Imagine a strange man, different from any other, happens to show up on your town, brought by the sea. How would you and the other people meet to his sudden appearance? In both “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, two villages receive a strange visitor from the sea. However, each village is quite different in the ways they treat the men. In “ A very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, a man with decrepit wings crashed into a small coastal city on a dark, stormy night. The townsfolk discovered their “angel” and used him. The family who had the fortune of housing this old man put him in their chicken coup. People would poke and prod through the holes in the wires at the “angel” to …show more content…
He uses the same method of arrival and departure; the sea to a small coastal village. I believe he uses to show the vastness of our world and the possibilities that are out there. I also think he uses the sea as a way to connect these stories because of their very similar themes. One of the themes for both of these is the way we treat people reflect on our true intentions and selves. In the first story, the townsfolk use this strange, weak man with fragile wings to gain popularity and money. They then forget about him when something more exotic and new comes to town. The view on materialism is expressed heavily here. In the other story however, the villagers treat this strange, handsome like his is one of their own from the very being. They use whatever material they can to make this dead man more presentable. They also subtly change the way they do things just in case he comes back. These people cared not so much of who he was,but what could have been. The other theme that connects these stories is based of the other one. The theme of does outer appearance really matter. In the story with the weird looking old man, the people treated him horribly. However, in the other story, the townspeople treated this handsome, dead man with the utmost respect. So, do appearances really