The Handsomest Drowned Man Analysis

“The Man in the Water”, by Roger Rosenblatt, tells a story of how a man gave his life to help four other strangers survive. An airplane clipped a bridge and took a dive into the Pontiac river in Washington DC. There were five survivors left clinging to the tail section of the airplane, when helicopters and boats reached them. The best we can do when faced with adversity is to display the good nature in ourselves.

When Stephen visits Sachi’s garden for the first time, he finds that “There were no trees, flowers, or water, only a landscape made of sand, stones, rocks, and some pale green moss . . . Sachi had created mountains from arranged rocks, surrounded by gravel and elongated stones flowing down like a rocky stream leading to a lake or the sea” (40). Unlike Matsu’s very green and tree-filled garden, Sachi’s garden is very dry, and simplistic, yet has a peculiarly admirable feeling when one is able to see the subtle details. Although it is very different from a typical garden, its components harmonize to create a new and beautiful pattern. At first, Stephen is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar concept of a dry landscape, but after taking it in, he says it is beautiful. This garden is has a fresh taste to it, leaving Stephen to decide the effect it has on him, whether it be positive or negative. When creating the garden, Sachi insisted that it should not have flowers. However, eventually, “between two large rocks grew a neat cluster of blooming flowers, startlingly beautiful, a splash of blue-purple . . . thriving among the muted, gray stones.” The way that the bright colors contrast against the dull gray shows that something unfamiliar and novel can appear beautiful in its own way. Since Sachi’s garden is filled with pebbles and stones, the dainty flowers stand out comely, and to

In this poetic memoir, Engle shares her memories of her childhood in meticulous detail. She is a person who comes from two different cultures -- Cuba and California. In the quote below, Engle describes how she falls in love with the Cuba farm and how much the farm means to her. Writing in the “Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Win”, Engle said: “ I fall in love with the farm where my abuelita and her ancient mother were born. My dazzled eyes absorb the lush beauty of a land so wild and green that the rippling river on my great-uncle’s farm shimmers like a hummingbird, all the dangerous crocodiles and gentle manatees deeply hidden beneath quiet waters. Surely there must be mermaids here, and talking animals, the pale, humpbacked Zebu cows and graceful horse that roam peaceful hillsides, moving as mysteriously as floating clouds in the stormy tropical sky.” (Engle, 9) This quote shows Engle falls in love with the Cuba farm because she extols beautiful farm landscape, quiet countryside, and untrammeled animals. At first, Engle describes the green river, crocodiles, manatees, Zebu cows and horse with five different adjectives -- “rippling”, “dangerous”, “gentle”, “humpbacked” and “graceful”. Five different adjectives show the characteristics of these five things and show the first reason to fall in love with the farm -- Engle loves this beautiful and harmonious Cuba farm. The benefit of using adjectives is that the readers can easier to imagine a vivid picture of the beautiful riverside scenery. The second reason to fall in love with the farm is Engle loves mysteriously things on the farm.

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.

In the book Seedfolks, a character named Kim enters a vacant lot in her town, Cleveland, Ohio, to plant Lima Beans to honor her father, who passed away before Kim was even born. While Kim is in the process of planting her beans and watering them daily, people around the vacant lot being to notice her actions . Many people followed what Kim was doing and made their own little garden, which causes the community of Cleveland to be together and to communicate with one another. Throughout the book many characters come and go in the garden, and each character shares something in common with someone else. The garden brings people together, and helps them communicate with one another, without the garden, some people might never have communicated with someone that has a different appearance as them. The novel Seedfolks shows us, that the garden changed everyone’s perspectives on people in their community and how they judge them by appearance. It shows how you can give someone chances, before you can judge them. Some people that show this theme, are Kim, Ana, Sae Young, Maricela, Sam, and Curtis.

The friendship between the two young girls before the realization of their differences represents rich soil. Given these images, the reader can create a connection of what the authors is trying to convey.

The path, hard-packed from thousands of bare feet that had trod on it for decades, was flanked on both sides by fat, fruit-laden mango trees, the sweet smell of which always seemed to welcome her home.” (Chapter 1, p.2).The narrator speaks on amari who loves enjoying things she never afraid of anything.Amari loves her home and she thinks its so sweet.The narrator wanna show how Amari she is, the way she appreciate things in her life.Even though their whites in her village she still shows how to put a smile on her face.The narrator wants to readers to show how she so grateful for things.Also how she grateful for her family and

The literary devices that May uses throughout the poem represent the understanding of the human mind. May states,“I've grown in secret.” The plants that the speaker tends to are a metaphor to illustrate self identity. By growing in secret, the speaker mind and understanding grows like a plant, unnoticed by the world. In addition, this illustrates that one’s self identity is found through the growth of understanding about one’s self. A flower is a garderns goal to achieve, as in a goal for

Duong’s decision to describe the snowflakes as “strange flowers” exposes Hang’s attachment to the landscape of her own home, and also the strangeness of this new landscape for her. The word choice of flowers and their connotation of spring provide contrast to the harsh winter. Hang’s simile comparing the snowflakes to a “luminous” childhood dream juxtaposes the description of them as “blinding shards” and “frail”, thus revealing Hang’s opinion of dreams as something rarely obtained. Surely as a child she imagined the best that might have happened, and had such optimistic hopes of what might have been. They are thus associated with sorrow by the simile, reflective of the cruel reality she faced when her dreams were suffocated as a child. The snowy landscape also triggers a more consuming flashback to a time in Hang’s childhood. Duong provides vivid imagery of the beautiful landscape of the bay - “Clouds floated like puff jade along the horizon, a line broken jagged by solitary rocks.. This endless jade-colored necklace fallen to the earth.” (Duong ) The metaphor comparing the clouds to a jade-colored necklace further emphasizes the landscape’s beauty and richness. The idea of a jade necklace, a material wealthy good, introduces the idea that the natural landscape is a gift, accessible by all. Duong emphasizes this with the subsequent sentiment that “beauty knows no frontiers, seduces without discrimination” (Duong 83). Hang

Analysis The author paints a picture in the readers’ mind of a nice and beautiful day in the village. Seeing this beautiful setting might cause to reader to expect happy and exciting events to follow.

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.

The townspeople imagine how Esteban’s living space and family must of been just by looking at him, since he is the most handsomest man they have ever seen. However, the townspeople do not realize that someone's beauty does not show how they must have lived when they were alive.

The villagers later decide they need to hold a magnificent funeral for Esteban and they hope that he will return to them one day, as he is a part of their community in their eyes. “They let him go without an anchor so that he could come back if he wished and whenever he wished, and they all held their breath for the fraction of centuries the body took to fall into the abyss. They did not need to look at one another to realize that they were no longer all present that they would never be” (Marquez, 1972, p. 4). They hold Esteban in such high esteem, yet he is only a dead corpse. This shows the characteristics of

In summary, the comparisons of Esteban to Jesus Christ and the Christian faith are very interesting. It is also unclear if this is Marquez’s original intent. Does the writer mean to suggest that religious fervor is built on fantasy and we, the villagers, are naïve? There is also no way to really know Esteban’s true character. Is he the valiant warrior they dreamed of? If his return were possible, is he truly someone they would want to rule and

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.