The Handsomest Drowned Man in the world is the story of a small South American village where a beautiful man washes up, drowned, on the beach. The villagers become transfixed by his beauty. Soon they adopt him as one of their own, furnishing him with an imagined personality and many admirable traits. They come to mourn a total stranger and to identify strongly with him, employing him as a psychological blank and even naming him Esteban before finally returning him to the sea at his funeral.
Visit from an unusual stranger In Gabriel Garcia Marquezs stories The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World and The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings two kinds of distinct strangers arrive in a small community causing speculation doubt and fear among the members In the two stories both strangers present distinct characters and personalities which when steadily observed by the small community gives rise to comparison questioning and understanding of the aura commonly shared by the two strangers In
Comparison between The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World and The Drowned Giant The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Marquez and The Drowned Giant by J G Ballard are both short stories that explore the ways in which societies react to the external and exotic world The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World is about a man who was washed ashore near a small village and the impact of the mans presence which helped the villagers to revive their dreary and barren village into a beautiful