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Chapter 5
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Deception, and Loss of Innocence
Social and Religious Hypocrisy
Poverty, Crime, and Violence
Mercy and Compassion
Growing Up
Summary
Analysis
Lazaro’s next master is a tambourine painter. Lazaro helps the tambourine painter mix his colors and suffers many ills under this master, too.
Much like Lazaro’s account of his time with the friar, his account of his time with the tambourine painter is brief. It may be inferred that, although there was a great deal of suffering under this master, Lazaro doesn’t feel the need to describe it in detail because suffering has become such a normal part of his life.
Active
Themes
One day Lazaro enters a cathedral where he meets a chaplain, who employs Lazaro by putting him in charge of four jugs of water and a mule. This way, Lazaro sells water around the city, splitting the profits with the chaplain. Lazaro keeps this job for four years, and he is happy during this time because the money he makes enables him to have a stable diet for the first time in his life. After four years, he has finally saved enough to buy himself a used jacket, a nice old cloak, and a sword. Once he is well-dressed, he returns the donkey to his master and quits the job.
