What Paints the Picture of Perfection: Perfect: to be without fault or flaw. One will spend their whole life trying to achieve perfection, and yet, they may never reach it. Perfection is a key motif in both Luisa Valenzuela’s “The Censors” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s. Luisa Valenzuela’s “The Censors” is a short story that follows Juan, an Argentinian man trying to become a censor, in order sneak his letter out of his country without suspicion. Unfortunately, Juan censors his own letter and is executed as a result. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” tells the story of a village, and how they become inspired to better their town, when a dead man, Esteban, washes up on their shore. Both tales deal with the concept
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At the start of his job as a censor, Juan has a moral conscience. When a coworker’s hand is blown off, another worker tries to organize a strike for better wages for dangerous work conditions, “but Juan [does not] join in; after thinking it over, he [reports] the man to his superiors and thus [gets] promoted”(114). Conflicted, Juan stops to deliberate over whether he should turn in the worker, before ultimately deciding to turn him in for a promotion. The key word in this quote is “thinking”. Juan’s moment of pause lets the reader know he feels guilty about turning the worker in, and does not want to. This shows that he has a conscience, and wants to stick to his morals. However, Juan decides that “[y]ou don’t form a habit by doing something once”(114). He reasons that in order to be continuously promoted, he needs to continue to bend his morals. Soon Juan is “pitilessly chucking many letters into the censored basket”(114). He stops hesitating, and without remorse censors people’s letters, not caring if they get in trouble. This major contrast between the first time Juan bends his morals and now, is significant because it shows that Juan no longer has a conscience. This lack of emotion and feeling towards others continues to grow as Juan moves up in rank. Towards the end of the story, Juan stops caring about friends and family, and stops going out, for fear that “any distraction …show more content…
In Marquez’s story, after the villagers decide to bury Esteban, they decided when people saw their village, they wanted them to say “look there, where the wind is so peaceful now that it’s gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun’s so bright that the sunflowers don’t know which way to turn, yes, that’s Esteban’s village”(96). The villagers wanted to work towards building a village based on the standards of perfection that Esteban met. This very positive ending however, is a contrast to Juan’s ending. At the end of Valenzuela’s story, Juan is killed for the letter he wrote. He ends up being “another victim of his devotion to his work”(116). All the arduous work he puts into matching the government’s standards of a “perfect censor”, ultimately cause his demise. The key difference between these two stories is what sets the standard of perfection. Juan’s standard of perfection was set by the government. The village’s standard of perfection was set by Esteban, who was created by the village, and thus the village indirectly set their own standard. These two stories illustrate that one must set their own standard, as whoever sets the standard will set it so it benefits themselves. The government wants to catch treasonous people, so by following the standard they set, Juan benefits the government, while on the other hand, the villagers benefit
At the start of his job as a censor, Juan has a moral conscience. When a coworker’s hand is blown off, another worker tries to organize a strike for better wages for dangerous work conditions, “but Juan [does not] join in; after thinking it over, he [reports] the man to his superiors and thus [gets] promoted”(114). Conflicted, Juan stops to deliberate over whether he should turn in the worker, before ultimately deciding to turn him in for a promotion. The key word in this quote is “thinking”. Juan’s moment of pause lets the reader know he feels guilty about turning the worker in, and does not want to. This shows that he has a conscience, and wants to stick to his morals. However, Juan decides that “[y]ou don’t form a habit by doing something once”(114). He reasons that in order to be continuously promoted, he needs to continue to bend his morals. Soon Juan is “pitilessly chucking many letters into the censored basket”(114). He stops hesitating, and without remorse censors people’s letters, not caring if they get in trouble. This major contrast between the first time Juan bends his morals and now, is significant because it shows that Juan no longer has a conscience. This lack of emotion and feeling towards others continues to grow as Juan moves up in rank. Towards the end of the story, Juan stops caring about friends and family, and stops going out, for fear that “any distraction …show more content…
In Marquez’s story, after the villagers decide to bury Esteban, they decided when people saw their village, they wanted them to say “look there, where the wind is so peaceful now that it’s gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun’s so bright that the sunflowers don’t know which way to turn, yes, that’s Esteban’s village”(96). The villagers wanted to work towards building a village based on the standards of perfection that Esteban met. This very positive ending however, is a contrast to Juan’s ending. At the end of Valenzuela’s story, Juan is killed for the letter he wrote. He ends up being “another victim of his devotion to his work”(116). All the arduous work he puts into matching the government’s standards of a “perfect censor”, ultimately cause his demise. The key difference between these two stories is what sets the standard of perfection. Juan’s standard of perfection was set by the government. The village’s standard of perfection was set by Esteban, who was created by the village, and thus the village indirectly set their own standard. These two stories illustrate that one must set their own standard, as whoever sets the standard will set it so it benefits themselves. The government wants to catch treasonous people, so by following the standard they set, Juan benefits the government, while on the other hand, the villagers benefit