Character Analysis: The Handsomest Drowned Man

Beauty can be anything, but what society's idea of beauty is; nice hair to go with a gorgeous face, being over six feet in height, dreamy eyes that people can get lost in, being very muscular and having a six pack. None of these attributes matter in the end because it is what is inside that defines who the person is. If someone is in dire need they have some disease that affects the skin in an unappealing way people will pass by and not help they even though they are dying. When someone is beautiful in this society or in Marquez’ tails for children they will get anything without having to open their mouth. In Marquez's "Tales of Children" the villager's shallow reactions to outsiders, based on their societal norms of beauty, exemplify how people

should treat those in need with love and compassion no matter their appearance.

If a person is beautiful, people will help someone even without that person having to open their mouth.

In the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man” the villagers take in a body that has washed up on the beach and they bring it to their village with no hesitation. They all gather around him and gaze upon his beauty and end up caring for him even though he is dead, "The women stayed behind to care for the drowned man. They took the mud off with grass swabs, removed the underwater stones entailed in his hair, and they scraped the crust off with tools used for scaling fish". They cared for him not only because they wanted to know how it was but also that they saw he was beautiful and wanted to see him more. After the arrival of the drowned man, the people's attitude changes when they saw that he was attractive because of the way that they care for the dead man and want to see him."The men exploded with since when has there ever been such a fuss over a drifting corpse, a drowned body, a piece of cold Wednesday meat. One of the women, mortified by so much lack of care, then removed the handkerchief from the dead man's face and the men were left breathless too.”, from that point on everyone knew that he was beautiful and had to take care of him. They couldn't do anything to harm him and only wished the best, even they knew nothing about the man except that he was the most gorgeous person they have ever

seen.

The old man with big wings was treated harshly because of what he looked like. As soon as the villagers saw the old man he was held captive and they wanted to beat him to death. They used him as a show animal and made money off people coming and seeing this horrendous man. He was treated so harshly and as so as he was released he just left and didn't say anything to the villagers because of their actions, and none of the people in the village missed him even though he made their town better.

People should be treated and defined on their actions not how attractive they look, people should get to know a person before they get defined. They didn't talk to the drowned man and treated him with great care while they could have talked to the old man but didn't.They only treated him harshly without any prior knowledge about him. The drowned man had nothing to say to them and they were almost praising him while the old man had the characteristics of an angel and no one treated him with any care it's like the two people in the stories should have been switched. People should treat others on what is known about them. The villagers of the drowned man made up stories about him and treated him accordingly. Then the old man was never asked anything and couldn’t explain himself and, therefore, was treated like an animal, this shows the human instinct to look down upon or less then to something that is unappealing.