Man of La Mancha

life. A way to rejuvenate our souls, a quick passage to a world away from any problems we may have, yet most importantly it is a way to remind us that what is real, is in fact real. In Miguel de Cervantes’ novel ‘El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha’, the main protagonist Don Quijote has trouble separating what is real to what is only in his imagination. Throughout the novel, Don Quijote believes he is a knight and demands he bring justice back to the land. Through the use of old…

The Essence of Falsehood and Fakery: How to Pull off a Hoax The ubiquitous presence of fakes is an undeniable truth. I mean technically. It sounds so pretentious to say that we are surrounded by fakes, as if they are lurking around every street, ready to snatch the wool and pull it over our eyes, but it’s inescapable to live without encountering at least one element of fraud somewhere. Films, novels, television, paintings magazine ads, magicians, technically are all forms of trickery, because…

Wow. The video, "The BBs of Wealth" sends the message of wealth inequality with the auditory symbol of BBs falling into a can. The wealthiest 1% of the population has an average of over 10 million dollars in net worth, the bottom half of the population, around 50 million households, have an average of 5 thousand dollars. That's $10,000,000 (1%) compared to $5,000 (50%). This video relates to the entire textbook. Inequalities caused by socio-economic status are the reason that social…

gives a laundry list of literary hero qualities that Quixote longs for others to see in him: “magnanimous to his followers . . . , ruthless to his enemies . . ., resourceful and skillful in many crafts . . . , cunning and wise in counsel . . . , a man of action rather than thought . . . [who] lives by a personal code of honor” (Britannica). Instead Cervantes notes, “When the prostitutes hear Don Quixote refer to them as “high-born maidens,” it was “a term so much at odds with their profession,…

Through Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote de la Mancha, we witness a progression of historical and literary autonomy through the characters within these masterpieces. From Lysistrata’s determined female activist Lysistrata, to The Wife of Bath’s Tale manipulative and controversial housewife Alison, and Don Quixote de la Mancha’s imaginatively chivalrous knight errant Don Quixote, we can trace a thread of characters who…

The Divine Comedy is a long form poem that tells the story of Dante’s a journey through Hell, purgatory and Heaven. Its structure is significantly different from anything that had been written before it, like the Iliad or the Odyssey. Dante’s cosmology is highly ordered, it is divided into 9 main circles that correspond with the punishments for each sinner who is in that particular level. As Dante descends through hell, he comes upon sinners whose sins become increasingly hateful, spiteful,…

as a man who sees himself as superior to others, especially Sancho. Some critics have interpreted this as a reflection of authorities such as the government and the monarchy at the time of Cervantes who preached, ordered and spoke out to the nation with confidence in their words, yet really knew very little (particularly concerning the Spanish Armada). In Chapter 8, Don Quixote’s dismissal of Sancho’s proposition that the figures in the distance are not giants but “molinos de viento […con] las…

Dare to Dream, Dare to Defy “In Iraq, thousands of terrorism’s victims go unnamed,” screams the headline of Moni Basu’s article on CNN.com, published on January 12, 2017. Negative articles like this one seem to flood the media, attempting to open reader’s eyes to the horrors millions experience on the other side of the world. Daily articles record the devastation humans have wreaked upon the environment and on others’ lives. While individuals are ridiculed for their bodies, their personalities,…

It is ironic how Don Quixote is looking so fervently for more responsibility, but he is actually leaving his tue responsibilities behind in doing so. In being the heroic knight, Don Quixote would be responsible for all of La Mancha, and possibly beyond, but he claims that adventure is freedom and a release of duty and obligation. Don Quixote believes that the “very essence of adventures” is to give up responsibility and let fate, or in this case an old horse, decide his future…

among the towns-folk by informing them of his fantastic form of madness. As a result, many people come to watch Don Quixote standing on guard of the rusty armor that belonged to his great-grandfather which he has placed on a trough for safekeeping. A man of the inn enters the yard and moves Don Quixote’s armor so as to water his horses at the trough. Don Quixote reels at what he takes to be the man’s aggression and begins to attack him in self-defense and defense of his armor: “... he lifted his…