Throughout “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” the people of the village have evolving and vastly different perceptions of the huge and handsome drowned man. At first, many of the women of the village are convinced that he was a man of enormous authority and poise. But later they believe that he was actually a kind, humble, and awkward man. The women who hold onto their first perception of the man insist that his name is Lautaro, but even they eventually assent to the later assessment of his life and character and agree with the widely held belief that his name is Esteban.
Similarly, the men of the village are unconvinced at first that the dead man is anything other than a piece of “cold Wednesday meat.” In fact, they think he may not have even been huge when alive—that he grew in size only by absorbing water when dead. However, after the women reveal Esteban’s face, the men arrive at exactly the same view of his character as the women.
In both of these instances, perceptions which started as a fantasy are transmitted to the group and profoundly shape their view of what is real. Garcia Marquez cleverly suggests in his story that reality is mutable and that it could consist, surprisingly, in whatever perception it is that people jointly assent to. But the story further suggests that such a mutually agreed upon reality within a community is then stable and strong—it truly becomes reality—and can change and inspire people.
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Fantasy and Reality Quotes in The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
When they laid him on the floor they said he’d been taller than all other men because there was barely enough room for him in the house, but they thought that maybe the ability to keep on growing after death was part of the nature of certain drowned men.
As they were doing that they noticed that the vegetation on him came from faraway oceans and deep water and that his clothes were in tatters, as if he had sailed through labyrinths of coral.
They thought that if that magnificent man had lived in the village, his house would have had the widest doors, the highest ceiling, and the strongest floor […] They thought that he would have had so much authority that he could have drawn fish out of the sea simply by calling their names and that he would have put so much work into his land that springs would have burst forth from among the rocks so that he would have been able to plant flowers on the cliffs.”
The more stubborn among them, who were the youngest, still lived for a few hours with the illusion that when they put his clothes on and he lay among the flowers in patent leather shoes his name might be Lautaro. But it was a vain illusion.
