Don Quixote Foils

In the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller establishes Charley, a humble and successful salesman as the foil to Willy Loman, a prideful and arrogant man. Charley is the perfect character to help depict Willy’s flaws. Although the two contrast with each other, their characteristics help maintain a balance between them. Willy Loman lives in his own world, where he believes that in order to be successful, one must be well liked with a great appearance. “The man who makes an appearance…is the man who gets ahead” (Miller 1568). These are obvious words from Willy which proves that he does not believe in hard work. He instills within both of his children that looks and personality are all that matters. The characteristics of Willy allow us to grasp the idea that he lives within a false reality. He is a man living within a child’s fantasy based off of the life of Dave Singleman. The very words he spoke against his neighbor Charley and his son, Bernard, are the very words that prove him wrong.

The reason behind that is maybe that he did not grow in a family like the others. Based on that he becomes a shepherd to live because his parents were not beside him. There was something missing in his childhood that impact his personality, something like feeling and emotions. During the period in Spain, the people were suffering from poorness and the hard life it was just the beginning of the Spanish occupation of the New World. The only way to get the wealth and power was to be conquistador, to be more specific an evil conquistador because that will be more benefit and from here the story begin. According to these facts and his childhood Francisco Pizarro become who he was and the early life he lived affected his achievements later. (The Most Evil Men In History - Francisco

Francisco “Pancho” Villa was born on June 5th ,1878 in San Juan del Rio, Durango, Mexico. Francisco “Pancho” Villa grew up at the Rancho de la Coyotada, in the state of Durango. Francisco “Pancho” Villa childhood house now houses the Casa de Pancho Villa historic museum. When Francisco “Pancho” Villa was a child Francisco “Pancho” Villa was the oldest of five children, as a child Francisco “Pancho” Villa got his education from a church run school, Francisco “Pancho” Villa wasn’t very talented in his basic language skills. When Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s father died Francisco “Pancho” Villa quit school to help his mom provide for his family. Francisco “Pancho” Villa became a bandit before he turned 16, but Francisco “Pancho” Villa also was employed as a sharecropper, butcher, bricklayer, foreman for a U.S. railway company and a muleskinner. He would later return to his hometown to hunt down Agustin Lopez Negrete who raped his sister, then stealing a horse and fleeing from the scene. Francisco “Pancho” Villa heard that Agustin Lopez

The description about Pancho Villa by Johnson gives the quintessential summary of what Villa brought to Mexican culture. Being known as the benevolent Mexican robin hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.

Pancho Villa was one of the few young men who understood his peoples’ suffering and acted upon his beliefs. He joined a team of bandits who effectively raided the rich and distributed the wealth amongst the poor and deprived. Surviving off of crime, Villa was portrayed as a hero, who stood for equality. Pancho argued, “The grandes have enjoyed what prosperity there has been. The government’s new land laws must allow them to own their own lands, and, above all else, own the profits.” (Ander). Peasants who were willing to risk their lives against the Mexican government joined Pancho Villa and his cause. His followers placed their faith in this intelligent guerilla warrior, and fought alongside him. Although he was seen as merciless, Pancho Villa could not afford to show leniency toward traitors under his command or rivals.

As I was reading this chapter, I could not stop thinking about the stupid thing I knew Don Quixote was going to try and do. So far in the novel, he has done stupid thing after stupid thing, but they were all comical to a certain extent. When I got to this chapter, I could help feel anything but frustration towards Don Quixote, and even Cervantes himself.

Author Ray Bradbury once quoted, “There are worse crimes than burning books; one is not reading them”. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, a crazy-dumb society has banned books for no reason. If someone is caught reading or even owning a book, they will be brought to jail, and the book and the owners house perish by the hot flames of the firemen. It is up to Guy Montag to attempt to make the law like it used to be. In Fahrenheit 451, the foils to Montag, Clarisse and Mildred, serve as opposites by their different effects on Montag.

Pancho Villa redistributed the wealth gained from his illegal activities. He often took the money from the rich and gave it to the poor. These deeds led him to be known as a modern day Mexican Robin Hood.

