ideology

An ideology is a system of ideas which attempts to explain reality. Ideologies are developed because reality is often too complex to be understood. They also reflect a biased point of view and serve the interests of a particular group. They are created by institutions such as church, state, school, etc. They tell people how to think, speak, feel or act. Ideologies tend either to over-simplify reality or to completely distort it. Ideologies sway people to think a certain way and in doing so they abolish uncertainty and doubt. Ideologies are a fairly modern phenomenon, related to the political and economic circumstances of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ideologies try to constitute people’s goals, expectations, and actions; they establish a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of the society to try to control them.
The main character in Lazarillo de Tormes, Lazarillo, is not a hero but a very poor child. He narrates his painful experiences with different masters and describes how he has to use his wits and smarts to obtain just a slice of bread from his mean and cruel masters. Each of his masters is trying to control him into doing things they want. Each time that he chose a new master, Lazarillo found himself trying to guess if he would be happy and be fed with that person, or not. It soon became clear that it is impossible to judge someone by their appearance. A kind-looking person could in reality be cruel and a wealthy-looking person could in reality be poor and starving. One of the masters is a blind man who is physically handicapped, but he is astute and regularly outwits Lazarillo. The incident of the bunch of grapes is an example: The blind man suggests that they each take one grape at a time; he then starts taking two at a time, whereupon Lazarillo helps himself to three. After finishing all the grapes, the blind man accuses Lazarillo of having taken three at a time. Despite denying it, Lazarillo is curious to