The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
by Gabriel García Márquez
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Transformation Quotes
How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
They thought that he would have had so much authority that he could have drawn 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 from among the rocks so that he would have been able to plant flowers on the cliffs. (4)
When the villagers envision planting flowers themselves at the end of the story, it's as though they've taken on the powers they originally attributed to the drowned man.
It was then that they understood how unhappy he must have been with that huge body since it bothered him even after death. They could see him in life, condemned to going through doors sideways, cracking his head on crossbeams, remaining on his feet during visits, not knowing what to do with his soft, pink, sea lion hands (7)
The image of the drowned man has changed in the eyes of the villagers. They've now situated his mythological qualities in the context of reality.
Some women who had gone to get flowers in the neighboring villages returned with other women who could not believe what they had been told, and those women went back for more flowers when they saw the dead man, and they brought more and more until there were so many flowers and so may people that it was hard to walk about. (12)
Compare this to the initial description of the village. Note how much has changed, physically, since the drowned man's arrival.