The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

“It was the story of a man… Actually, it begins with some kids who found a drowned man out of the village”, she whispered. “He was so tall, so strong, so virile; he was just perfect, he was Esteban. Once this handsome man had entered the village, all the inhabitants started to embellish their land. In that way, the soul of Esteban would be welcome. All the village finally decided to returned him from where he came. All his beauty never stoped to impress the entire place.” She concluded.

This was actually The Handsomest Drowned Man written by Gabriel Garcias Marquez that I used to hear before. With a myth like that you can easily increase the feeling of belonging to a nation because you build a strong cultural history, you introduce our nation to some main values and you bring everybody to a same ideology. This tale helps everybody to believe in the power of dreams and in the beauty of change. So, the myths are really important for the construction of a nation, a country.

First, Gabriel Gracias Marquez used hyperbole –a literary device that is based on the exaggeration – to increase the fact that Estaban was the best. For example: “[…] he could 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 form among the rocks.” This quote is also to explain the importance of a dream that would help a nation to progress.

Secondly, there are also many climaxs that are also there to increase the fact that the dream has a major power and that changing our habitudes can be profitable at the end; even more that it was before. It explains in a other way that the narrowness of a dream is the worst thing of nations. “[…] the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man.”

Thirdly, I can connect it to my own passions, the soccer or the piano. Actually, if you dream to reach your goals, you will probably reach it easily that if you are wondering anything. And sometime changing the way you used to kick the ball of to play a song may be more beneficial than it was. Like in this text, the inhabitants understand that they needed to dream in something and to change their way of thinking to be able to increase the dream. That’s the way we also need to act when you play piano or when you kick soccer balls.

To cap it all, a tale like the Esteban’s one inspired a whole land to dream of something and to accept to change. Myths like that are so important for a country, because they help to built a stronger nation, a stronger cultural history, stronger values and a stronger ideology that joined people from a same place. That is the power of myths in a nation building.


even that you know you love me :)
X o X o
Cathh !





picture: http://s.plurielles.fr/mmdia/i/99/2/2731992wcljg_1350.jpg