Monday, April 21, 2008
BA # 11
Don Quijote first appears right in the beggining of the novel on page 13. The narrator begins the story with describing Don Quijote. "In the village of La Mancha their lived, not very long ago, one of those gentleman who keep a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast grey hound." (page 13). After he is described his name is mentioned.Don Quijote is a very odd character. He is an old man who seems to have gone crazy. He was known to always have his nose in one of those old romance novels and knight tales. Eventually he decided he wanted to become a knight. He realized he needed to do all the things that typical knights he read about do. He needed a horse (which his was not very strong), a woman to fall in love with, armor,he needed to be dubbed a knight, and most importantly he wanted to "set right endless injustices" (Pg17).I don't think that Don Quijote is like any character we have seen. If Don Quijote was actually born a knight then maybe we could compare him to Odysseus or another hero, but he seems like just a ordinary old man who has gone crazy. although he is acting like a hero some could say, he is only acting this way because he wants to be a knight. He was not born for greatness, the sky did not thunder the day he was born. There were no prophecies stating that he was born for greatness. Don Quijote is just trying to act like a knight so he is doing everything that he thinks a knight does. In the other books we have read, the main characters were hero's, and in this book, Don quijote is just trying to immitate one
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2 comments:
Even though Don Quijote doesn’t appear to be a hero because he is this simple old man “getting close to fifty, but strong, lean, and with a sharp face” I feel that he is a hero. In his eyes a hero is a knight who poses courage. They defend the helpless and in their heart hold good intentions. Yes he might come off as a little insane because of his readings and the way he presents his self to people but that is how he feels he can change all the bad within the world. I understand so far he has only caused harm but he has the right intentions. For example when the poor little boy was being whipped by his master he showed up and the master stopped. Even though he believed the master would have kept his word he did not know he would carry on with the wrong intentions. So he might not be the modern day hero but I definitely believe he poses all the right qualities.
Don Quijote should be commended for his courage, but hes not a hero. His altered perception effects his judgement which is an important aspect who a hero is. Don Quijote's way of thinking leads to the harm of innocent people around him. We saw this when he attacked the two Benedictine monks. Quijote wrongly accused the friars of having a "kidnapped princess" (8.47) in their possession. His actions led to the beating of his squire Sanchez. Quijote's decisions not only effects him, but they also have an impact on those around him.
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