The Handsomest Drowned Man; a Character Analysis

In the incredible novel written by Linda Sue Park,A Long Walk to Water, there were two stories of a girl in 2008 and the main character Salva Mawien Dut Ariik.Salva is a 11 year old boy who has lost his family and i running away from the second Sudanese war in 1985.Salva had to use these survival factors to survive the long and grueling trip,resourceful,perseverance, and courageous.Salva is a real person who survived this long trek and lost his family in this hostile environment.

Nine men collapsed on the sand one made a small desperate motion, another tried to raise his hand but fell back down. Five men lost to the desert that day, but Salva a young boy in Linda Sue Park's book A Long Walk To Water, never lost the fight.

In Linda Sue Park’s novel, A Long Walk to Water, two Sudanese children take readers on a journey through their world. At different times in history, the stories of Nya, a young and carefree girl, and Salva, a boy with a humble heart, weave together to create an intriguing story with a hopeful message. Salva and Nya use perseverance to help them find success despite difficult circumstances, namely crossing the Akobo desert,leading the boys to Kenya, and the daily routine to receive water.

Grading Guidelines: Answers will vary. A complete answer would look like the following: The villagers in “The Handsomest Man in the World” are compelled by their belief in a man they do not really know to bring about change in their village. They design their houses and landscape in honor of this drowned man, Esteban, so that his spirit will approve and feel at home in their community.

Throughout the course of the entire novella, author Ernest Hemingway of The Old Man and the Sea alludes to the life of Jesus Christ, as told through the Bible, through subtle remarks made by the character Santiago, as well as through his relationship with a young boy whom he is mentoring at the time. This motif hinting at Santiago’s Christ-like figure is more prominently shown on page 121 of the book where the old man “... climbs the hill with his mast upon his shoulders… falling several times before reaching his home on the hill.” (Hemingway 121) This quote almost exactly reflects the quote from the Bible in John 19:17, “They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.” (Bible 19:17) Ernest Hemingway alludes to Santiago’s Christ-like figure to further depict the pain and hardship Jesus Christ had endured for his children, through a medium or character that his audience could almost relate to and humanize and imagine in their minds, to help his readers connect with the religious beliefs he held dearly. Although, F. Scott

While, Esteban who is just an ordinary person and at the same time a dead man, was portrayed as a good looking guy, We can see this in paragraph 4, “Not only was he the tallest and 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”. What’s ironic here is even though he is a drowned dead man who is supposed to be portrayed as a man full of anguish, he is still portrayed as a good looking as peaceful looking man. And even though he is already, many women still fantasize him.

For Esteban Trueba in chapter 2 of the House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, after the death of his fiancee Rosa, he demonstrates his reactions to total isolation from his family, friends, and the ones he loves most. Ultimately, Esteban’s reactions to this newfound isolation help convey his character which is demonstrated through symbolism, diction, and inner conflict he faces through all these years.

In looking back upon his experience in Auschwitz, Primo Levi wrote in 1988: ?It is naïve, absurd, and historically false to believe that an infernal system such as National Socialism (Nazism) sanctifies its victims. On the contrary, it degrades them, it makes them resemble itself.? (Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, 40). The victims of National Socialism in Levi?s book are clearly the Jewish Haftlings. Survival in Auschwitz, a book written by Levi after he was liberated from the camp, clearly makes a case that the majority of the Jews in the lager were stripped of their human dignity. The Jewish prisoners not only went through a physical hell, but they were psychologically driven under as well. Levi writes, ??the Lager was a great

In Washington in 1982 there was a plane crash on the pentatonic river. A man repeatedly saved other lives in the place of his own. Rosenblatt states “The odd thing is that we do not even really believe that the man in the water lost his fight.” This man had so much courage and faith to put others lives before his. This saying, he had a plan in mind, he followed through with it, and achieved it so he did not lose the fight, he really won, and also shared his victory with others. He gave up everything he had to give hope to others. Rosenblatt gave another point being, “When the helicopter took off with what was to be the last survivor, he watched everything in the world move away from him, and he deliberately let it happen.” One could think he was content with what he had done. He sacrificed himself for the life of another life. This being said, the anonymous man in the water not only saved 5 lives with a humble heart but gave hope to

The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.

Finding insightful commentary on the Santiago-as-Christ image is problematic at best. For instance, Joseph Flora's judgment that "The Old Man and the Sea illustrates the essence of Christian discipleship and does so in strictly biblical terms" (147) confirms perfectly the point that too many critics have overanalyzed the image of Santiago-as-Christ; this is far too reductive a statement to encompass the whole scope of Hemingway's superb novella. Yet we must acknowledge two facts about

So when the men returned with the news that the drowned man was not from the neighboring villages either, the women felt an opening of jubilation in the midst of their tears. 'Praise the Lord,' they sighed, he's ours!'” (Marquez, 1972, p. 3). The town falls in love with Esteban, treating him like one of their own, but even better. The women imagine what his life was like before, being so much bigger then everyone else and being more handsome then the rest. They make clothes and jewelry for him and imagine what their lives would be like having him as a husband. The villagers really seem to come together in their admiration of Esteban. Their faith strongly exemplifies the magical realism elements in this story, seeing as normally a reader would expect society to not so readily except something that is so unnatural and uncommon to them.

The old man who is an angel, was portrayed as an ugly old man who doesn’t even resemble an angel. “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…” (Márquez 525). While Esteban who is a only a dead guy was portrayed as a good looking guy. “Not only was he the tallest and 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” (Márquez 10).

It was “on the third day of rain” that the Pelayo family found “a very old man, lying face down in the mud…impeded by his enormous wings” (1). By stating in the first line that it had rained for three days, the significance of the rain is exemplified. Being a symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth, the old man can be seen as being reborn on this day. This imagery is further reinforced by the fact that Jesus also was reborn from the dead after three days. Being found in mud also correlates to how Jesus was born among commoners. Many people come to witness the flesh and blood angel. However, the “consolation miracles” performed by the angel were said to show his “certain mental disorder” (4). This again parallels the way God performs strange works. Like Christ, the old man’s apparent disillusion discredited him. All these similarities to Christ give the old man a particular significance.

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.