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Summary Of The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World

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Hard Work Truly Is It's Own Reward

“Be All You Can Be” is a slogan the US Army employed in the 1980s to recruit men and women to enlist in the armed forces (Chambers and Vergun)). While I don't think Gabriel Garcia Marquez would have encouraged anyone to join the Army, I do think he would agree with the idea that people should strive to be the best they can be. As an example of magical realism, Marquez's story “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” shows us a world that looks common enough on the outside, but on closer examination is completely different from our own (Rogers). It is a world in which people believe in legends and myths. Reading the story as an allegory, it is easy to see that Marquez has a definite message to communicate about life and human existence. I believe Marquez uses the arrival of the dead man, the physical appearance of the village, and the myth of an African explorer to show that the potential for greatness and beauty exists in all of us; we just need to recognize it and work toward it. The protagonists in the story are the villagers. Collectively, they are a dynamic character because they are changed forever by the arrival of the dead man who they called “Esteban.” The villagers recognize immediately that the drowned man is not from their village. He is unlike any man they had ever seen before. Marquez makes this point over and over again, including when he writes, “Not only was he the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man

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