Don Quixote #4- the final one

     Alright readers last post about the book Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The story has this constant idea that is show by Don Quixote. I mentioned the idea in my third blog post of departing from older outdated ideas of the time, with Marcela explaining how she did not wish to have a husband or be wooed by men. Don Quixote is a walking metaphor for the outdated concept of chivalry  in the world. This is shown by how people react to him in situations such as him being laughed at when her first arrives at an inn to be knighted and is throughly laughed at by the women there as he tries to great them as fair maidens...to be fair they were prostitutes. The story constantly shows how Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are getting into trouble because of how Don Quixote is trying to preform a chivalrous act that either horribly backfires, or is negatively received by who he is trying to do the act for. Whenever Don Quixote tries to do battle with people the chivalrous way, but usually he was beaten either when he was down or out numbered, not in honorable single combat.

     I started to at least recognize the idea because of how Don Quixote would always have a before and after statement, he would explain the situation to Sancho and then outline, more or less the way It should play out if it followed the rules of chivalry, and then  Don Quixote explaining why they are not honorable, after about three or four times this is kind of hard to not notice.

My method of reading was easily rereading, the language that is used by Don Quixote is closer to old english and personally I think that that can be a pain to read and his insane view of whatever situation he is trying to describe does not help the situation. I had to reread chapters so I could fully grasp what was happening in the story and at time I would have to stop and just start marking up the book because I would read, but not really understand what was happening, also I am extremely scatterbrained at times which causes rereading to be a necessity. 

     I personally would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I really like this book because of how crazy the story is, and how crazy the main charter is, the way that I view the book is non-fiction but fiction because everything that is happening has the feel and style of a non-fiction book but the simple fact that the main character is a mad man and we see most of his misadventures from his point of view and that turns some simple windmills into four armed giants that must be fought. I also really like this book because of how the story progresses by not really having an overarching goal, the book basically keeps telling stories of the misadventures that the duo keeps getting into and how they either come out of the situation in a more or less okay fashion, or they completely mess up and receive a sound beating for their trouble. The book also has very good banter between the mad Don Quixote and the very sane yet trusting Sancho Panza, I think that the people that I would recommend this book to because of the banter would be just as happy or even happier than me with the banter because of how silly it is sometimes because it is just Don Quixote being crazy and other times it seems that Don Quixote could pass as being sane. Anyway I know that the people that I would recommend this book to would enjoy the banter and mixture of stupid and funny adventures because, that is how the people that I would recommend this to, and that would be family and friends, would act around each other and how they do act around each other. The book is very readable and actually engaging not because of some over arching plot but because the reader can see that Don Quixote has the best intentions in any situation he is presented with and this makes him a likable character because at the heart of the matter he is just a man, although a crazy man, who is just trying to follow a dream and be the big hero of the day on his adventure and that is what I like enough to recommend, and I know the people that I would recommend  this book well enough that they would also get the character’s ambitions and start to care for him. 

Don Quixote #3

     Okay, I am pretty sure that there would be more than one reader of this blog now. Anyway, Hello blog readers, for people who may be new to this blog and have decided to start reading at the third post instead of the first for whatever reason, this blog is about the book Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The book a man named Quixana who is a simple gentleman that goes insane from reading too many books about chivalry and the knight-errants they are about and decides to craft himself into the gallant knight Don Quixote de de la Mancha and along with his squire , who is completely sane, Sancho Panza goes out into the world to adventure and preform chivalrous acts like those from his stories.

     In the story there is one event that I wanted to bring up because it seems to tie in with an idea that seems to always be floating around in the story and that is the idea of old ideas being left behind and those who cling to them. The event in question is one that seems like everything else in the adventure of Don Quixote and that is a completely random situation that the two have found themselves in, the situation is a funeral that they are attending because they were invited by the shepherds who were hosting them for the night. The funeral is for a man who died because of being extremely lovestruck and being rejected by the person of his affection. The woman is made out to be a cold woman who is heartless, yet beautiful and through the word of the shepherds and the poems that the person who has died has written about how she is beautiful and at the same time very cold.

