Character Analysis: The Handsomest Drowned Man

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Recommended: Social norms of beauty

Beauty can be anything, but what society's idea of beauty is; nice hair to go with a gorgeous face, being over six feet in height, dreamy eyes that people can get lost in, being very muscular and having a six pack. None of these attributes matter in the end because it is what is inside that defines who the person is. If someone is in dire need they have some disease that affects the skin in an unappealing way people will pass by and not help they even though they are dying. When someone is beautiful in this society or in Marquez’ tails for children they will get anything without having to open their mouth. In Marquez's "Tales of Children" the villager's shallow reactions to outsiders, based on their societal norms of beauty, exemplify how people …show more content…

In the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man” the villagers take in a body that has washed up on the beach and they bring it to their village with no hesitation. They all gather around him and gaze upon his beauty and end up caring for him even though he is dead, "The women stayed behind to care for the drowned man. They took the mud off with grass swabs, removed the underwater stones entailed in his hair, and they scraped the crust off with tools used for scaling fish". They cared for him not only because they wanted to know how it was but also that they saw he was beautiful and wanted to see him more. After the arrival of the drowned man, the people's attitude changes when they saw that he was attractive because of the way that they care for the dead man and want to see him."The men exploded with since when has there ever been such a fuss over a drifting corpse, a drowned body, a piece of cold Wednesday meat. One of the women, mortified by so much lack of care, then removed the handkerchief from the dead man's face and the men were left breathless too.”, from that point on everyone knew that he was beautiful and had to take care of him. They couldn't do anything to harm him and only wished the best, even they knew nothing about the man except that he was the most gorgeous person they have ever

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