El Camino de Miguel Delibes
El camino – Essay
“El camino” is a Spanish novel written by Miguel Delibes where the main character is Daniel, the son of the town’s cheesemaker. He is eleven years old and his friends are Roque, “el Moñigo” and Germán, “El Tiñoso”. This novel is a bildungsroman because it focuses on Daniel’s progress as the story develops and how he interacts with the other characters.
In the passage from “Entre ellos tres no cabían disensiones. […] Representaba una estimable cualidad, pero solo eso.” [Delibes 2009, 55] the narrator describes the three boys in their early childhood and what qualities each of them have. The passage is situated right at the beginning of chapter VII in which Miguel Delibes makes a short description of the boys’ activities and their favorite places where they play. Each of them has its own place in the gang and expresses his masculinity through various methods. There is a necessity for male identity within the gang. For Daniel, the gang represents a zone of freedom from parental constraint and relationship with girls. Daniel is wide aware of the fact that he cannot impose himself against Roque, even if his is much more intelligent than him. Within the gang, there is a balance of powers and everyone respects his place. In comparison with the other two members of the gang, Daniel was by far the one who ran the fastest. Daniel is at a stage in his childhood where he wants to express his strengths, but how Delibes puts it, it was only a remarkable quality and nothing more.
The passage from “A Daniel, el Mochuelo, le contristó el rumbo que tomaba la conversación. […] Él no quería una cicatriz de guerra, ni ninguna gollería: se conformaba con una cicatriz de accidente o de lo que fuese, pero una cicatriz.” [Delibes 2009, 89] is another passage in which the reader finds out about Daniel’s strongly desire of having a scar. It seemed as he was losing rank and there were so many things going on in his mind at that time that he couldn’t realize the
“El camino” is a Spanish novel written by Miguel Delibes where the main character is Daniel, the son of the town’s cheesemaker. He is eleven years old and his friends are Roque, “el Moñigo” and Germán, “El Tiñoso”. This novel is a bildungsroman because it focuses on Daniel’s progress as the story develops and how he interacts with the other characters.
In the passage from “Entre ellos tres no cabían disensiones. […] Representaba una estimable cualidad, pero solo eso.” [Delibes 2009, 55] the narrator describes the three boys in their early childhood and what qualities each of them have. The passage is situated right at the beginning of chapter VII in which Miguel Delibes makes a short description of the boys’ activities and their favorite places where they play. Each of them has its own place in the gang and expresses his masculinity through various methods. There is a necessity for male identity within the gang. For Daniel, the gang represents a zone of freedom from parental constraint and relationship with girls. Daniel is wide aware of the fact that he cannot impose himself against Roque, even if his is much more intelligent than him. Within the gang, there is a balance of powers and everyone respects his place. In comparison with the other two members of the gang, Daniel was by far the one who ran the fastest. Daniel is at a stage in his childhood where he wants to express his strengths, but how Delibes puts it, it was only a remarkable quality and nothing more.
The passage from “A Daniel, el Mochuelo, le contristó el rumbo que tomaba la conversación. […] Él no quería una cicatriz de guerra, ni ninguna gollería: se conformaba con una cicatriz de accidente o de lo que fuese, pero una cicatriz.” [Delibes 2009, 89] is another passage in which the reader finds out about Daniel’s strongly desire of having a scar. It seemed as he was losing rank and there were so many things going on in his mind at that time that he couldn’t realize the
Bibliography: Delibes, Miguel (2009), El camino, Ediciones Destino, Barcelona.