Discussion Question

By the due date assigned, respond to the Discussion Assignment. Post your response to the Discussion Area. Your answer should:

Provide detailed evidence, including excerpts from the literary text. Demonstrate a clear understanding of the themes, genres, cultures, time periods, and texts that are this week’s focus. Apply APA style guidelines to the source material.

By the end of week, review and comment on at least two of your classmates’ answers. Your responses should be substantive, which means that you should provide a significant level of detail in your reply and show active engagement by referencing the readings, drawing on your own experiences, giving your opinions, respectfully disagreeing where appropriate, or asking questions designed to generate further discussion on the material and its implications outside the realm of the question.

Question: Answer one of the following questions:

Throughout the novel, the reader is told that Don Quixote is mad, driven by his irrational belief that he is living out the romances of chivalry that he has read. However, the contemporary Spain he encounters seems to be highly immoral and unethical. Are we meant to see Don Quixote as simply a satire of medieval literature, or is there some value in his antiquated morality? Make sure to support your answer with specific examples from the text.
Machiavelli’s concept of a strong ruler, who was driven by pragmatism instead of morality, was a direct challenge to the political thought of his time, which insisted on the importance of Christian ethics. How do Machiavelli’s ideas fit with our contemporary understanding of politics? Was he correct in his belief that ethics should be subordinate to other considerations?
Remember that your claims in all parts of the assignment should be substantiated by excerpts from appropriate sources (scholarly research and/or literary texts). Quotes, paraphrases, and summaries used in the assignment should be arranged according to APA rules of style, and in-text and reference citations should be provided, also formatted in APA style. Quoted material should not exceed 25% of the post. Submit the final document in the Discussion Area.