The characters themselves, aware of the books that have been written about them, try to change the content of following versions. This complicated and narrative structure, referring to them, leaves us perplexed, unable to tell which plotlines are referring to the story and which are accurate. This confusion involves us directly in the story and highlights the question of sanity and reason that arises throughout the novel. Cervantes gives us many reasons to doubt him in the second section. In the third section, however, when we are aware of another apparently false version of the novel and a second Don Quixote, we lose all our balance and have to pour ourselves to the story and trust Cervantes (crazy bastard). However, having already given us reasons to lose faith in him, Cervantes encloses upon us to question essential norms of narration, just as Quixote forces his equals to question their lifestyles and principles. In this way, the form of the novel reflects its function, creating a world in which Cervantes entertains and tutors us, manipulating our notion to force us to examine them more closely.
Don Quixote tries to be a living example of a knight-errant in an attempt to force his social group to face their own failure to maintain the old system of morality, the chivalric rule. This conflict between the old and the new reaches a complete halt: no one understands Don Quixote, and he understands no one. Only the simple-minded Sancho, with both self-motivated desires and a basic understanding of decency, can differentiate between Don Quixote and the rest of the world. Sancho often subscribes to the morals of his day but then surprises us by representing an idea in the outdated morals of chivalry as well.
In the first part of the novel, we see the arguments between Don Quixote and those around him. Don Quixote cannot, for instance, identify with the priest's sane perspective and objectives, and Don Quixote's belief in fascination appears ridiculous to the priest.
