Thoughts on Reading the Novel Don Quixote

Don Quixote was born in16-17th century Spain. This period is an era of literary revival and the alternation of the old and the new. With the emergence of new bourgeois humanism, society also presents a new atmosphere. This book tells the story of a frail, single Gijano in his late fifties, who lives in La Manque, Spain. He was immersed in knight novels all day, dreaming of becoming a knight who traveled all over the world, helped the poor, punished the evil and promoted the good, so he dressed himself up with an old horse, renamed himself "Don Quixote", regarded an ugly swineherd as a goddess of worship in the United States, and then hired a pudgy one. But as a result, a lot of jokes were made, and almost everywhere, they were humiliated, beaten up or sent home as crazy people, and finally died of illness.

Generally speaking, I think it can be regarded as a masterpiece. The whole novel describes more than 700 characters, including nobles, priests, landlords, citizens, soldiers, farmers, prisoners, robbers, prostitutes and so on. In content, there are religious concepts that threaten people, hardships and simplicity of the lower class, the comfortable life of the duke class, the persistence and impulse of young people to love, the unavoidable concept of family status, and the misfortune brought by freedom of marriage and love. It involves political power, economy, war, religion, morality, customs and other aspects of social life. The life scenes described are very broad, from aristocratic castles to small passenger stations in other provinces, from rural areas to towns, from plains to mountainous areas, from the mainland to forests, showing a complete picture of social life. It is amazing in the depth and breadth of reflecting reality. Therefore, in a sense, it can be said that this work is epic, carries out an enlightenment thought and reflects a restless mood in Spain.

First of all, I want to talk about the artistic features of this work. Judging from the whole novel, the writer's narrative style is very distinctive, and his works are not simple and straightforward, but idealized feelings interspersed with clever narratives. The protagonist in the novel is Don Quixote, who writes his fantastic experience by combining reality with reality. This is a fictional novel interspersed with a true story of a displaced person. Yang Shaohua, the godfather of petty bourgeoisie, said, "Not all liars can become novelists, politicians and diplomats ... but the difference is that novelists will not be morally condemned for lying, so the bigger the lie, the brighter it will be, and the more people will appreciate and praise the novelist." I think Cervantes did this skillfully. He found the truth in another place and projected another kind of light through vivid fiction. The plot of Don Quixote's fighting with windmills and killing sheep is fictional, but this is exactly the side of Don Quixote's longing for justice, punishing evil and promoting good, and it is also a projection of his being deeply eroded by chivalry. This cannot be ignored.

Next, I want to talk about the language features of this book. Because the version I read was translated by Jiang Yang, I have the feeling of reading China's traditional chapters and novels, which can be learned from the transformation between chapters of the book and so on. In addition, my favorite part of this work is the flexible use of Spanish folk proverbs. Especially in the shaping of Sancho, a series of witticisms have popped up, and proverbs are handy and colorful. For example, "Fate often opens a door in an unfortunate place so that bad things can be remedied", "Doing good to bad people means pouring water into the sea", "Those who don't intend to keep their promises don't care about difficulties when signing a contract", "If they don't do superhuman things, they can't be outstanding", "The eagle in the sky is not as good as the sparrow in their hands" and so on. The use of these proverbs makes the characters different and makes the works more readable. In a word, the work is permeated with a Cervantes style, but it seems to have no style, no affectation and fluent language. It is this "no style" that makes his works difficult to be imitated and surpassed.

Next, I want to make an analysis of the main characters' personalities. In today's society, Don Quixote has become a label character with the characteristics of "madness", "stubbornness" and "stupidity". However, if we go back to the distant sixteenth century and really approach Cervantes' text, the appearance of the characters is rich, interesting and full of wisdom.

Although Sancho is not the first protagonist in this novel, there is no doubt that his important position in the novel is undeniable. An important part of the novel is the dialogue between Sancho and Don Quixote. Although he is absent-minded, full of nonsense, likes to take advantage of the situation and deliberately jokes, I have to say that his language part is a highlight of this book. He advised the master not to be illusory, and then he believed in the existence of the devil with the master. Cute, natural and unpretentious, even if he sometimes acts like a villain who only cares about immediate interests, he can see his sincerity. In the second half of Don Quixote, it can be said that Don Quixote tends to believe in Sancho. I might as well believe that this is Sancho's personal charm and his distinctive personality characteristics.

