Notes

● How do these stories treat the past with regard to the present of the story itself?
○ In Don Quixote, the past is what they want. They believe that Quixote is acting foolish and he should come back to his senses. While it is revealed that he is insane and acting out of his illness to his Spanish peers it seems off and like he shouldn’t be becoming a ‘knight’ and saving ‘princesses’. While The Story of the Stone seems to hold their traditions highly, it also seems that they wouldn’t mind some change. This being mainly because of how unjust the feudal system is, and how as one of the Emperor's ladies you only get to see your family once a year.
● Is the past held in high regard, or is it better off forgotten?
○ In both stories I believe that they hold the past in high regards. In Don Quixote the past is the ‘normal’ way of life, and what Quixote is doing is extremely out of the norm. In Story of the Stone the past is held in high regard throughout the contents of the story. Rules are followed despite the pain it causes, they talk of the Chia household and how the family members following them are lesser and lesser as the line goes down.
● In what ways does the eastern asian perspective compare to our modern western perspective?
○ It’s hard for me to come up with any comparison through the two stories and our society now. When these stories were written it appeared that everything was very structured for each society. We could say that Quixote being insane and how people treated him (making fun of him, telling him to stop being foolish, ect.) could be seen in our Western society. If someone isn’t normal (like everyone else), then they need to change.
● What do you think the differences tell us about Eastern Asian society of the early Modern Period?
○ Even though the Early Modern Period was big on change it seems like these two stories didn’t depict the change happening within their own society. What these stories (especially The Story of the Stone) did depict was the changing of the literature during this time period. I thought it was interesting that Cervantes input repeatedly telling us how these events were coming from a journal of some type. It made it a little more interesting a real, even though it’s obviously a work of fiction.