The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

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The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

• A Tinge of Magic A Portrait of Reality through
  Myth and Magic Realism

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The Gist

• Village children discover a whale washed up on
  shore, but soon discover that it is actually a
  dead man.
• The villagers are astounded at the dead man's
  size and weight. He is the tallest, strongest,
  most virile, and best built man they had ever
  seen(1).
• The village people are so amazed that they all
  put there best efforts to make sure the dead man
  has a proper funeral.

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Claude Levi-Strauss and the Myth

• Myth's are composed of mythemes, which when,
  combined, reveal the meaning of the text.
• Myth's are a manifestation of the thought's and
  ideas of a society.
• The pattern of a myth makes it timeless it
  explains the present and past as well as the
  future(861).

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Mythemes Objectification of the Body

• Upon initial discovery of the body, the children
  play with him, burying him in the sand and
  digging him up again (1).
• The men compare the body to that of a horse,
  remaining unsure of his humanness, due to his
  skin being covered with a crust of mud and
  scales (1).
• The dead man is dragged along the floor
  throughout the village.

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Mythemes Humanization of Esteban

• Once the women discover the dead man's beauty,
  they begin to dress and groom him, assigning
  qualities to the dead man, as well as a name
  They noticed too that he bore his death with
  pride, for he did not have the lonely look of
  other drowned men who came out of the sea or that
  haggard needy look of men who drowned in rivers
  (1).
• The women make assumptions of the dead man's
  life, naming him Esteban and imagining him with
  much authority and a very happy wife.
• The women pity him, for he must've been rather
  unhappy and burdened with his large body.
• Even the men soon feel sympathy for him too,
  feeling the sincerity in the dead man.

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Mythemes Canonization of the Body

• The women hand sow new clothes for the dead man
  from bridal linen. They hang holy relics from his
  neck
• Village sees the dead man as having power over
  nature It seemed to them that the wind had
  never been so steady nor the sea so restless...
  and they supposed that the change had something
  to do with the dead man(1).
• The people are in awe of the beautiful dead man,
  they wonder about his life and envision him as a
  leader.
• People from all over came to the village to
  witness the dead man's funeral and lament his
  death.

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Mythemes Change brought on by the Handsome Dead
Man

• Esteban inspires change in the village The
  people knew 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(3).
• Esteban eternally shapes nature the wind so
  peaceful now that it's gone beneath the
  beds...the sun's so bright that the sunflowers
  don't know which way to turn(3).
• The villager's paint their houses bright colors
  to preserve Esteban's memory and they were going
  to break their backs digging for springs among
  the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs so
  that in future years at dawn the passengers on
  great liners would awaken... and the captain
  would have to come down...and say yes, over
  there, that's Esteban's village(3).

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Mythical value?

• The structure of Marquez's The Handsomest
  Drowned Man in the World illustrates how a
  society comes to be affected by a phenomenon they
  truly believe in.
• The dead man inspires change and the village
  offers itself as a type of shrine to him.
• The mystery of the drowned man causes the people
  first to objectify him, then to humanize him,
  sanctify him, and finally to dedicate their
  village to Esteban.

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The Use of Magic Realism

• Marquez incorporates magic in his short story
  mainly through the handsome dead man. He is
  abnormally large and is compared to a sperm whale
  and described as weighing as much as a horse.
• Cesar Caviedes describes Marquez's style as the
  use of ghostly atmospheres to evoke a strange
  spirituality and exoticism (101).
• Marquez assigns powers to the dead man Esteban
  has the power to affect natural elements such as
  the wind, the sea, and the sun.

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The Role of Magic Realism

• Marquez brings meaning to the magic, creating
  logical thinking.
• Marquez's use of seemingly real characters like
  the captain in his dress uniform, with his
  astrolabe, his pole star, and his row of war
  medals (3) enhances the appearance of truth.
• Marquez's use of imagery to depict the village
  creates a whole other world, unknown to the
  reader, in which anything is likely to occur.
  The intermingling of magic with reality further
  enables the reader to believe.

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The Moral

• Marquez's story is structured into various
  themes, which when combined, tell the story,
  embed an idea into the reader's mind that is
  timeless, that is, it is not only something that
  has happened, but is happening, and can happen in
  the future.
• Marquez's incorporation of magical elements
  within a world, unknown and mysterious, but
  nevertheless real, enhances the reader's ability
  to absorb the truths behind the myth.