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At the beginning of the story, the drowned man is found in the sand, encrusted with sea debris. He is brought back to a house by the village men, who notice his extreme size. Although he is not alive during the events of the story, he is heavily personified in the imaginations of the village’s inhabitants: At first, due to his unprecedented physical beauty, he is viewed by the village women as someone of tremendous authority and poise. Later, however, after the most elderly woman asserts that his name is Esteban, the women imagine him as a humble, awkward, but good-natured man. The village men adopt this view of his character, too, once his handsome features are unveiled to them. The novel nature of the drowned man’s appearance prompt the climatic, planned renewal of the central village. The villagers are so struck by his obliging nature and incredible physique that they plan to honor his visit by creating wider houses, painted walls, and extensive flower beds. Thus, despite his inaction, the drowned man causes the most consequential developments that occur in the story. The colorful renewal of the village simply would not have occurred without his visit.
The Drowned Man Quotes in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
The The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World quotes below are all either spoken by The Drowned Man or refer to The Drowned Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
Quotes
When they laid him on the floor they said he’d been taller than all other men because there was barely enough room for him in the house, but they thought that maybe the ability to keep on growing after death was part of the nature of certain drowned men.
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As they were doing that they noticed that the vegetation on him came from faraway oceans and deep water and that his clothes were in tatters, as if he had sailed through labyrinths of coral.
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They thought that if that magnificent man had lived in the village, his house would have had the widest doors, the highest ceiling, and the strongest floor […] They thought that he would have had so much authority that he could have drawn fish out of the sea simply by calling their names and that he would have put so much work into his land that springs would have burst forth from among the rocks so that he would have been able to plant flowers on the cliffs.”
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The more stubborn among them, who were the youngest, still lived for a few hours with the illusion that when they put his clothes on and he lay among the flowers in patent leather shoes his name might be Lautaro. But it was a vain illusion.
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They only had to take the handkerchief off his face to see that he was ashamed, that it was not his fault that he was so big or so heavy or so handsome […]. There was so much truth in his manner that even the most mistrustful men, […] even they and others who were harder still shuddered in the marrow of their bones at Esteban's sincerity.
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At the final moment it pained them to return him to the waters as an orphan and they chose a father and mother from among the best people, and aunts and uncles and cousins, so that through him all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen.
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While they fought for the privilege of carrying him on their shoulders along the steep escarpment by the cliffs, men and women became aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man.
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The Drowned Man Character Timeline in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
The timeline below shows where the character The Drowned Man appears in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
...the beach. The body is encrusted with detritus from the sea. The children play with the drowned man in the sand for an afternoon before someone notices the body and alerts the rest...
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...off a cliff into the sea. The village is also so small that they know the dead man must be a stranger, since it is easy to see that everyone from the village...
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The women decide to make the drowned man clothes using spare fabric, as no article of clothing that the village men have is...
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...man does not belong to any neighboring village. The women are relieved, as this means Esteban is now theirs. The men of the village plan a makeshift sea burial for the...
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The men are immediately struck by Esteban’s beauty and by the obliging, humble nature suggested by his features. Moved by his appearance,...
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...the funeral, the villagers know that something has changed in them. They aim to capture Esteban’s memory in their village by making wider, larger houses so his spirit could move easily...
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