Miguel Cervantes Accomplishments

Miguel Cervantes was a misfortunate, yet brave writer that went through many trials and tribulations in his life, and went on to write many great works. While there is no record of Cervantes’ birth, it is believed that he was born on September 29, 1547, because that is St. Michael’s Day (Mancing 1-2). According to Starkie, Cervantes’ misfortune began in his youth; he was born into a very poor family (xii-xvi). As a child, Cervantes was a star student (Mancing 1-2). He was noted to be an idealist as a child (Great Books). When Cervantes was a bit older he joined the army. Starkie mentions that Cervantes always did have an adventurous disposition to him (xii-xvi). When Cervantes went to the army, he had a high fever; he was permitted to leave,
Mancing emphasizes that Cervantes was glad to fight, and was considered a hero in the army (3-4). During the war, Cervantes received two shots to the chest and shattered his hand (Starkie xii-xvi). On the way back from battle, Cervantes and some of his fellow comrades were attacked and taken prisoner by Turkish Mercenary Pirates and held for ransom (Mancing 3-4). Cervantes was held at a higher cost than his brother and the other soldiers because he had impressive letters of recommendation in his pocket that the captors got ahold of (Mancing 4-5). Since his family was so poor, they were only able to free his brother at first, since Cervantes’ price was too high (Mancing 4-5). Cervantes was constantly helping the other soldiers escape, which meant that he was constantly captured; he is recorded to have four escape attempts, which led him to be held in chains for the remainder of his captivity (Mancing 4-5). As stated by Mancing, Cervantes was about to be shipped off to Constantinople when a friar brought the ransom money, and freed Cervantes from what was probably one of the biggest trials in his life; he returned to Spain in October of 1580
At first, Cervantes wanted to move to America because he wanted to advance, but he was denied access because he was not an old Christian (Mancing 7-8). According to Mancing, Cervantes had a brief love with Ana Franca de Rojas and had a daughter with her, but eventually married Catalina de Palacios where he was unhappy, and they never had kids (7-8). In 1585 Cervantes produced his first book called La Galatea, which kicked off his writing career (Mancing 7-8). Cervantes also wrote plays since he lost his letters of recommendation and was not able to get a government position; his most famous work being La Numancia (Manicng 5-6). In 1587 Cervantes worked as a royal commissary, requisitioning grain and oil; however, he was not good at this job (Mancing 8-9). Mancing examines that during this time Cervantes separated from his wife and was ex-communicated from the church (8-9). Cervantes moved on from his commissary job and became a tax collector, but was fired from that job for irregular bookkeeping; Cervantes no longer was an idealist because of the misfortune that he faced thus far in his life (Great Books). Cervantes went back to writing plays, poems, and books such as Don Quixote (Starkie xii to