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Comparing 'Handsomest Drowned Man With Enormous Wings'

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The stories “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” both incorporate “magic” in a sense within their stories. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the author of both stories. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is about a dead man, who is described as being very tall and handsome, washing up on the shore of a village. This man gets named Esteban and although dead, is adored by the entire village. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is about an old man who is believed to be an angel. The villagers think he crash-landed in Pelayo’s back yard. Pelayo locks the angel in a chicken coop and as the story progresses is treated harshly by both Pelayo’s family and the villagers. Esteban in “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and the …show more content…

Although the magical creatures are similar in the magical aspect and their effect on expectations, the way they were treated and their purposes are different “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” are similar in the way that the magical incorporation is expected to look like . The short stories feature supernatural individuals who unexpectedly enter the lives of the villagers. The way one would assume their appearance is not the way they truly look. Esteban from “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and the old man from “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” appear to be different than the villagers would imagine. When Esteban washes up to shore and the villagers begin to imagine what the washed up man would look like he is described as being “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” (44). The drowned man was abnormally shaped compared to the villagers. He was taller, heavier, and handsomer than any man in the village.

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