Lazaro’s introduction in the Prologue instantly gave way to the tone of his story and captivated my attention. Two quotes spoke to me: “I beseech Your Excellency to accept the humble handiwork of one who would be richer if his ability were equal to his desire.” and “…my history may lead those who have inherited noble estates to consider how little credit is due to them, since Fortune was partial to them in the first place, and how much more they have accomplished who have had Fortune against them from the start, and who have nothing to thank but their own labor and skill at the oars for bringing them into safe harbor.”
In these two statements, Lazaro bluntly addresses the profound subject of the perceived worth of a person simply by their bloodline and birthright. We all know that fortune doesn’t make people smarter, harder workers, or better people deserving of any greater respect. Fortune is exactly that – the fortunate chance to have more opportunities and, if utilized properly, honed abilities. Generally speaking, one usually does not fully appreciate the value of something if it is easily attained. Thus, I think there is truly something to Lazaro’s conclusions that people who come from nothing and manage to make something of themselves not only benefit personally, but benefit society, more so than certain generations of people who come from wealth. Though often the mentality is to correlate respect and importance with a family name, or with how much money one possesses, than with the individual, individually. This isn’t at all to say I consider Lazaro a hard worker. In fact, he hasn’t actually done anything yet to prove to that effect, but I can understand his ideology.
In today’s age people do face the same tribulations Lazaro endured. Not in a “master” to “servant” relationship, of course, but on a macro level of the struggle, and perhaps doing things one wouldn’t otherwise do in the pursuit of achieving ones desires when their start to life leaves little to be desired. Lazaro’s experience with his two masters and the persistence and ingenuity that resulted from the mistreatment he suffered was interesting. His trickery certainly adds a comic element to an otherwise unfortunate situation, yet I can’t help but to wonder why he stays for as long as he does, and why he moves from master to master instead of trying to pave the way for himself. Is it his youth? We aren’t quite sure his current age, so I suppose he may still need “looking after.”
Also, despite Lazaro’s mistreatment, could he be considered a bad guy? Who really is the villain in these recounts? Instead of leaving, he chooses to cunningly outwit, or at least attempt to outwit, and steal from his masters. The first master he even sought revenge on before leaving. We all know two wrongs don’t make a right, but again, his age could very well be a factor.
I’m curious to read about the remainder of Lazaro’s journey and see how his character develops over time. He appears to have done something right to be currently recounting his tales to this “Excellency.”
Great post, I agree with you that today people face the same problem that Lazaro but in different scenario. I believe base in what I readed in the book and in your post that Lazaro is a tricky guy that base in the situation that he face, he prefer to cheat and hide things. I believe that Lazaro did all those bad things because he thinks that it is the only way to survivor, but instead he got mistreatment.
Well, i agree with you. Lazarillo’s was a tricky guy and hid things from people and cheats. I found ambigous on it. I think, he was an innocent guy and minnor too. His family faced a hard time to survive. They were depandable on his step-father and his mother had work hark for students, cook and laundry for them. All things are done for survivor.
Great Points.
In my opinion the book is a good reflection of the starvation, poverty, slavery vs power in the sixteenth century in Spain. There is not doubt that even in the modern days the poverty is still exist and many people suffer from it but in the old days (sixteen century) the issue of slavery, racism and feudalism was on top of the poverty and in some cases the reason for poverty.
In my conclusion this ancient literature work is a great reflection of the worst situations of old days in Spain and also it show the great work of the author who made his work a little comic and entertaining by the intelligence of Lazarillo.
We can realize that there were millions of other Lazarillos in that era who either could not survived as Lazarillo did or died in the worst case scenario.
This was an interesting reaction about Lazarillo de Tormes. After reading the first two chapters, I realized why this book was considered as one of the best picaresque novel. The anonymous author used hunger as a means of denouncing several evil in Spanish society. Lazarillo, an adolescent boy, who never asked to “look after himself” as his mom told him at very young age. I think Lazarillo cannot be blamed of the fault of the Spanish government which was supposed to feed his citizens instead of punishing them for trying to feed their family. Lazarillo’s father has been arrested and imprisonned because he was trying to feed his family. Similarly, Lazarillo’s stepfather was arrested and the Spanish government went even further by banning Lazarillo’s mom from seeing her lover. A young boy which was supposed to be playing around his friends is now facing the harsh reality of love. In my opinion Lazarillo was to be applauded of finding ways to survive. As people quote, “necessity is the mother of invention.” this quote was best used by Lazarillo because the need to feed himself pushed him to use many tricks to survive.
As my conclusion, the Spanish government should reform his so called “justice” and also focus on feeding its people.
I am commenting on this blog post having already read the remaining of the book. But, my general idea of the whole book since he beginning is that other than showing the “trickster” character of Lazarillo, there is a resounding theme of survival. This little boy was given away to fend for himself. Meaning when his mother gave him away to an adult, she knew that her little boy wouldn’t be taken care of but rather have to do all in his power to survive. In ths first part of the reading we can see that he is absolutely forced into making decisions that normal kids wouldn’t have to make. I don’t believe that he wanted to be deceiving or try to go against moral law but, humans we have a natural savage in us I believe. I believe that we were made with a natural instinct of survival and when placed in a predicament like Lazarillo was, our brain will function ten times as hard and we would do things we wouldn’t normally do.
I want to comment on the question regarding if Lazarillo is a bad guy or not. Everything is a matter of perspective. To some he could be an innocent boy who was brought up in a society where mercantilism and religion were at the forefronts and sometimes even intertwined for better or worse. However, others could make the accusation that Lazrillo was the accomplice for all these figures performing their self centered ways which was considered immoral to the society. This can be compared to what Vladamir Putin did today with Russia for example. Many people herald the fact that he centralized the Russian currency in order to combat the US dollar and to regain control of the economy from the Rothschild. Although this is true, to accomplish this feat and rise in power, Putin had done many controversial things and anyone who dared to accuse him of anything could be thrown in jail or exiled. America is also a great example of questioning its role on being a “good or bad guy.” Our huge growth and dominant position could be attributed to our development which was shaped by exploiting slavery labor but now that we are at the top and in a position to point fingers at others, we do. On paper the idea of pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness sounds nice but what it took to achieve it will not just simply be forgotten.