Author’s Purpose

This analytical worksheet is designed for Grades 7-10 and helps students explore Cervantes’ authorial purpose in Don Quixote. Students read a series of statements or moments from the novel and classify each one according to the purpose it best represents: parody, social critique, or entertainment. To do this successfully, learners must interpret tone, context, and intent-deciding whether Cervantes is mocking chivalric romances, commenting on social values and behavior, or simply aiming to amuse his audience.

A concluding reflection prompt asks students to determine which purpose they believe mattered most to Cervantes overall, requiring them to justify their opinion with evidence from the text. This encourages synthesis, judgment, and deeper literary reasoning.

Learning Goals

• Author’s Purpose Analysis (Secondary ELA) – Identify and explain why an author includes specific moments
• Satire & Parody Interpretation – Recognize how humor and exaggeration critique literary traditions
• Critical Literary Reasoning – Evaluate multiple possible purposes within a single text
• Evidence-Based Explanation – Support claims about authorial intent using examples

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource – Aligned with middle and early high school literature standards
• Genre Awareness – Helps students understand Don Quixote as satire, not just adventure
• Analytical Categorization – Classification task sharpens interpretive precision
• Reflection for Deeper Thinking – Encourages students to weigh competing interpretations
• Flexible Use – Ideal for novel study, satire units, discussion prep, or assessment
• Low Prep – Print-and-use worksheet with clear categories and prompts

This author’s purpose worksheet helps students see Don Quixote as a layered work that entertains while also critiquing literature and society. By classifying moments as parody, social commentary, or entertainment-and defending their conclusions-students strengthen their understanding of satire, authorial intent, and Cervantes’ lasting literary impact.

This worksheet is part of our Don Quixote Worksheets collection.