Carlos Castaneda expects to learn about medicinal plants, especially peyote from don Juan. After all, that was the purpose in approaching him. However, this is not the case. Thus far, all of his encounters with don Juan have involved something else other than plants except for the incident in the dessert where he is prompted to talk to the plant and be on an equal plane with it. Carlos finds this ridiculous and can't come to terms with it. Don Juan comments on his immense feelings of self- importance and changes his tactics and says that he "should not try to talk to plants until (he) felt easy and natural about it" (27). Don Juan is going about teaching his lessons in a round-about way. One moment he will be laughing really hard because the earth has given him a sign of agreement, and then he gets very serious. There is no continuous enforcement of what is right and what is wrong, what to do and what not to do. He is also very pushy and forceful as well as assertive.

Carlos expects direct and immediate answers to his questions and he believes that the student - teacher relationship is equal. Since he doesn't get them he becomes very frustrated and irritated. Don Juan does not think or function in that manner. He has different ideas in regards as to

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 850
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)