An example of Quixote’s possible delirium is displayed when he is approaching the giant windmills, thinking that they are giants that he plans to slay. His sidekick, Sancho, attempts to help Quixote understand that they are not giants; but gives up and allows him to charge the windmills.

Decisions In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare incorporates the theme that an individual’s decisions, whether conscious or unconscious, which are made on earth will foreshadow their outcome in the afterlife. Shakespeare establishes this theme through the contrast of the character foils, Hamlet and Laertes. While both characters do act upon their decisions, Shakespeare clearly shows the difference between the influences of their actions. Hamlet commits his actions in an unconscious states as he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which occurs when an individual has, “exposure to trauma involving death” (Canadian Mental Health Association, para. 1).

The depth of characters in a story build off of each other as they highlight each other character’s strengths. This is called character foils. In William Shakespeare’s book “Much Ado About Nothing” the characters Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Don John come back from the war to return to Messina, Italy. Claudio falls in love with Hero, and with the help of Don Pedro, Claudio is able to marry Hero. However, Don Pedro’s brother, Don John, deceives everyone with his mischievous lies to ruin the marriage. Throughout the book, there are many character foils, Don John and Don Pedro are character foils of each other because of their social status, their reactions, and their personalities.

The character of Demetrio Macias proves to be quite ironic. One facet of his character reveals his determination to find Pancho Villa’s army,

At first, Sancho is a timid character. He is very much a realist and often guides Don Quixote back to the land of reality, 'look you here,' Sancho retorted, 'those over there aren't giants, they're windmills, and what look to you like arms are sails- when the wind turns them they make the millstones go round'(Cervants p.64). Gradually, however, Sancho becomes more talkative, full of stories, and a believer in Don Quixote's madness. He also functions as the jester character, or the gracioso (the buffoon character of Spanish comedy) archetype. Sancho is illiterate and seems to be proud of it as well. He adds humor to the novel by recounting stories such as the goat story '…once upon a time and may good befall us all and evil come to him as evil seeks…that in a village in Extremadura there once lived a goat shepherd…the fisherman climbed into his boat and took one goat across, and he came back and took another goat across…' (Cervantes p.159). He is a rude peasant who serves as a faithful companion to Don Quixote. He travels with Don Quixote and is the voice of reason to Quixote's idealistic thinking, often times leading him from trouble and serious

Other character is the novel represent those who were faithful follower of these great leaders. These characters include: Manteca, Quail, Pancracio, Meco, Serapio, Antonio, and Venacio. These are all characters who fought and died along side Demetrio and showed faith in their commander in chief. Azuela shows the readers how some followers lost sight of what they were fighting for as the revolution drug on. Furthermore, he also shows how some of the rebels could be ruthless and would subject innocent citizens to mistreatment, as the reader clearly sees through Blondie when he shoots bear bottles off the head of a waiter. The reader is also forced to question the goals of some of the followers as they seem to still where ever they go.

[is] Dorotea” in disguise, it does not fit into Quixote’s frame of thinking and is therefore rejected, “Can you be in your right mind?” This irony is used by Cervantes to introduce the reader to the issue of perspective. In this world there are two paradigms which are followed: one is to see the world through the fantastical and idealistic madness of Quixote, and the other is to view it through the realism adopted by the other characters of the text. Quixote’s madness creates a world where everything is taken at face value, not allowing the idea of deception to exist. When the issue of deception arises, he formulates alternate explanations which are in keeping with his perspective, stating that “...everything that happens in this place is brought about by enchantment.” The alternate view which is held by most of the other players is that, “anyone could see when he said that those windmills were giants, and those friars’ mules were dromedaries and those flock of sheep were enemy armies”. The hyperbolic images in Sancho’s sarcasm give the reader an insight into the sheer vastness of Quixote’s generalisation of his belief. It is Quixote’s differing school of thought which Cervantes uses to establish his alienation from the sanity of the constructed world. Contrastingly, In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is the voice of sanity in the phantasmagorical setting of Wonderland. However, this also