The handsomest drowned man in the world by Gabriel Marquez

This story takes place in a remote fishing village, which was very peaceful and complacent. The story begins when some children at the beach finds a dead man covered with sea debris. Later the villagers found the dead man and took him back to the village, and they try to deal with this issue.  Man of the village tries to find the men’s identity by asking nearby villages, and woman at the village cleans up the man and prepares for his funeral. Then something funny happens. Woman of the village, while preparing for the dead man’s funeral, all starts to realize that the dead man in front of them, was in fact the handsomest man in the world. They imagine fake fantasy stories about him, gives him the name ‘Estevan’, and compares him with their husband and their village. The man comes back and makes a water burial to ‘Estevan’. After ‘Estevan’ left the village, the villagers change, such as making their door big and planting flowers, to remember ‘Estevan.’ 

 I enjoyed the overall story, since the story was written in a kind of humorous tone, and there was a happy ending. If I see the story as a children’s bedtime story, I think this is so-so story. But I think that this story has some kind of meaning, and the characters in the story actually depict something. The overall storyline of a not-so-unique village changing to a beautiful village after some magical people’s arrival (and departure), makes me think that ‘Estevan’ is sort of ideology or religion which people got affected. Well, the story was written by Marquez, who is Colombian, and South America was heavily influenced by westerners (like it or not) starting from colonial period. So, ‘Estevan’ can be some foreign thing which gave benefit to the ‘remote fishing village’, which is Colombia. 


 I think this story follows a hero’s journey, as the entering to the magic world begins by the arrival of ‘Estevan’, and ends by the departure of him. The story begins because of him, continues because of him, and ends because of him. 


 Also, the story is a good example of magical realism, which is a term meaning a story which happens in the ordinary world but have certain magical elements which helps the flow of the story. Presence of ‘Estevan’, who can be handsomest man in the world, the fact that he is so well-preserved after drowning, and the size of him is magical, but because of him the story can flow. 


 After reading this, I thought for a while that whether there was ‘Estevan’ in my life, a element which came up to me and changed myself. Although it is not that magical, the element which changed my life in a good way is fish, birds, and insects. One day I realized that they are so amazing (don’t know the date…) and it changed ‘ordinary me’ to ‘nature guy’. I think everyone has these experiences…what’s yours?