How Does Esteban Change

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Everybody at one point has experienced something that has completely changed their lives. In The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World, Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes about a small village who discover a dead body that floated onto the shore of their island. The people of the village didn’t know what the big object was, but they soon discover that it was a man. He looked nothing like anything they've ever seen before. Throughout the story both the women and the men's perspective of this man, who they name Esteban, changes as they become more aware about what he must have gone through. He eventually causes the whole town to change. Garcia Marquez utilizes the development of characters, and symbols to demonstrate that a person or event can transform …show more content…

When the village first discovered Esteban, “he smelled of the ocean, and only his form allowed them to suppose that it was the body of a human, for his hair was covered with an armor-plating of remora and mud,”(2). The drowned man's appearance is really different; he is not recognizable. Their perception of Esteban has changed the same way he has changed them and their perspective on their village. He used to be just a drowned man and, now he has become an iconic figure in the story and has completely changed their lives. The villagers had begun to imagine the life that esteban must have led. He was so tall and big, “ they could see him condemned to going through doors sideways, cracking his head on cross beams, [and] remaining on his feet during visits”(7). They are imagining all the struggle he would have to go through because of his size. He is so tall he would hit his head when …show more content…

When the villagers first see Esteban they admire him. They think of him as being perfect, so perfect that, “he would have put so much effort into his work the he would have brought forth springs from between the driest rocks and he would have been able to sow flowers on the cliffs”(5). He would change everything around him. However, they don't realize that this is exactly what he does to them; He changes them for the better. This is also a parallel to when the villagers have laid Esteban to rest and would, “eternalize [his] memory [by] break[ing] their backs digging springs from the rocks and sowing flowers on the cliffs”(11). It's like they have taken the greatness that they originally gave to Esteban, and they now know that they can also be great. They are inspired to transform their lives. Therefore the flowers represent the beauty in their lives. The villagers look at flowers in a distinct way because they are now inspired to see the beauty in life after the arrival of

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