Homework answers / question archive / The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World': the most moving stories I've ever read, and I cannot tell you why

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World': the most moving stories I've ever read, and I cannot tell you why

English

Share With

---

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World':

the most moving stories I've ever read, and I cannot tell you why. The ending

of the story is simply so beautiful, so magical, it usually leaves me wondering,

'who let all these dusty tumbleweeds in here?' But let's start the beginning.

This story, like 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' is

subtitled, "A Tale for Children," but are they really children's

stories? How so? How not? Perhaps less so than 'Very Old Man,' but

certainly more so than Leaf Storm, there is magic

here. How does this magic work?

 

1) How does

the naming of the corpse work? One woman says, 'He has the face of someone

called Esteban.' Nearly everyone immediately sees the truth of this

Christening, but how? Others want to call him 'Lautaro,' but it doesn't

fit him. Can we fit the story of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr

here? Lautaro is the name of a renowned Chilean who resisted foreign

conquest and, while not a saint, Lautaro is a kind of patron of

colonial resistance.

 

So why does

the naming work?

 

2) How does

the village change because of the dead man's presence? Not just the ending of

the story where they plan to work themselves as hard as they can to dig for

springs and plant great gardens high on the cliffs, but the adoption of him by

the best among them so that the entire village becomes related to each other?

And how they will change their houses, and furniture to fit him so that no one

will ever say, 'the big boob finally died, too bad, the handsome fool has

finally died.'

 

3) The sea

captains and passengers will know, just by beautiful smells and sights of the

island that that is Esteban's home--everyone will know the place for his brief

stay among them--how? What does it mean that it's now so beautiful for him

dying and washing up there?

 

Other

thoughts: the attempts to make clothes for him, to shave his face, clean him,

and pare his nails--what do these rituals do for the story? How does it help to

join the village together?