Anyone following WEM care to discuss Don Quixote with me?

[Tonia]

I just finished reading Don Quixote a few days ago. I'm reading back through my notes from The Well-Educated Mind for the next step and I'm still stuck on the first level of inquiry - what is the book's most important event? She mentions a few other questions to help answer that one (is there some point where the characters change and does something happen that makes everyone behave differently).

 

These are the events that I've picked out as important but I'm not sure if any of them are the defining moment:

 

- In the last chapter Quixote's mind is restored so that's obviously a point of change but I don't think that's the most important event.

 

- In the first chapter when we discover that Quixote has gone mad. That's pretty important as there wouldn't be a book without that event. :D

 

- Or is it when he's defeated by Sanson and sent home? He doesn't really change though, not until he gets sick.

 

Am I even on the right track? Sigh... thinking about books is hard work!

[Tonia]

Anyone? :001_smile:

[Ester Maria]

Sure, I'm willing. :)

 

Question number one, a preliminary one: what constitutes an event in a literary work? Before answering what is the most important event, try answering that one. Think of the book as a whole, and think how you would define the event there.

[Tonia]

I would say an event in a literary work would be something that happens in a certain place at a certain time, no? Or did you mean something else and I'm not grasping the meaning? :D Which could be the case since I take things at face value and have a hard time looking for hidden meaning.

 

So should I think of the book as one whole event?