Lazarillo De Tormes

“I think it’s a good thing that important events which quite accidentally have never seen the light of day, should be made public and not buried in the grave of oblivion.”

This is the first line of the Prologue, which immediately sets the stage for two storytellers, Lázaro the character and narrator, and the author, whose opinions are expressed through Lázaro’s plight. The Prologue contains both voices and begins with the author making his intention clear. Here the anonymous author addresses the way Spanish culture silences dissenters and critics. The diction, tone, and use of figurative devices like irony and metaphor suggest the author is an educated writer.

“Pliny says there is no book, however bad it may be, that doesn’t have something good about it, especially as tastes vary and one man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

Once again, the author comes through via the narrator, Lázaro. This is made clear because an uneducated rogue like Lázaro would not know of Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman author and philosopher best known for writing Naturalis Historia, the prototypical encyclopedia of ancient knowledge. The quote endorses the democratic ideal of free speech and implies that people should have the right, without suffering persecution, to hold and express opinions that may differ from the power establishment, a right that was denied to the Spanish citizenry at the time.