Flowers Symbol Analysis

In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” flowers symbolize the splendor of the drowned man and the possibility of rejuvenation for the town. The description of the village at the beginning of the story notes that there are “no flowers” near the twenty-odd wooden houses that populate the village’s “desertlike cape.” However, after the village’s encounter with the drowned man, the villagers imagine creating an immense bed of pungent flowers on the cliff face. The desolate, sterile pragmatism of the first description of the village is meant to contrast strongly with the image of the village in the future decked out in flowers.

The flowers are associated with renewal in part through their association with the marvelous qualities of the drowned man. When the women of the village imagine his extraordinary exploits in life, they picture him getting flowers to spring out of the rocks. And later, when they make his elaborate burial platform, they bring so many flowers that it is difficult to walk about. Flowers evoke the extraordinary qualities of the man because they, like the drowned man, are beautiful, vibrant things that were previously absent from the village. When the villagers ultimately imagine populating their cliff with flowers in memory of the drowned man, the imagined floral change represents their collective intent to permanently add the vitality of the drowned man to their previously grey village.