..just a bit... To keep the reader going. The men, at first, think the women are crazy in their actions. How could they be making such fools over a man they have never met? The men just want to get rid of him and once again live their lives as before. Ah, said Marquez, but that is not going to be possible. The men, like the women, have seen his face. They know their lives are changed forever. Here was a man so much better than themselves -- Ashamed at his large size, yet willing to accept who and what he was.

Then the story begins to climb once again...another wave has hit the shore as the men and women get ready for the most splendid funeral. At last, he has to return to the water and they are so saddened. They weep. Now they see what their village is really like. How can anything compare to this man, this Esteben? Here is the height of the story,...

There is no surprising ending here. No build up of suspense. The reader knows what will be happening and sighs. Of course, now that this has happened what else could the people do? So, the reader helps the village people plant the flowers and the gardens, paint the houses with bright colors and make the rooms and ceilings higher. Now, the reader has become another person on this island and will stay there with the rest of the people as the tide goes in and out.
This story does not have any big, loud bells and whistles. nor, did Marquez attend it to. It is just a calming story about human nature that makes the reader close his or her eyes at the end and think about life in general.