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<strong>Don Quixote</strong>

<strong>Don Quixote or El ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la mancha (the ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la mancha) is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes. Miguel the Cervantes lived in a period that reflects the climax and the decline of Spanish Golden era. The novel was published in two parts with the interesting characteristic that the first part was published in 1605 and the second part was later published in 1615 (Bloom).<!--more-->  Don Quixote is one of the most influential literary pieces of Spain and the world; currently it is considered a classic. The novel has been translated to many languages and is one of the top sell novels of all time. The novel is important because it reflects the conflict between the old and new way of living. The novel also possesses some comic, tragic and traces of history that make it a unique piece at that time and an influential novel to this day.</strong>

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<strong>The Story is based on Don Quixote which is a middle age gentleman from a region of Spain called La Mancha, Don Quixote was an habit reader of stories that talked about brave characters that perform magnificent acts so he decided to set his mission to defend the innocent and helpless and punish the bad people. He basically decided to adventure into the country in order to fulfill his mission and he did that with the help of Sancho Panza. Don Quixote had to persuade Sancho Panza into following him in his adventure and he did that by promising Sancho that he will be made a wealthy governor. Don Quixote start his adventure into the Spanish country in search of glory and adventure and he does that in his old skinny horse named Rocinante.  Don Quixote also renamed one neighbor farm girl and transforms this farm girl named Dulcinea into his love interest and he envisions her as a princess. On posterior trips or adventures Don Quixote turns into more of a bandit and angry many people by stealing from them all because he felt he status as a knight was in jeopardy. His bad acts go from leaving a kid with an abusive farmer that was mistreating the kid just because the farmer promised not to hurt the kid anymore and also stealing pieces of equipment from barber that he later considered to have special healing powers. While all this is going on Sancho Panza stands by Don Quixote and on many occasion have to endure the punishments that resulted from Don Quixote actions. One characteristic of Don Quixote is that the story is based on all the adventures of Don Quixote and the people that he encounter in those adventures, Sancho plays the role of the trustworthy and loyal companion and Sancho Panza also serves as the main person trying to deal with Don Quixote fantasies. The First part of the novel ends with Don Quixote being taken home by two friends (a priest and a barber) because he was though to be delusional. In the second part of the story that was published 10 year later after the original part which many consider kind of a sequel and what distinguish the second part from the first part is that the second part is more serious and concentrate on the idea of deception while the first part is more comical. What is interesting about the second part is that because it was written ten years later it was expected that people were more familiar with Don Quixote story and his adventures (De Cervantes).</strong>

<strong>Miguel de Cervantes was a person that had many fantastic experiences during his life like being held as a hostage in Algiers, these happens during his time in the army. Later he returned to Spain but those hard experiences had a profound effect on the way and the stories he wrote. The main reason why talking about Cervantes is important to mention his life because many of Don Quixote elements are drawn from his own life like the experience of being hostage and the courage that Spanish soldiers like him showed during one of the most difficult times in his life. Another aspect that market Cervantes life and consequently it also affected the way he felt about foreigners, which he considered as not trustworthy (Byron). </strong>

<strong>During this time Spain was at the top of the world with the many riches they acquired from the new world like the American colonies which had a lot of Precious metals like gold and that gold is what allow the Spanish empire to flourish and expand even more. Also during this time of conflict the country of Spain suffered some losses like the loss at the hands of the British navy. In many ways the stories of war experienced by Cervantes during his time in the navy are part of Don Quixote, so in a way the novel reflects the difficult and confusing times of the Spanish country because the novel reflects aspects like identity and morality and the importance of art in the times where the country of Spain was experiencing changes. Another aspect that mark this time and that I think is important to emphasized is that during this time the renaissance was happening in Europe, which change the way, people wrote. The emphasis during this time was to write tales about chivalry and the ideas like the protection of the innocent, the idealizing of women or the life of knights that have many adventures like in Don Quixote (Kamen). </strong>

<strong>Don Quixote is important because in this novel Cervantes touched aspects that included the social situation of Spain which was characterized for the fragmentation of the society and the hierarchies among the people, not all the people where considered the same, many were powerful and had all the perks of being the ruling people while others just tried to get by and survive. The concept of nobility was prevalent during this time and the concentration of land in the hand of few was the norm, these was reflected in Don Quixote second part where Cervantes showed his opposition of the way the nobility had behaved and the way the treat other people. Another aspect that Cervantes emphasized in Don Quixote is his opposition of the church because he has some problems with the established Catholic church that at one point considered him a bad apple among the people, in the second part of Don Quixote Cervantes questions the morality of the Spanish Catholic church (Sturman).</strong>

<strong>Another important factor that makes Don Quixote an important novel is the technique and style of the novel which is mainly the idea that history is important and the way Cervantes present all his characters and their attributes so that the reader can get a very clear idea of the scope of the character. I think that allows the reader to totally immerse in the reading and that makes his novels very appealing and attractive to read. Also another aspect that I think is important about Don Quixote is the idea of combining characters that have some common attributes like kindness and common sense but also presenting the same characters as having idealistic views of the world and in a way kind of delusional like in the case of Don Quixote, which in some parts of the novel is presented in a down to earth way and in others is presented as a crazy old knight with dreams of grandeur. I think that combination of characteristics allow for a more interesting novel and basically make the novel much more enjoyable to read because the reader is always wondering what is coming next.</strong>

<strong>Don Quixote Has had a long lasting cross cultural influence over many years influencing many authors to developed their own master pieces. The novel was so popular since the first part was published in 1605 that one person went so far as writing a second part before Cervantes the author of Don Quixote was even done with his second part. The novel has inspired such authors like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali among others and continues to influence present day authors in their pursuit of the style and characterization that can be found in Don Quixote. </strong>

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<strong>Works Cited</strong>

- Byron, William. “Cervantes: A Biography”. Publisher: Paragon House. April 1988

-Bloom, Harold. “Cervantes Don Quixote”. Chelsea House Publishers. 2001

- De Cervantes, Miguel. “Don Quixote de la Mancha”. Ediciones Carena. Barcelona. 2009

-Kamen, Henry. “How Spain became a world power”. Publisher: Harper Perennial. 2004

-Sturman, Marianne. “Don Quixote: notes”. Publication: Lincoln.Neb John,Wiley &amp; Sons,Inc. 1964