Abstract
This paper focuses on the relevance of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote in modern US society with regards to concept of the binary within the justice system. By focusing on chapter 22, Los Galeotes, through the perspective lens of Marxist theory, the analysis of the episode works to depict the binary of the law, which on one hand promises stability within the society but on the other fixates on efficiently perpetuating the oppression of the proletariat. By applying the Marxist concepts of the base and superstructure, the dynamics of power within society are revealed. To identify the ideology that Cervantes conveyed in his novel, this paper focuses on the methods that the elite used to perpetuate their hegemony through the superstructure. This is achieved through the application of the false conscientiousness that the characters suffered and the examination of the use of loaded language, which serves to preserve their oppression. By establishing an analysis of the Don Quixote, it is then possible to explicitly demonstrate a parallelism between fiction and reality to emphasize the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the realities of injustice within the mass-incarceration portrayed in The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
