"Lazarillo de Tormes"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the social structure presented in this 16th century Spanish novel about a young orphan. The paper explains that the point of the book is to illustrate Spain's stratified social structure, within which all but the extremely wealthy and privileged are trapped, trying merely to survive as well as possible.

From the Paper:

"As the anonymous author of this picaresque novel implies, then, of Spanish society of the time, the lack of kindness of so many the boy meets is not so much their fault as society's in general: after all, such a sharply stratified social structure grants so much to so few, but so relatively little to so many, including Lazarillo and his childhood masters. The realities of such a pervasively lopsided social structure then, suggest strongly that only at one's own considerable personal expense does one ever trust his (or her) fate to others. In a world that necessitates such self-interest merely to survive, everyone must, above all, look out for himself or herself."

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