Don Quixote, the hero of this novel, has never left chivalry. He thinks it is a big mistake to "make every effort to let everyone know that it is not a big mistake to restore the prosperity of chivalry" and thinks that "I can revive chivalry and shine more brightly than in ancient times" His behavior is reckless and absurd, and his subjective consciousness is too strong, but his speech is clear, elegant and reasonable, and his moral character has a noble side. He hates "laziness is better than diligence, comfort is better than diligence, evil is better than virtue, arrogance is better than courage, and even those who talk with guns and don't put them into practice." He sympathized with the oppressed people, hated the autocratic system, advocated "everyone is equal", and cursed that his era was "an era of all evils". From these aspects, we can easily see Don Quixote's noble inner character. But as one of us said, "Don Quixote's ideal is in the clouds, but it can only run amok on the ground under his feet." The fairy-tale ideal world is inseparable from the conflict of reality, and how to make a choice has become a key issue. Is it to lead an honest and clean life, or to dare to resist?

This choice reminds me of what Yang Shaohua said in Eggs and High Walls, "If there are strong high walls and broken eggs, I will always stand on the side of eggs. No matter how right the high wall is and how wrong the egg is, I am still on the side of the egg. " This shows that he is willing to be a warrior with conscience as a javelin, to shoot through the invisible wall that restricts human freedom, to praise the possibility and richness of all spiritual existence, and to support freedom. In today's materialistic and individualistic expansion, this spirit is bound to be commendable. Don Quixote is weak, but he chose to be a fragile egg without self-mockery. Even if he can only be an egg, he will bump into the high wall that hinders equality, harmony, light and freedom. Although his strength is limited, it is better than being a coward all the time. Even if it is "throwing eggs at a stone", we have reason to believe that one day a drop of water will wear away the stone. To put it another way, it's okay to be a maverick pig. If you believe in and pursue justice and peace, you will inevitably distance yourself from the society and environment where you live, that is, the secular values and concepts. However, as long as you can stand the loneliness and cynicism around you, it is not a bad choice to eventually become a "maverick pig".

From this point of view, the person I associate most easily is Fang. Since the first Chinese academic anti-counterfeiting website was founded in XX, Fang's anti-counterfeiting career has been more than ten years. As a professional counterfeiter and popular science writer, he has made numerous counterfeiters for more than ten years. However, after more than ten years of counterfeiting, he has seen more fakes than less, and he himself has caused trouble. From attacks and pressures from all walks of life to unexpected personal injuries. Of course, Don Quixote faithfully pursues chivalry and takes practicing this spirit as his life appeal, while Fang Zhouzi is actually correcting unhealthy trends in society. There is no such intermediary as chivalry, but it is undeniable that they all defend to the death in order to uphold the right path and truth. When reading this novel, in the section "The Meeting of the Heroic Don Quixote and the Mighty Mirror Knight", with the introduction of the novel, I did have a hope from the beginning, a hope that Don Quixote would no longer be alone, and a hope that the protagonist would no longer be lonely, but obviously all ended in disappointment. China has a long way to go before he can contact Fang again. In other aspects of society, we can't deny that we need more Fang Zhouzi and more Don Quixote to overcome all kinds of monsters in reality. We look forward to the day when China society will no longer be able to resist the devil alone.

I think the author's intention is not only to take Don Quixote as the object of satire, but to shape him into a satirist. He said to Sancho, "Let them call me crazy. I am not crazy enough, so I can't get their approval. " Perhaps the author intends to let readers see the tragic color behind the comedy. The fiction and even nonsense style of the novel reminds me of Stephen Chow's films. Stephen Chow has become a cultural phenomenon. Just like Don Quixote, a good comedy can make people cry. Take "Tong Pak Hu Dian Qiu Xiang" as an example, this is a film that shows the fierce conflict between love, ideal and reality. The life conflict in Tang Bohu seems to remind us of what Pessoa said: "I am the bridge between what I do and what I want." Perhaps Don Quixote also wants to be a bridge between his ideal society of peace, harmony, fairness and justice and reality! Judging from the overall characteristics of Stephen Chow's films, what the general audience often sees is Stephen Chow's frolicking, teasing and cynicism. However, the social essence and things he inadvertently touched often made our laughter more bleak. The story of the struggle of little people seems to be the theme of his film. However, the human nature of small people is beautiful, and they have the pursuit of human feelings. In fact, Don Quixote is not a nobody. He has many problems and shortcomings, but he is not to be outdone. He is brave in taking risks and fighting. The irrationality of Don Quixote's behavior is precisely the mapping of the absurdity of the real world. Of course, one is a film and television work, and the other is a personal literary work, which is different by comparison. I just want to explain here that comedy brings us not only jokes, but also an understanding of its connotation.

These are just my personal superficial views on this work. Lu Xun said: "Look at life varies from author to author, and look at works varies from reader to reader." We look at a specific person, especially "from life" in literary works.

But above life "cannot be evaluated by a simple formula framework." So is Don Quixote. But in any case, Don Quixote is still a hero in my mind. An egg that dares to "hit a high wall" is much more noble than anyone who is timid and just wants to be comfortable in society.