🌊 Emojis
👩🦰🪮🧽🪸💀
The women clean all the sea junk off Esteban
“The first children who saw the dark and slinky bulge approaching through the sea let themselves think it was an enemy ship.”
visual
The blending of ordinary village life with extraordinary mythic qualities
Esteban’s impossible size and beauty
The possibility of a larger, more meaningful life than the villagers had imagined
Esteban!
How does Esteban’s physical size challenge the villagers to imagine a world larger than their own?
His size makes their houses, cliffs, and habits seem small, pushing them to imagine greater possibilities.
🧒👀 ➡️ 🚢❌ ➡️ 🐋❌ ➡️🧍♂️
the children think he's a ship, then a whale, then a man
"They took the mud off with grass swabs… and scraped the crust off with tools used for scaling fish.”
tactile/touch/feel
The way imagination transforms a stranger into someone deeply beloved
The villagers inventing an entire life story for Esteban
The vast unknown and the imaginative world beyond the village
the sea/ocean
Why do the women pity Esteban so quickly, and what does this reveal about their thinking?
Their pity shows their ability to imagine his past and empathize beyond their immediate reality.
🌺❌➡️🌺👭➡️🌺🌺🌺👭
The women go to a neighboring village to get flowers (since they don't have any), and they come back with more women, who go back and get even more flowers
“Passengers on great liners would awaken, suffocated by the smell of gardens on the high seas…”
olfactory/smell
The idea that a dead outsider instantly becomes part of every family’s lineage
The villagers assigning themselves roles as Esteban's “relatives” despite never knowing him
The villagers’ limited worldview and modest expectations before change
the small, crappy houses/village
What does the villagers deciding to give Esteban an extravagant funeral suggest about their desires?
It shows they crave dignity, beauty, and meaning in a life that had felt ordinary and limited.
🚢👃🌸🌅🏘️✨
Future sailors or travelers recognize Esteban's Village because of its beauty
“While they released in sighs what they did not in tears…”
auditory/sound/hearing
The power of imagination so strong that it reshapes how people see the physical world
The villagers planning to widen their doors and terraces because of Esteban
Growth, ambition, and the desire to transform their future
the new, vibrant, bigger, stronger houses
How does Esteban act as a catalyst for the villagers to rethink their own lives?
His presence exposes the narrowness of their routines and inspires them to dream of a better village.
⚓❌➡️🌊🕊️
The villagers decide NOT to tie an anchor to Esteban so he may come back to visit if he wants to
“His heels raw and his back roasted from having done the same thing so many times…”
tactile/touch/feel
The merging of myth and reality as the fantastic becomes accepted as truth
Esteban becoming a legendary figure sailors will speak of for generations
Beauty, reverence, compassion, dignity, and the hope Esteban inspires in the community
the flowers placed on Esteban
What is the deeper meaning of the villagers naming Esteban instead of burying him anonymously?
Naming him humanizes him and symbolizes their claim to a new identity shaped by imagination and hope.