The Handsomest
Drowned Man in the
World
A Tinge of Magic: A Portrait of Reality through Myth and
Magic Realism
The Gist
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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.
Claude Levi-Strauss and
the Myth
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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).
Mythemes:
Objectification of the
Body
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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.
Mythemes:
Humanization of
Esteban
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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).
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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.
Mythemes: Canonization
of the Body
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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).
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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.
Mythemes: Change
brought on by the
Handsome Dead Man
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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).
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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).
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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).
Mythical value?
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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.
The Use of Magic
Realism
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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).
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Marquez assigns powers to the dead man;
Esteban has the power to affect natural elements
such as the wind, the sea, and the sun.
The Role of Magic
Realism
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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.
The Moral
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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.