Shanna 5/1/08 Outside reading Don Quijote

I enjoyed reading Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes because I could relate to his craziness. Quijote was made famous, but also kind of ostracized by his community. That is a familiar feeling to me sometimes. I do not live on campus so I don't know that many people, and I feel estranged from the large portion of CNU students living on campus. When Don Quijote and Dancho meet Marcella she explicit says she does not wish to be hounded by men following her, after which DQ and Sancho follow her into the forest. Marcella left society and took to the woods for reasons of her own. Her independence and fascination with the forest made her an outsider. For some reason men seemed to be drawn to this, all of them wishing they could tame her and win her free heart. It is not an uncommon theme in literature for the estranged or exhiled to take to the wilderness, much like the Israelites fled Egypt to wander in the wilderness of the dessert. DQ and Sancho meet someone crazier than Quijote himself on their journey. Cardenio is raving mad due to the loss of his beloved. Cardenio fits the trend of crazy people being forest dwellers because DQ finds him in the perilous Sierra Moreno mountains. After they meet DQ decides to do penance for Dulcinea in the mountains because they offered perfect seclusion and a harsh environment beffitting one who wishes to punish himself. In this context, wilderness can certainly be seen as a place of liminality, as Dr. Redick would say, because DQ further involves himself in new conquests of madness and ludicrousy. The wilderness surroundings only work to deepen his insanity.