The Kindness of Strangers
"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, which was written by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, is a tale about a dead man who washes ashore and is taken to a
village. The way the people of this village treat the man is truly inspiring.
The men and women of the story have two totally different attitudes towards the
man’s presence. Everyone in the village pitches in to help the man even though
he is already dead.
The people
of the village in the story treat this man, who is dead, with the utmost
respect. All the men of the village set off to neighboring villages to find out
if the man belongs to one of them. While the men are away the women are getting
the man ready for his burial at sea if his village is not found. If people in
today's society could treat people with half the respect these villagers
treated this man with, than the world would be a better place. The people of
the village did everything they could to help the poor man.
While both
the man and women did everything they could do to help, they still had different
attitudes about the man. All the women of the village adored the man and wanted
to keep him, they even gave him a name. They named him Esteban, I am assuming
that they named him this because it fit who he was and was not his actual name.
The men, however, just wanted to see the dead man off and bury him in the
ocean. They eventually grew on him and were slightly sad to see him go.
In the end
of the story everyone was sad to see him go, even though he was already dead.
The short time the dead man spent in the village made him family to the people
of the village. They sent him off without an anchor in hopes that he would
someday return to their village. They watched as he slowly went under the water
to his tomb.
Word Count – 348
