In Don Quixote, there is a clear distinction between Don Quixote’s morality and the morality of the people of now. The differences between Don Quixote’s morality, the chivalric code, and the morality of the people living in that time, causes most if not all the conflicts in the book.

Don Quixote’s morality

There are many times where Don Quixote’s morality has him misinterpret the world, a time of this is when he meets the peasant beating his son “And make sure you do what you swore, If you don’t, by the same oath, even if you conceal yourself better than a chameleon.” while Don Quixote believes that the peasants word is enough, the peasant beats his son to death after Don Quixote leaves his sight. This is an example of the clash between the two systems or morality. Don Quixote’s holds the peasant to his systems of morality, even tho that system is long gone. The peasant applies his different system of morality to the situation, and deals with it his way.

Importance of Sancho

Sancho Panza plays a major part in being the person who translates the world that Don Quixote inhabits versus the rest of the world. Sancho follows Don Quixote around being motivated by obtaining the reward Don Quixote promised, and his base sense of morality that sort of lines up with Don Quixote’s chivalric code. Sancho has the morals of his time, but also can relate to Don Quixote’s morals as well. This helps Sancho explain the actions of Don Quixote to others, and allows him to mediate between Don Quixote and the people that he interacts in his adventures.

Class discussion

The class discussion helped me get other ideas of why the shepherds dealt with Don Quixote the way they did. I was under the belief that the shepherds helped Don Quixote for the same reason that Sancho helps Don Quixote. The shepherds applied the salve to Don Quixote’s ear because Don Quixote looked like a mess with a part of his ear being messed up, and they gave him food and drink, due to Don Quixote being their guest. The other members of the group talked about different ideas on why the shepherds did the things they did and it was enlightening, to hear their opinions. A few thought along with me, while one (I forget his name) thought that they did it because of the inherent class system that was embedded in society. This helped me because it reinforced my opinion on why the shepherds did what they did. Being able to discuss my idea of why the shepherds did what they did, and the part about Marcela was a very helpful part in cementing my ideas on what happened.