Lazarillo As An Antihero

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Citing two examples from the text, answer ONE of the following questions based on your 2. Is Lazarillo a hero or an anti-hero? In Lazarillo de Tormes, the main character who is the narrator as well, Lazarillo is an anti-hero. He is born a poor boy from a lower class family and seeks social acceptance and Being born to a lower class family, Lazarillo, seeks food and attaining a high status in society throughout his life. He tends to follow masters who are not noble men in hope to becoming respected and getting a job. However, soon enough he learns not to trust anyone, especially not his masters. His first master and guide was a blind man which seems to be a foreshadow of the way Lazarillo made decisions and chose masters later throughout his life. His masters often did not share his beliefs and values; for example, as much as Lazarillo criticized the church and believed that people bought themselves out of hell, four out of his seven masters served the church. Lazarillo soon learns to be tricky and sneaky in order to survive and get food since his masters would not feed him well. By the end of the novel, although his hard-gained survival and finally reaching the social level he always hoped to attain in his life, Lazaro, does not seem to be a man of honor; which is one of the most important values a person had to have to be socially accepted. After all the years of observing his masters’ hypocrisy, materialism and greed, he marries the archpriest’s mistress for what he can gain. He did not want anyone’s interference or opinion in his decision and just wanted to be happy and know he did the right things after all the hardship he went through in life. His desire for survival and fulfilling the socially acceptable roles of a man has made him an antihero as well as the hero of this novel. even by marrying an disloyal and adulterous wife, Although he survived
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