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The Drowned Man
The village women tend to the drowned man’s body after the village men leave to see if any neighboring villages are missing a man. While they work to produce clothes for him, they imagine his character in life. They cycle through multiple perceptions of him, but the personification that they ultimately accept, that of his being an obliging man, inspires great sympathy in them. The village women transmit their view of the drowned man’s character to the men once they unveil the drowned man’s features. When this occurs, the village is collectively moved to renew its layout; the villagers feel their community must permanently reflect the man’s splendor, as the women have claimed him as their kin.
The Village Women 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 Village Women or refer to The Village Women. 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
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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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 Village Women Character Timeline in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
The timeline below shows where the character The Village Women 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
...men leave to see if any of the neighboring villages are missing a man, while the women stay behind with the intent of cleaning the drowned man. They remove the mud, scales,...
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The women decide to make the drowned man clothes using spare fabric, as no article of clothing...
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...oldest woman says, with compassion, “He has the face of someone named Esteban.” Most of the women immediately see that this must be true. A few of them attempt to deny it...
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The women did not have enough fabric, so the clothes they’ve made for Esteban are too small,...
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...villages with the news that the drowned 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...
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...humble nature suggested by his features. Moved by his appearance, the men cease to distrust the women and their intentions. Instead, the men join with the women and hold the most splendid...
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