m




 





by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 p Report Outline p
Ô ntroduction
Ô Video Presentation
Ô Writer·s Background
Ô Summary of the Short Story
Ô Content
Ô Character Analysis
Ô Setting
Ô Genre/Theme
Ô Plot Analysis
 p Report Outline p
Ô Style
Ô Narrator
Ô Tone
Ô Writing Style
Ô Analysis of the Title and Ending
Ô Symbolism, magery & Allegory

Ô Allusions & Cultural References

 The Author
GABR EL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ was born on March 6, 1927 in Aracataca, Magdalena.

Márquez is a Colombian novelist, journalist, editor, publisher, and a political activist.

He is a recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Originally written in Spanish (1968),
the story was translated into English in
1972, and was published with a
collection of Márquez's short stories
entitled r
 

  .


  

catapulted
Márquez to fame, had a huge impact
on the world of Latin American
writers, helped establish magical
realism as a literary genre, and led to
Márquez's Nobel Prize in Literature in
1982.
 p Summary p
Ô A group of children saw in the waters a "dark and slinky" bulge is
approaching. t turns out to be a drowned man, covered in seaweed,
stones, and dead sea creatures. The men head to neighboring
villages to see if the dead man belongs to one of them, while the
women clean off the body and prepare it for a funeral.
Ô t's such a small village, that all the men combined can fit into seven
boats, and there are only about twenty houses among them all.
Ô While the women work on the drowned man's body, they quickly
find that he is the biggest, strongest-looking, most virile, and
handsomest man they have ever seen in their lives, or could ever
imagine. They conclude that he is a man named Esteban, and when
the men return with the news that no neighboring towns can claim
him, the women weep with joy that he is now "theirs.µ
 p Summary p
Ô The men don't understand what all the fuss is about until the women
show them the drowned man's face. Then they, too, are in awe at his
handsomeness, his masculinity, and his size. While they admire the
drowned man, they think that he must have been ashamed of his
size in life, and must have felt awkward on account of it.

Ô Together, the villagers prepare a splendid funeral for the drowned

man. When they finally let his body go over the cliff and back to the
waves below, they all know that their lives have been permanently
changed. They know that they will build their houses stronger and
bigger, so as to be big enough for a man like Esteban. They will
paint their walls brighter and plant flowers, so that some day, when
the ships pass by their town, they will look at the bright, beautiful,
fragrant town and say, "that's Esteban's village.µ