The article "Des Cannibales" by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne talks about two major problems. The first is the problem of men telling stories subjectively rather than objectively. This problem is only dealt with very briefly and no real solutions are presented in the essay. The other problem is men who call others barbarians simply because they are different. The essay also discusses the word “barbarism” and what can be meant by it. Eyquem de Montaignes' thesis is that his own compatriots are neither less nor more barbaric than the cannibals, who are nevertheless very close to the nature and origin of life. The following excerpt from the essay will expand on these issues. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born in 1533. After a profoundly humanist education and a relatively unhappy marriage, he locked himself in a tower of his castle to read and meditate. As he himself explains in the first of them, he began writing essays, a form of literature he himself invented, to keep track of what he was reading. Upon returning from a tour of Italy in 1580, Montaigne was persuaded by King Henry III to accept the post of mayor of the city of Bordeaux; but after one mandate, the trials and troubles of the religious wars then raging in the region led him to return to his retirement; and he died there in 1592. “Cannibals” constitutes Montaigne's reflection, some fifteen years later, during his meeting, in Rouen in 1562, with a cannibal brought to France by the French explorer Villegagnon. The essay is about people reporting things in a very subjective way to make others believe it and to make things more dramatic than they really were. The writer says that reason should in this case count... middle of paper ...... convinced that the corruption of his own people will one day destroy the happiness of this tribe. The main problem of the essay must therefore be seen in the opinion of what is barbaric and its thesis is that these people are no more barbaric than one's own countrymen. He says that it is just a matter of interpretation and that the solution to his problem must be that men often call it barbarism that which is not common to them. Thus, the tribe views the “civilized” nation as strange and perhaps barbaric, and vice versa. My own opinion is that barbarism is indeed a matter of definition, but there are some things that can generally be considered barbaric regardless of culture, such as inequality between people which leads to the death of the poorest or corruption and being ruled. by thoughts of money. There is probably something barbaric in every nation and tribe..