintain hope for a more vibrant future.

“At the final moment it pained them to return him to the waters as an orphan and they chose a father and mother from among the best people, and aunts and uncles and cousins, so that through him all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen.”

The drowned man’s water burial serves as the final piece that brings the community together. Neighboring villagers unite under a common cause and are able to understand and feel sympathy for one another. In parting, the villagers adopt Esteban as their own family member, signifying the lasting effect he will have on their lives and thematically underscoring The Transformative Power of a Stranger in a Community.

“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.”

In this allusion, García Márquez references the sirens that Odysseus faces in Homer’s The Odyssey. Mythology is a key motif in the text and supports the themes of The Way Imagination Shapes Reality and The Transformative Power of a Stranger in a Community. The myth that the villagers have built for the drowned man is directly compared to one of the classics, emphasizing the fantastical nature of the situation and Esteban himself.