The men who carried him to the nearest house noticed that he weighed more than any dead man they had ever known, almost as much as a horse, and they said to each other that maybe he'd been floating too long and the water had got into his bones.
In the beginning of the story, the village men carry the corpse to the town after they discover that the children on the beach have been playing with the body. Here, the narrator provides an indication that the corpse will have a major impact on the community, as the men note that there is something unique and superior about the body they carry. This hyperbole in describing the corpse will continue throughout the story, and contributes to the sense of magical realism for which Marquez is best known.
But the sea was calm and bountiful and all the men fitted into seven boats. So when they found the drowned man they simply had to look at one another to see that they were all there.
Once the body is brought to the town to be cleaned, the villagers wonder if he is perhaps part of their community. Here, the narrator suggests that the village is so tight-knit and familiar that they could immediately tell if the drowned man lived there. The quotation also suggests a certain predictability and mundanity in the lives of the villagers, which the presence of the drowned man disrupts and improves.
Not only was he the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man they had ever seen, but even though they were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination.
As the women begin cleaning the corpse of the drowned man, they are quickly taken by his handsome appearance and muscular physique. This description is another example of hyperbole; that the women cannot even fully conceive of the splendor of this man in their minds renders him otherworldly and even godly. Indeed, these exaggerated depictions of the drowned man are elements of the magical realism that combines surreal events or concepts with realistic circumstances.
They could see him in life, condemned to going through doors sideways, cracking his head on crossbeams, remaining on his feet during visits, not knowing what to do with his soft, pink, sea lion hands while the lady of the house looked for her most resistant chair...
As the women work to prepare the funeral for the drowned man, they name him Esteban and begin imagining what his life was like before he died. They project all kinds of narratives onto him, including this one that makes them feel pity and compassion for him. These narratives are evidence of the villagers' own latent desires to live more varied and exciting lives.
At the final moment it pained them to return him to the waters as an orphan and they chose a father and mother from among the best people, and aunts and uncles and cousins, so that through him all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen.
This quotation, one could argue, encapsulates the central theme of the story: that the villagers are brought together through the presence of a stranger. Here, the narrator describes how each person in the community – women, children, and men alike – are united in mourning Esteban, even though nobody actually knows who he is. The story thus suggests that death (even the death of a stranger) can alter and influence the lives of those still living.
...the captain would have to come down from the bridge in his dress uniform, with his astrolabe, his pole star, and his row of war medals and, pointing to the promontory of roses on the horizon, he would say in fourteen languages, look there, where the wind is so peaceful now that it's gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun's so bright that the sunflowers don't know which way to turn, yes, over there, that's Esteban's village.
After Esteban's funeral, the villagers change their way of life: they paint their houses bright colors and plant flowers all along the cliffs in order to preserve Esteban's memory and make their village worthy of his spirit. Here, the villagers imagine that sometime in the future, a ship captain will see their village from afar and know that it is home to Esteban. The conclusion of the story therefore dramatizes how one seemingly insignificant person can have a major impact on the world around them, even – or especially – in death.
