1. Don Quijote first appears on page 13.
2. Don Quijote is a simple man who is “close to fifty, but strong, lean, his face sharp” (13). He spends as much as “two consecutive days and nights” reading tales of chivalry (33). Very early in the novel we are shown that Quijote is delusional. He envisions an inn as a castle, he christens horses and people with mystical names, and he is willing to single handedly engage in battle with “a great crowd” (29). He is loveable, as shown by the support of the townspeople when he arrives home “beaten”, but he is also a prone to making bad decisions that cause more of those endless wrongs he has set out to somehow end.
3. This one is a bit tough. He has a great appreciation for a time long passed, so I’m going to stretch that a bit here and compare him to a griot, Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate, in Sundiata. Quixote can quote (or misquote) numerous characters from the multitude of chivalrous novels he has obsessively read. This part of history is important to him, so this is what he shares with others. Since chivalry is considered nothing more than words on a page that hold no real action in life, Quijote is trying to keep the past alive. A griot claims to be the “memory of mankind” and without them “the names of kings would vanish” (1). A griot must know much more history than our dear Quijote, but both characters keep elements of the past alive.
4. As much as my sympathetic side wants me to call Quijote a hero, my conscience says otherwise. His bumbling errors cause more harm to the precise people he is trying to help. The best example is the poor boy who is being unmercifully whipped by his master. Quijote quickly believes that the master will give in to his demands of paying the boy, and threatens that he will “hunt you down and punish you” (28). As soon as Quijote is outside of hearing range, the master whips the boy to within inches of his life. Quijote’s inability to see the short range of his powers cause much more harm than good. He is not a hero yet, but he deserves some credit for believing so firmly in something and acting upon that belief, no matter how short sighted he is.
9 comments:
I believe that Don Quijote is a hero. He isn't sensible or sane, for that matter, but his intentions are for the most part good. He wants to help people and his mind set is on helping people. He doens't have much common sense or brains, but I know that if he did he would be a great hero. He would have known that the man who was beating his servant was going to go right back to beating the servant when he left and he would have stayed. I blame his misfortunes on his lack of intelligence. He is otherwise a hero because of his devotion to fixing wrongdoings.
Jess hun, I love your enthusiasm for the protagonist of the story, but in the sub-plots, he is infact the antagonist of his own adventures. As pday says, we cannot be blinded from our feelings of sorry for Don Quijote and give him the title of Hero. In Sundiata, griots were almost sidekicks to the kings of Mali. Don Quijote messes up the stories he is trying to emulate. He is no griot and not a role model for anyone to follow. One might want to follow his drive in life and his love of a good book, but his drive is taken to psychotic measures when he deams himself a knight because an inn keeper thus knighted him and he deams himself in love because a whore-lady just happened to be around. Many examples of this mock-heroism flank the "chapters" of this epic. Take a look hun.
I don't believe that Don Quijote is a hero because he doesn't possess any of the characteristics that a hero should have. Although he does want to help people, he only ends up making things worst for himself or others. One example of this was when he attacked the two muledrivers for moving his armor. This inccedent was bad news for the muledrivers and the innkeeper. Events like this prove that Don Quijote is only an average man who reads about heroes and then tries to copy them. He is not a real hero.
I have to admit, even though I totally relate with Don Q's misdirected enthusiasm- like a kind of medieval Napoleon Dynamite- and want to view at least his intentions as heroic, I don't think I can. He's just doesn't seem to help anyone, least of all himself. And unlike Napoleon Dynamite, I don't think he's gonna come through in the end with a bitch'n dance routine. He does have a sense of a higher purpose that he has this far been faithfully serving, but to whose benefit? Maybe Sancho will play tether ball with him.
Since it's my post, I want to act as moderator for a moment. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and interpretations when it comes to literature. There is no reason to refer to someone as "hun" or to say "take a look hun" when refering to the evidence you have produced. Let your reseach stand alone without having to sound mocking. The arguments need not be antagonistic.
I, too, believe Don Quijote is a hero despite his misfortunes and lack of clear intelligence. He do have a big heart to whoever he meet along in his travel. I agree with jessicapa on his devotion to fixing any wrongdoings. He had the abilities to overcome the misfortunes as well as recover from his mistakes. I don't think the story of Don Quijote is based on the negatives but I think it based on misfortunes in the human natures that we do have some of his traits in all of us.
BA #11
Don Quijote is a hero in his own way - at least a hero in his mind. Maybe that false perception is all that is needed for him to be called a hero. I do, however, agree with the fact that when he does go and try to perform heroic deeds they mostly only cause the other party more trouble then with what they started with which almost makes question Don Quijote's heroic standing. But he is humorous nonetheless.
I do not believe that Don Quijote is a hero. He is an insane older man who has lost touch with reality. Although, his intentions are good, to restore the chivalry and knighthood of the knights in his books, there is no one for him to fight or prove his knighthood too. Going around from town to town fighting imaginary villains does not make anyone a hero. If anything this makes him less of a hero because he is putting innocent people in harms way, were a hero would be saving people from the harm. I am truly sorry for those who are under the influence of believing that Don Quijote is a hero, maybe your too are like him and not in touch with the real world.
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