Literary Analysis

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, better known as Don Quixote, is a book that narrates the life, joys and misfortune of a man called Alonso Quixano. In this book, the author (Miguel de Cervantes) makes us imagine and perceive in a very creative way all the joys and misfortunes of this knight through the use of some literary tools, such as a good explanation of the setting, a description of the main character (characterization) and an interesting and elaborated plot. In the book Cervantes describes Don Quixotes in a special way; to create in us a clear image about it. Alonso Quixano is a middle-aged man, who lives with his niece and a housekeeper. The story takes place in villages and countrysides in and around La Mancha, in 1614 (SparkNotes Editors). In that place the winters are cold and the summers hot (Cummings). In La Mancha there are windmills (Cervantes), which once Don Quixote mistook for giants, people used those windmills to grind corn, but he used the windmills to fight and be defeated. With this explanation we can think in the place where he was living, we can imagine how the place was and the time in which Don Quixote lived. The author describes the main character with a specific emphasis. In the book, Don Quixote (Alonso Quixiano) is obsessed reading books about chivalry, and he believes every word on the books, so one day he believes that he is a knight. The man has neglected his estate, squandered his fortune, and driven himself mad by reading too many books about chivalry. Now gaunt at fifty, the gentleman decides to become a knight. -(SparkNotes Editors) After some crazy events, people start to think that he has lost his mind, because he is behaving in a different way than the normal. Now he is thinking that he is a knight and that every knight needs a lady in whose name to perform great deeds (SparkNotes Editors). Once Don Quixote mistakes a group windmills for giants (Milton); therefore, he tries to fight with the giants, because it is his duty. All these descriptions of events and characteristics that the author wrote in the book, gives us an idea about how the main character behavior was and why he was acting like that, in an unusual and special way. Cervantes gave to Don Quixote certain qualities, reading the book, we can imagine Don Quixotes appearance, and also we can know how he was, because of his actions and thoughts. Another, but not less important tool that the author used in the book, is the plot, he first introduce us to the character and how is he and why, to give us an idea about what the book is about. This book has a simple and basic plot (Milton), is about a middle-aged man who believes that he is a knight (Cummings), and loves Dulcinea, Aldonsa Lorenzo, that is how he calls her, but he has never spoken to this damsel and this gives a very interesting way in the story, because it makes you think how a person can fall in love so easy with someone, someone who doesnt know anything about you (Wikipedia). In the end of the book, after all his

experiences, adventures and defeats, Don Quixote begins to move back toward sanity and his real name come back. Now he is Alonso Quixano, after all this events and actions he dies (Cummings). Alonso Quixano experienced vivid adventures and magical moments, but then he is disillusioned and realized that some things are not as he believed, this can be sad, because if you think that you now live in a different world, where you are a knight who fights for a lady, can be very interesting and funny, that gave him a meaning for his life, because before all this, he was in melancholy; afterwards, he had an idea, the idea of being a knight like the ones in his books, and he hide his melancholy with a new story, his new story, a different way to see the world. Unfortunately all his melancholy returns and then he dies. Miguel de Cervantes best novel book is The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha; it is considered for some people as the best literary work ever written (Wikipedia). I think that this is because the author gives us very good examples and characteristics of the characters. It is a long book, but this makes it interesting, because people can read and know a lot about the character, how he was, the place where the story unfolds. The author makes us think and imagine how the place and the characters are or were, thanks to that we can imagine how Don Quixote was or how La Mancha and his people were. I like way that Cervantes wrote the book, because everything concatenates and makes sense for the reader. The use of the literary tools of Cervantes was very good, that is one reason why he is considered a very good writer. With the use of literary tools of Cervantes in this book, we can imagine and enter to the world of Don Quixote (Authors Craft), because at the end we will have an idea abut how he was (physically and psychologically), the place where he was living and the people around him, with the use of literary tools now we know or have an idea about the joys and misfortunes of don Quixote.