Meeting notes from 10/15

Here's a very brief recap of our last meeting, when we discussed chapters 29-35.

We talked quite a bit about the treatment of the women characters as more than simple "types" or stock characters. From Marcela and Dorotea to the three women in the inn, they all appear to us as individuals with particular concerns and motivations, drawn from life just as the male characters are. Sancho's and Don Quixote's conversation about Aldonza/Dulcinea is perhaps most exemplary of this tendency. Although our only experience of her comes via the imaginations of two men who don't really know her, Sancho describes a sturdy woman engaged in physical labor whose concerns are practical and who smells "sweaty and kind of sour" (p. 259). Hearing this, Don Quixote argues with Sancho about the odor, but he elevates the products of her labor instead of denying that she works:

"Well, you may be sure," said Don Quixote, "that, touched by her hands, the grains of wheat were pearls. And did you notice, my friend, if it was white wheat or ordinary spring wheat?"

"It was just buckwheat," responded Sancho.

"Well, I assure you," said Don Quixote, "that winnowed by her hands, it undoubtedly made the finest white bread." (p. 258)

We wondered about the purpose, or purposes, of the stories within the story. In delaying and interrupting the main plot, they create tension (and possibly annoyance) for the reader. Viewed another way, they echo the circumstances of the characters traveling around the country, encountering other people in their various and sometimes dramatic circumstances, entertaining one another and themselves by telling stories. The nested narratives also seem to offer variations on the themes that occur in the main plot. For example, the love triangle in "The Man Who Was Recklessly Curious" can be read as a comment on the romantic drama in which both Dorotea and Cardenio are involved.

We also talked about whether the racism in the book—including the numerous slurs and stereotypes about Muslims and Sancho's fantasy of becoming a slave trader—should be attributed to the characters or to Cervantes. Though we didn't reach an ultimate conclusion, we did consider that an author's reflection of the world in which he lives is not necessarily an endorsement.