Handsomest Drowned Man

People should be judged on their character and personality, instead of outward appearances. It is hard to feel handsome or pretty all of the time; picking out all of the insecurities. Feeling awkward and out of place in front of friends and family can be hard to deal with. Everyone can relate to the creature every once in awhile. The theme, “Beauty isn’t skin deep, it’s what’s inside that matters”, can be found throughout Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, when the blind old man enjoys the company of the creature, the creature yearns for a mate, and at the end of the story, the creature does weep for Victor when he dies.

First, man (by nature) judges his surroundings and people by their presence. If one is pleasant looking, then they will be given more of a chance to express themselves beyond their looks. In contrast, if one is ugly and deformed, society tends to castoff that individual, thus shunning them from recognition. As nature proves, man is fearful of the unknown, hence the unfamiliarity of the creatures deformation. Shelley cautions against interfering with nature by showing how it can

The old man from the story A very old man with enormous wings and Esteban from the story The Handsomest drowned man in the world are opposites of each other, maybe the only similarity that they have is that they are both flat and static characters. First, they are different in terms on how they are portrayed. The old man who is an angel, was portrayed as an ugly old man who doesn’t even resemble an angel. We can see this in paragraph 2, “He was dressed like a rag picker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth…” While Esteban who is a only a dead guy was portrayed as a good looking guy.

Although both short stories, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, were written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, there are many other differences between the two tales. Both stories were about men who arrived in foreign places and how these men were treated by the people who found them. The old man from the story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and Esteban from the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” are apparently opposites of each other.

But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So was a division among the people because of Him. (John 41-44, NKJV).

In this essay I will examine how the monster’s looks and actions reflect the predominant cultural feelings that those who look different are bad, evil or incapable of normal feelings. That somehow because one may look different from the rest of us there must be something emotionally as well as physically wrong with them.

Using the words, “yellow skin,” “watery eyes,” “dun white sockets,” “shriveled complexion,” and “straight black lips,” it gives a sense of uneasiness and calm fear. As if someone were stare it, they would be paralyzed with fear. Although, the creature did have beauty such as, “hair…lustrous black and flowing” and “teeth of a pearly whiteness” it all contrasted with his less beautiful features

The creature also wants to be noticed. The mountain is very beautiful, but during the storm it may look scary. The creature is can be beautiful through his acts of kindness, like helping people, but also is unattractive and can look and be grotesque. In the essay, “Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s “wet ungenial summer””, Phillips states,

Ugliness or deformity are not obstacles to becoming human as the hunchback of Notre Dame or the protagonist of Beauty and the Beast, who are human despite their previous ugliness or animality (Ramaye, 91) On the other hand, from a hermeneutical

Third, the girl and her father. The creature later met a girl throughout his journey that was drowning. The creature saved the drowning girl. However, the girl's father was horrified by his appearance. Again, the appearance. The father shot at the creature because he was horrified. If the creature looked like the father, would he had been shot? No, but because he looked like a monster, he was immediately judged based on his appearance that he was a monster on the inside too, so he was shot at even though the creature saved his

The way a person perceives oneself might not be the way someone else would perceive them. Our perceptions and views differ, but when it comes to solely basing an opinion upon another without first getting to know them is quite harsh. When considering the monster from “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, we see that the creature has a tough life. His external features are not the most pleasant, but he is much more than that. All that people, and society in general, tend to see in the monster is an abominable creature, when in reality he is just like any human being.

Savannah Reitz Mrs. Schroder English III 7 December 2016 Beauty vs. Ugliness In the story of Frankenstein the author Mark Shelley illustrates the dichotomy of beauty vs. ugliness. Beauty is more than just looks beauty is about the inside of a person who they are. In society, very many people base beauty from looks instead of seeing beauty of who someone or something is deeper down inside. In Frankenstein, the author illustrates the monster’s actions as a reflection of how people’s ignorance view others by not seeing the beauty from someone on the inside but instead by just looks on the outside.

Frankenstein judges the monster on sheer appearance. Frankenstein fails to give the monster a chance before abandoning him. His judgments are evident within the passage, “his limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!

Beauty and prejudice have become commonplace in today’s society; the tiring cycle of living up to impossible beauty standards and facing the constant criticism of one’s image seems never-ending. However, this incessant obsessiveness over image has been around for thousands of years. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, a prominent struggle between beauty and hideousness occurs throughout the book. Shelley uses the motif of undesirable appearances and the constant praise of beauty throughout Frankenstein to establish the theme of prejudice.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World” achieves powerfully fantastic story-telling. As the story begins, we are met with the discovery of a floating corpse at sea that shores itself on an unassuming village’s beach. The drowned man is not of the village, which quickly piques the villagers curiosities. The villagers acknowledged him as a stranger among them, “…when they found the drowned man they simply had to look at one another to see that they were all there.” No one had seen him before.