Esteban
Esteban is the only distinguished character in the story. He is the drowned corpse that washes up on the shore of the small fishing village, and is named Esteban by the village community, though the narrator asserts that there could have been no other identity for someone like him. As the villagers carry him to the nearest house, they notice that he weighs almost as much as a horse and is taller than any other man. When they get him cleaned up they realize that he is a stranger. The man is not only the tallest the villagers have ever seen, but he is also the strongest, most virile, and best built man they have ever laid eyes on.
The women in the village were awestruck by his beauty and speculate that if he were a resident of their village, his house would have the highest ceilings, the widest doors, and strongest floors, and his wife would be the happiest woman. They imagine him to have so much authority that he would have the ability to draw fish out of the water just by calling their names. They compare him to their own men, feeling that they are inadequate when compared to the majesty of Esteban.
Esteban clearly does not speak in the story, but his presence is the central focus of much of the plot. Though he is dead, he comes to represent for the villagers a spirit and energy that they themselves want to exude. Esteban is in many ways a vessel onto which the villagers project their deepest desires, aspirations, and dreams: through his presence in the village, he inspires the villagers to change their way of life in order to project the same vitality and strength that they see in Esteban.
The Villagers
The villagers occupy a small village consisting of only twenty houses. Their world is relatively small, with the women staying home to care for the children while the men fish in the nearby sea. When the body of the drowned man washes up on the shore, the village is changed in a major way: the men struggle to haul the massive body to town, while the women are overtaken by the handsome looks of the dead man once they clean him off. The men, who are initially jealous of the attention the women give to the drowned man (whom they have all collectively decided is named Esteban), are eventually awestruck by his beauty as well. The entire town comes together to mourn the loss of Esteban and wonder what kind of life he would have lived.
In arranging a funeral for Esteban, the villagers are indelibly changed: they desire to match the energy and vitality that they see in Esteban's face and body. They come together to commit to changing their ways, to brightening their village so that Esteban may come back to them one day, or so that people traveling through the sea will recognize the village as Esteban's home.
