The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Literary Elements

Short story

The story takes place on a Wednesday in a tiny fishing village.

Third-person omniscient

The tone is serene and meditative, while the mood is mysterious and surreal.

There are no discernible protagonists or antagonists in the story. In many ways, everyone in the story is a protagonist.

The central conflict of the story is an implied one: the villagers are plagued by mundanity and a lack of vibrancy in their lives, which they only become aware of through the magnificence of the drowned man.

Esteban’s funeral is the climax of the story.

The women's imagining that Esteban would live in a large house and plant flowers on the cliffs foreshadows the villagers' eventual transformation of their community.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator uses understatement to describe the children interacting with the drowned man's body, saying, "They had been playing with him all afternoon, burying him in the sand and digging him up again" (2). This matter-of-fact statement about children playing with a corpse helps contribute to the story's sense of surrealism, but also suggests that the children were simply behaving as children do, without the burden of social expectation.

The story alludes to the sirens of ancient Greek and Roman mythology, women whose singing would entice sailor's to their deaths. The story also alludes to Sir Walter Raleigh, an English Renaissance poet who was also known for his penchant for exploration.

The story relies heavily on imagery throughout – most notably through descriptions of the drowned man and the village itself. These images usually showcase Marquez's penchant for magical realism, when some descriptive details appear to challenge the bounds of reality.

The title and central premise of the story is a paradox, as Marquez juxtaposes beauty and life with death and decay.

The life that the villagers imagined Esteban having before his death parallels the life they decide to cultivate for themselves after his funeral.

N/A

The narrator personifies the sea and the natural landscape in the story, saying, "the whistling of the wind died down and the sea fell into its Wednesday drowsiness" (6).