Atomic Chaos Described In Literature Essay Research

Atomic Chaos Described In Literature Essay, Research Paper February 19, 1999 Engl 1102 Zenith During the peak of events in the Second World War, the United States decided to drop two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the final end of almost a decade of turmoil and tension. The introduction of a new atomic power led humanity to discover a new reality, polished by the realization that the future would be a reflection of an irreversible decision. Hence, it is true that from the time of the atomic chaos forward, the fate of mankind had been changed and was never to be the same again. In John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums,” and Gabriel Garcia Marqu?z’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” a similar “fate” is developed. The two stories

presented have their plot evolving around an alien element that arrives in the society where the characters belong, bringing about an immutable transformation to their lives — just as the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were introduced by the atomic bombs, and forced to coexist with it. The changes introduced in the stories are opposite to each other, since Steinbeck depicts the transformation of the protagonist Elisa as a negative and pessimistic disclosing of her own self and Marqu?z shows that the changes brought from an exotic element brings hope and light to a dull village, creating a more vivid and colorful environment. In both stories, a foreign and mysterious person lands in a naive setting, interfering the routine of the characters by its mere presence. The antagonist

in Steinbeck?s short story is a man whose attitude, as well as behavior, take the protagonist (Elisa) to a world never explored before. By the end of the short story, Steinbeck shows that Elisa is “crying – like an old woman” (201), conveying to the reader that the strange man she had met before had slowly murdered the “over-eager, over-powerful” (194) young woman she was in the beginning of the plot. On the other hand, in Marqu?z short narrative, a corpse named Esteban, arrives from the sea and his existence takes the inhabitants of a little village with “twenty-odd wooden houses… no stone courtyards… no flowers… on the end of a desert like cape” (218) to find the inner depths of their souls, transforming their dwelling to a place where “the wind is so

peaceful… and the sun’s so bright that the sunflowers don’t know which way to turn” (222). Thus, Steinbeck and Marqu?z both show how a simple event can change the course of the lives of those who witness it, but also in showing how a relationship to the bizarre can yield different results and alter the course of their lives. The similarities between the stories of both authors first start with how the foreign element is brought about in the plot. “The Chrysanthemums” begins when Elisa listens to “A squeak of wheels” from the road, followed by the observation that what she sees is “a curious vehicle, curiously drawn” (195). This enigmatic appearance starts the disclosing of the plot, where action encompasses this single event. Nevertheless, “The Handsomest

Drowned Man in the World” commences when the village children observe a “dark and slinky bulge approaching through the sea” thought to be “an empty ship” (218). In the image portrayed by Marqu?z, one can understands that a puzzling discovery about the approaching object would be disclosed, and regardless of the effect of this discovery, it would bring about irrevocable alterations to their lives. What this parallel between the two stories shows is a similarity of how both plots start with an unknown source advancing towards a protected fortress of habits, and possibly disturbing its methodical conduct. This assumption holds to be true in both literary works, where the corpse and the foreign man dramatically change the behavior of those who witness its presence. There is