Don Quixote

Don Quixote symbolizes morality and bravery. Don Quixote is a 17th-century Spanish novel featuring a protagonist of the same name. Don Quixote is widely considered the first novel in the modern sense of the term. The story follows a knight named Don Quixote on a series of valorous (although often misguided) quests. In The Schooldays of Jesus, Davíd has read an abridged children’s version of the novel. Simón uses the stories of Don Quixote as referents for moral and ethical behavior. Although Simón never references specific parts of the book, he often speaks to Davíd of virtues that are contained within the book.

Numbers

Numbers symbolize human efforts to understand the world around them. The motif of numbers recurs throughout Davíd’s education, from Señor Robles’ lessons of abstract mathematics to Ana Magdalena’s idea of dance as...