Garcia Marquez wrote two interesting and unique short stories. One was “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” The other was "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." In both of these stories Garcia was saying how people perceive things in the world, for example; in “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” the neighbors thought Angels were suppose to be beautiful and young, but when they saw the Angel in the chicken coop the Priest didn’t believe he was an Angel because he was an old Angel. Had the Angel being young and beautiful it’s probably safe to say the Priest didn’t need proof. Another example; is in the short story "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” the drowning man was tall, strong, built he was a hard worker, and handsome, so the women felt he was perfect. They felt that all men should be like him. The women felt that the men they were with were useless, mean and weak. In the back of the woman’s minds he is above and beyond any man on the face of earth. In both stories the townspeople see the Angel and the drowning man how they want to see them.
When I read "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” I thought about how in the real world woman go crazy over male celebrities. That was exactly what was happening in “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” the women were giving so much attention to the drowned man, they had 100% dismissed their husbands. I found it funny because although I have had crushes on celebrity men, I never once looked at them as these perfect human beings who can do no wrong. In this story I felt Marquez was trying to say that people tend to get wrapped up too much in their minds they forget about reality.
I can relate to “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” because just like how the Angel had came into the neighborhood, and the towns people gave their attention to him a lot. I remember when my Mom adopted one of my sister’s friends a long time ago; I got excited and wanted to hang out with her a lot. I was excited because we had a new member part of our family. I just couldn’t help but give my attention to her a lot, like in this story. When someone or something new enters that person’s life they want to be around them all the time.
I did enjoy both readings because they show how people can for get about reality when they are wrapped up in their thoughts. To some people their thoughts are their reality. I also loved both readings because they help me come up with many questions. I love stories that allow me to go beyond the reading itself.
I like your observation about the how in the "Drowned Man" it was jsut like the problem with celebrities. People make up these characters that replace their regular human relationships. What is really sad is when the celebrities themselves begin to believe the made up persona and forget who they really are.
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