     The woman in question comes to the funeral, her name is Marcela and she is quickly met with harsh words by the shepherds who go to call her a basilisk who has cruelly slain the deceased. Marcela takes all their words in stride and then goes to explain that the deceased had died due to them being a fool who was unable to accept that she did not want to be with him. She then goes and explains how whenever a man comes to her telling her of his love how she always tells them that she is not interested and never leads them on or gives them any hope of being with her. Marcela saying all this shows her leaving of a normal idea that a woman has to be with a husband and calmly describes this idea to the shepherds defending herself and her departure from what would be considered normal customs if outdated customs. 

Don Quixote #2

      Hello again, blog readers or reader...I really hope it is the former. The book that this blog is focused on is Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, the story of the illustrious Don Quixote de la Mancha. The story so far is that an honest gentleman known as Quixana who spent all of his free time reading stories of chivalry and then after reading so many times from dusk until dawn,till as the book says “ all the moisture of his brain being quite exhausted with indefatigable watching and study, he fairly lost his wits.” so to sum that up he was so engrossed with his book that he lost his grip on sanity and went mad. This entry takes place shortly after he is given a firm beating after attempting a duel with people over his fair princess’s beauty, he returns to his home to heal and after he heals he has poor villager join him as his squire, the villager's name is Sancho Panza  

        I personally think this book is amazing and it really good at keeping me interested. I think that one of the most interesting things about this book is the interaction between Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza. I was initially annoyed at the idea of a companion to Don Quixote until the book actually showed how silly the contrast would be. The first time I actually noticed this contrast is when our Knight-errant has his run in with the four handed “giants” and by “giants” I mean he was fighting windmills that Sancho was easily able to recognize and point out to the mad man. Don Quixote who is quite firmly entrenched in his madness explains to his squire that he is still new to adventuring and thus he is unable to see the “giants” for what they are. I find that hilarious because clearly it is Don Quixote who can not see them for what they are, but the best part of the exchange to me is when after attempting to kill the giant with his lance and being thrown with his horse he exclaims that a wizard has transformed the four armed giants into windmills, so that he would be robed of his honorable combat. That has to sink in for a bit...okay, the way that he turned that so he was still right is sheer brilliance to me. I like how this keeps happening as the story continues, Sancho trying to explain it to his master what something is in reality, and Don Quixote brushing the thought aside and offering his own explanation and then charging headlong into the situation, that interaction between the two is easily able to keep me reading just to see how much Sancho can handle from his crazy master.
 

Don Quixote #1

       Hello blog readers, or maybe just reader? Anyway the book that I have been reading and will be chronicling in this blog is Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The book is about a man named Quixana who was an honest gentleman who in his free time liked to read books about knight-errantry. The book after some minor explanation informs the reader that due to too much reading of his books Quixana loses his wits and goes completely mad as in insane, and that is where the book actually starts to become interesting and get to the meat of the story. Quixana after he is taken by madness starts to fashion himself into a knight-errant like from one of the stories he is so enamored with and crafts his identity of Don Quixote, the man of la Mancha. He then after creating his identity, renaming his horse, and creating a woman that he would be in love with like all other knight-errants, he sets off on his adventure to preform chivalrous acts. 

        I have read about 140 pages by the time I have written this post, and I have reached a point where I feel like I have to guess what is going to happen in the story. The point I am at has our wonderfully insane Don Quixote getting into a duel with a bizicayan carriage escort over some “captive princesses” that were being kidnapped by two “wizards”. 

         I feel that Don Quixote will receive a major beating in this duel because the last time he tried to enter to get into a fight, his horse fell out from under him and he was left helpless and was beaten, this is one reason I feel that he will receive a beating and that is because I feel that Cervantes was going to create this reoccurring theme of Don Quixote being beaten after trying to be knightly. I also think that he will be hurt because, all that we know of Quixana before he became Don Quixote shows that he did not seem to be a fighter before and does not seem do be one at the time of his duel, I just can not,  given the madness and his past failures in combat , believe that Don Quixote would even have a remote chance of winning this conflict that he has put himself into.