Story Summary
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Summary
In the story The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author is telling the story about a small village that is so remote and disconnected from the outside world that there is almost no influence from the outside. The people of this village know immediately, without really even seeing the man who floats on to their shore is a stranger and not one of them. They give this stranger a name "Esteban" even though he is dead when he arrives.
When "Esteban" floats on to the shore by this small village, he becomes what the outside world m ...view middle of the document...
In this story The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World The remote village has been very much "out of the loop" of the normal social world. They could almost compare to a small town in Colorado called "Wild Horse", or many other small out of the way towns . That from the minute you arrive, all the townspeople know that you are not from that part of the country. "Esteban" brings change to the lives of these people because they realize that there is a whole world out there they do not know and they begin to want to become part of this world. "...They were going to paint their houses gay colors to make Esteban's memory eternal, they were going to break their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs..." They began to make changes that they thought would keep memories of this stranger alive but also they were trying to change their world into what they thought the outside world might be like.
A small village which has been fairly isolated from the outside world begins to change when a dead strange floats up onto their shore. "Esteban" brings change and a realization to these people that there is much more to the world in their small part of it. So even after death The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World can still influence a small part of this world. As the outside world encroaches into their small isolated world change becomes inevitable.
