Don Quixote

Don Quixote is a classic novel although now a days many may not be entirely familiar with it. The story of Don Quixote is filled with legendary actions that have survived our native tough. The phrase and labels that tell the title come from someone deeply impractical. Don Quixote at the age of fifty has not quite had what one would call a wild life, so far. He has never been married and still lives at home. He has however found his calling in life, the profession of knighthood: "he was spurred on by the conviction that the world needed his immediate presence..." (Book 1, Part 2). So the tales begin.

Don Quixote, our most noble of nobleman was blinded by his passion for devotion. He often came to the point of losing his reason. Don Quixote became a traveling caballero, or a knight errant. He did not travel far before it occurs to him that he had forgotten his squire, not that he ever had one. Though he knew he was without a squire he felt it was necessary to turn back. As the journeys travel on we see that Don Quixote has previously been termed the reasonable one. He is often very foolish along with a foolish squire, who becomes not only the voice of reason but allows Don to live in his fantasy as long as possible.

Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's neighbor and eventual squire, follows his "master "on his adventures hoping to secure the position of governor of an island. Sancho as opposed to the Don Quixote lives in a fantasy world most of the time. Usually the voice of kind reason, occasionally he will break out into laughter.

Once he heard hammering, the sound of some type of grinding mill; or the metal bowl that the barber had placed on his head during the rain. Soon that bowl became a golden helmet. When the sun came out, ...

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...lways been jealous of his older brother, even though now he is much wealthier.

They become almost as fun and complicated as the social aspects. The French had become pirates. They are the Protestants who had no respect for their true Faith. The Curate and the Captain become symbolic of the conflict between the Church and the secular with role reversal incomes. The Old Ways intrigue Don. The church is appalled by his Paganism. Sancho really does not care much, one way or the other.

This novel, although funny on the surface, is the Alice in Wonderland of Spain. His imagination of ups and downs through turns within turns, along a crazy roller costar that his characters take and retake over and over again four hundred years ago. This is a classic story filled with adventures that seem as if they will never end. Don't let anyone tell you this book is old-fashioned.