The Handsome Drowned Man Inside Us All

  Have you ever read a book or seen a movie that, after in taking it, makes you strive to be a better you? We can't always pinpoint the exact reason, but we do know that there is more for us to do than simply sit around and watch the world moving forward without us. We need to feel as if we have a purpose, or something that we've achieved that others can admire.
 
  In Gabriel Marquez's short story The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, an amazingly gorgeous dead man is washed onto the shore of a small village. Doing what any kind human would, the villagers proceed with attempting to discover where exactly the man came from. In the middle of that, the women and men begin to magnetize towards this idea that the drowned, abnormally large man was in fact an outstanding and almighty person. In his memory, they decide upon doing things of an unnatural or impossible nature, like "breaking their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers in the cliffs." Before discovering the man, they would've never even imagined attempting these acts. Why do you think that is? Maybe, it was the fantastic theory of the already fantastic man that sparked the awakening of the villagers.

  Batman, a well known character of the fantasy realm recently captured the attention of people across the nation in the new movie The Dark Knight Rises. Even though most everyone realizes that the events and characters of this movie are completely imagined, (with the exception of the recent movie theatre assassin in Aurora, Colorado), people seem to have a sense of pride after watching it; At least I know I did. We begin to desire to be like Batman, to want to do so much more. Not all admit the childish feeling inside of being a "superhero," but we all know the truth. Every one of you wants to drive the awesome Bat-Mobile and save the city of Gothem from the "bad guy."

  This yearning inside of us is extremely similar to those of the villagers of The Handsomest Drowned Man. Because of a magical character and our idea of them, we desire to be something phenomenal ourselves. We reach with our souls for others to achieve the unthinkable. We yearn for others to be inspired by us. It's quite possibly incorrect to think of anything as being unrealistic or impossible. Maybe, just maybe, we all need a man that either dresses like a bat or is fictionally large and dead in order to reach past the ordinary and soar into the extraordinary.