The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World and The Drowned Giant

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Write a comparison of The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World and The Drowned Giant, commenting in detail on the ways in which the authors' use language to convey their respective themes. "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and "The Drowned Giant" by J.G. Ballard are both short stories written with similar plots but explore extremely different themes. In this essay I am going to compare the theme, plot, setting, language choices and stylistic effects between the two short stories and how all these relate back to theme itself. The themes of the stories are totally different. They are both about how societies react to the external world and exotic things, but the meanings are exactly opposite. In Marquez's story, an exotic drowned giant was found on the beach next to a poor, small village, but soon accepted into their homes and loved by the people with respect and pride. Since the village men had no knowledge to anything beyond their small area of nearby villages, their horizons were extremely narrow and had never seen such a beautiful man before, so he was treated as God and even gave him identity and buried him in the nicest way they could offer. Because of the large drowned man, the village men had realized the ugliness of their own society and how simple and plain lives they lived. The drowned man here brought inspiration and change to the village with no ambition, no dreams and no knowledge about the outside world-and motivated them, bringing 'colour' to their lives and making them realize how simple, plain and uncivilized they lived and gave them faith and hope and inspiration to a brighter future and a way to civilize themselves and their society. In contrast, in B... ... middle of paper ... ..., the village people even took him as an absolute alive being: "so that he could come back if he wished and whenever he wished". The drowned giant was treated like God as he made the village changed from now on: "wider doors, higher ceilings, stronger floors", etc, etc. Referring back to the theme, the drowned giant in Marquez's story brought a hundred percent change, as he gave the people the power to imagine and motivation. He deserved to be treated as God as society needs something to have faith in, otherwise, nothing will motivate, inspire and give hope. Here, 'Esteban', "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" brought change faith and hope to the once simple, small and poor society. In this essay, I have compared the different types of language choices and how they conveyed their two similar plots but extremely different respective themes.

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