The handsomest drowned man in the world: a tale for children by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a good example of how myths are used to create a feeling of belonging to a nation. This myth is about a dead man who is found on the beach of a village by kids. The man is huge: he was taller and weighed more than any other man. The women, taking care of the drowned man, all fell in love with him, because he was the strongest, the most virile, the tallest and the best built man that they had ever seen. For his funeral, they returned him in the water, without an anchor, so that he could come back as he wants. The main idea of the text was the narrowness of the dreams of the people from the village, but here is why I think that myths are created to give meaning to the existence of a nation.The first literary device that supports my thesis is hyperbole, which is almost always present in the text, but here is an example of it: “Not only was he the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man they ever seen, but even though they were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination.”We can see that the women who were taking care of the man were exaggerating about him. Hyperbole means exaggeration. So to make a story interesting, the story-maker exaggerates on some events or details. This is where the story becomes a myth. The people who “own” the story are proud to tell the myth because it is extraordinary. They feel that they belong to this story of their nation.
Like I said, a myth is created to give meaning to the existence of a nation or of something that is important for a society. This story is a myth to explain why the village is now colorful of flowers and gay colors of the houses. In Quebec, the myth of the “Chasse-galerie” has been created to tell people that the devil exists so that the Christian people wouldn’t break the law.
A myth brings a feeling of belonging to a nation by exaggerating on some details so that the people are even more proud.
Hi Alexandra,
ReplyDeletehere's some 'formative' (as opposed to 'evaluative') feedback...
you wrote: The main idea of the text was that people have small dreams, they don’t think big. I think that myths are created to make a sense to the existence of a nation.
I think that you should write a clearer transition between your main ideas. As written the two sentences above do not fit together. There's no connection. Is the point of the story really that people's dreams are too small? Is that the climax of the story? The resolution of the story? Is it possibly only part of the raising action? Please think about these comments.
Think about what you are trying to argue. Now look at your point about hyperbole. Is it really only used as a means of entertaining people? Why else do you think the author may be using it so heavily?