Short Paper 3

Comparison of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and The Handsomest Drowned Man

The old man from the story A very old man with enormous wings and Esteban from the story The Handsomest drowned man in the world are opposites of each other, maybe the only similarity that they have is that they are both flat and static characters. First, they are different in terms on how they are portrayed. The old man who is an angel, was portrayed as an ugly old man who doesn’t even resemble an angel. We can see this in paragraph 2, “He was dressed like a rag picker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth…” While Esteban who is a only a dead guy was portrayed as a good looking guy. We can see this in paragraph 4, “Not only was he the tallest and strongest, most virile, and best built man they had ever seen, but even though they were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination”.

They also have different effects on the story. The old man, has a positive effect on the story. Since he appeared in the story, Pelayo’s family got lucky. Several events can prove this, in paragraph 4, “the child woke up without a fever and with a desire to eat” and in paragraph 11, “with the money they saved they built a two-story mansion…” On the other hand, Esteban has quite a negative effect in the story. Since he appeared in the story, the women started comparing their husbands to him and because of this the women started to view their husbands as weak. This event can be seen in paragraph 4, “They secretly compared him to their own men…”

In terms of irony, the old man, even though he is an angel a supernatural being, was portrayed as an ugly old man who doesn’t even resemble an angel. We can see this in paragraph 2, “He was dressed like a rag picker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his