"By this time all his friends have come to adore this mad but idealistic righter of wrongs; they want him to continue."
Wight Martindale, Jr. pp 442.
Don Quixote stands for what is right, good, and noble in the world, even when it's hard and misguided. In today's world, he would fit right in with our favorite superheros. The idea seems far-fetched, but it's not. Arturo Conde says, "Comic book fans could easily recognize the wandering knight as a precursor to modern-day superheroes. Like Batman, Spider-Man and Daredevil, Don Quixote creates a new identity, makes his own armored-costume and risks his life to fight for justice" (NBC News, 2016).
Don Quixote as a super hero, standing up again giants that he's told he cannot best, saving the beautiful lady, and going on a quest that will make him better at the end than he was at the beginning. Maybe he's the answer to Thanos' Snap at the end of Infinity War...okay, maybe not. But, Quixote is a hero; a noble man that we all want to be a little more like. But, he's more than something we can't quite be. "Don Quixote is anti-heroic; the hero fails at almost everything, beginning with his attempt to battle the windmills he believes to be giants" (Martindale, Jr. 441) . Instead of the smooth-talking Iron Man, he reminds me more of a reluctant Ant Man. He wants to help and finds himself being a super hero along the way, even when he fails or almost fails miserably in the process. But his ridiculousness is still loved.
Don Quixote as a super hero, standing up again giants that he's told he cannot best, saving the beautiful lady, and going on a quest that will make him better at the end than he was at the beginning. Maybe he's the answer to Thanos' Snap at the end of Infinity War...okay, maybe not. But, Quixote is a hero; a noble man that we all want to be a little more like. But, he's more than something we can't quite be. "Don Quixote is anti-heroic; the hero fails at almost everything, beginning with his attempt to battle the windmills he believes to be giants" (Martindale, Jr. 441) . Instead of the smooth-talking Iron Man, he reminds me more of a reluctant Ant Man. He wants to help and finds himself being a super hero along the way, even when he fails or almost fails miserably in the process. But his ridiculousness is still loved.
The ultimate message to readers: i am who I am (ANd so are you)
What draws me so deeply into a love of Don Quixote after all these years? The man himself. A man who knows who he is in his heart, even when the world is telling him something different. As Molina says, "Who can say, like Don Quixote, I know who I am, and who I am in my heart of hearts has nothing to do with your ideas and your expectations of me?" (381).
For hundreds of years, books have provided readers, authors, and publishers with ways to tell their stories. Some stories are fleeting, lost forever to the history and mystery of time. Others last for years, shaping and reshaping our shared experience. These are the books that influence our lexicon, our motives, and how we judge right and wrong, good and bad. We see idealistic old men chasing after windmills and defending damsels in distress and we see the world a little more like we think it should be and a little less like it already is. We celebrate writers who tell stories that make us rethink the good and evil in the world, and we remember the books that shaped us. As Molina says, "Maybe that is precisely why Don Quixote is so relevant to those among us who are not willing to abide by any fixed laws of identity. That is why we love to read novels in the first place, and also why some of us love to write them, in an attempt to break through the boundaries we were not supposed to trespass, to escape beyond the limits of the self, the frontiers of space, and what Vladimir Nabokov called the prison of time" (380).
Maybe books like Don Quixote appeal to what is best in each of us. Maybe these are the books that remind us it's okay to be a little different, a little impractical, and even a little mad. After all, how many characters and books end up with an adjective named after them?
quix·ot·ic (/kwikˈsädik/)
adjective
May we all be a little more quixotic and a little less ordinary every day.
For hundreds of years, books have provided readers, authors, and publishers with ways to tell their stories. Some stories are fleeting, lost forever to the history and mystery of time. Others last for years, shaping and reshaping our shared experience. These are the books that influence our lexicon, our motives, and how we judge right and wrong, good and bad. We see idealistic old men chasing after windmills and defending damsels in distress and we see the world a little more like we think it should be and a little less like it already is. We celebrate writers who tell stories that make us rethink the good and evil in the world, and we remember the books that shaped us. As Molina says, "Maybe that is precisely why Don Quixote is so relevant to those among us who are not willing to abide by any fixed laws of identity. That is why we love to read novels in the first place, and also why some of us love to write them, in an attempt to break through the boundaries we were not supposed to trespass, to escape beyond the limits of the self, the frontiers of space, and what Vladimir Nabokov called the prison of time" (380).
Maybe books like Don Quixote appeal to what is best in each of us. Maybe these are the books that remind us it's okay to be a little different, a little impractical, and even a little mad. After all, how many characters and books end up with an adjective named after them?
quix·ot·ic (/kwikˈsädik/)
adjective
- exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
May we all be a little more quixotic and a little less ordinary every day.