1000 word count need outline and rough draft: Assignment Description: For this essay, you will be using your knowledge of the rhetorical situation and ethos to create an argument. You can respond to a

LAST NAME 4

NAME

English 1302- (SECTION NUMBER)

Professor Burns

DAY MONTH YEAR

Esteban has Drowned

“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” -Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Within the story of “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the villagers found a drowned corpse who were unable to characterize; they cannot even imagine anything like it. His story is broken apart just to be put all together and create a character based on their descriptions. They perceive this bulge thing they initially find before identifying it as a human being. Once he is recognized as a man they characterize, classify, and personalize him in many ways because he is so, surreal to all the women in the village. They even compare him to their partners as something they could never achieve and belittle them. The women shaped their perception to think something incredible from this drowned man.

In the beginning of the story, everyone in the village is unable to perceive correctly the drowned man. They were making speculations of the bulge that was sitting on the edge of the sea. Some believed it was the enemies ship, others thought it was a whale but when it was washed up, they realized it was a human being, “The men who carried him to the nearest house noticed that he weighed more than any dead man they had ever known, almost as much as a horse” (Garcia Marquez 538). The drowned man was much larger than the average men because he barely fit inside the house. The people from the village decided to take this man home like he was a stray dog. Women began to clean and criticize this man, they thought there was something unique about him, “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” (Garcia Marquez 538). That’s when it all began, they started to classify, personalize, and characterize this body as something magical they had never seen. Creating an idea of whom he was and how they wanted the reader to visualize this man. All of this devotes just how extraordinary the drowned man is, he is unrecognizable to them in his current form.

Soon enough, they began to fantasize and sexualize the drowned man imagining how amazing this man was and how happy he could make any women, “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” (Garcia Marquez 539). They spoke how he could sexually please them all in one night as if that was everything to the women feeling remorse of being with their partner; and forever they will never see their significant other the same way. He was so fantastic that he had to be the best in bed. They searched for ways to waste time so, they can devote more time admiring his beauty. The women later decide to give him a voice and a family to complete their crazy obsession with the drowned man. They begin to shape everyone’s perception based on what the women have said and built a fictional relationship with him.

Overall, he was almost seen as a religious figure by the way he is being preserved. The men started to questions themselves what was so special about him if he was going to be eaten by the sharks just like any other dead body, “The men began to feel mistrust in their livers and started grumbling about why so many main-altar decorations for a stranger, because no matter how many nails and holy-water jars he had on him, the sharks would chew him all the same” (Garcia Marquez 540). The women wanted Esteban to die with dignity and decided to choose from the best people an orphanage family that included mother, father, aunts, uncles and cousins. But it was then when they came to realization that his body was a burden to him, not just physically but socially too. They see how vulnerable he is when visiting the villagers and they offer him to take a seat, “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” (Garcia Marquez 539). They started to realize that what they saw as the most beautiful creature suddenly became sympathy for them, they felt sorry for him that he had to carry all that weight around over the years. Because in the end when is all set and done all we have left is a dead body. The villagers decide to live a happily better life for themselves after the tragedy of Esteban, they wanted everyone to know that he belongs to their village and honor his death forever.

In the end the reader can come to conclusion that the villagers made strong assumptions on the drowned man and how they fantasized about him in many ways. This is the power of words and how fast rumors can easily be spread around. We see how fast they convince the women to go their village and praise the unknown stranger. They tell us how much power he must have to have the authority of calling fish and coming to him and women were the happiest in the world just because he was able to sexually please them in one night with his big body, pretty face and strong arms. They have no idea who he was in his living days, just because he is handsome does not mean the world revolves around him like they made it seem. After all, it was only a physical attraction that was being used to commemorate his death.

Word count: 1016