Don Quixote                        Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I've read the Don Quixote a few times by the elementary school version and the middle school version. I enjoy the novel everytimes and i remembered that "It's like watching a funny comedy." this time i need vitality in my life by somereason, so I read it again. This time, in English version.

The novel is actually about that – a man crazy about chivalry that invents adventures and gives his best to survive. He called himself a knight, had a horse, found a servant and woman he decided to fight for. He even saw windmills as his enemies and fought them to honor his lady.
With this plot, the books clearly criticize the chivalry novels and even thought it’s a parody it contains a complex structure. The comic of the novel isn’t built on over exaggerating but putting an old fashioned them into new, modern frames of life. By doing that the theme becomes pointless and unrealistic. Don Quixote is described as a real character and he isn’t perfect as the knights from medieval novels. The humor and the moral of the story are founded in the attempts of the main character to be something he’s not. Also, the novel is a strong critic of society, Church and the inquisition.
The novel has many layers and contains elements of realism, parody and social critic which make him one of the most significant works of literature and it has its special place in the worldwide literature.


As I read this book, I was reminded of ideals and reality. It would be a problem if you dreamed of an unrealistic ideal like Don Quixote, but wouldn't it be fun if you didn't dream of an ideal in your life? I felt it is necessary to gain momentum, even if it was a futile dream. In the end, however, a balance between ideals and reality seems to be most necessary. At some moments, i should be a realist like Sancho, and at other times i will have to be an idealist and at another I have to be able to adjust my thoughts to the situation. Finally, i thought i should have the courage. It's not as reckless as Don Quixote, but i can't do anything without this sense of challenge and courage.

When life falls into mannerism, for encouraging my dream i will think of Don Quixote 
It's the second novel to be translated around the world after the Bible, so if i have a time to relax (maybe a college student?), I want to study the meaning of  this novel in literary history.