The Portrayal of The Protagonist in Paulo Coelho's 'The Zahir'.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan Tugas Akhir ini saya menganalisis salah satu novel karya Paulo Coelho yang berjudul The Zahir.

Paulo Coelho adalah seorang penulis fiksi berkebangsaan Brazil. Ia dikenal sebagai penulis novel ternama yang juga banyak menerima penghargaan dan gelar kehormatan. Paulo Coelho mengangkat tema-tema yang berhubungan dengan kehidupan. Novel The Zahir merupakan novel autobiografi dari Paulo Coelho. Dalam novel The Zahir, Paulo Coelho menawarkan kisah dimana tokoh utama pada awalnya mempunyai persamaan kehidupan dengannya. Keduanya memulai karir sebagai seorang wartawan dan penulis syair yang ingin meraih mimpi-mimpinya. Novel The Zahir menceritakan tentang seseorang yang mempunyai mimpi untuk menjadi seorang penulis yang terkenal, tetapi ia tidak mempunyai keberanian untuk menulis. Pada suatu saat, ia ditinggal pergi oleh istrinya, Esther. Sepeninggal istrinya, ia baru menyadari bahwa ia tidak dapat hidup tanpa istrinya, sehingga ia memutuskan untuk mencari istrinya dan mengubah sifat-sifatnya yang buruk. Dari situlah ia belajar tentang kehidupan.

Melalui novel ini, Paulo Coelho dengan jelas ingin menggambarkan berbagai aspek kehidupan yang terjadi dalam kehidupan sehari-hari seperti: agama, cinta, seks dan perkawinan.

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of The Zahir

One day, a famous author who writes about spirituality, goes on a pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. And when he comes back, he suddenly finds Esther, his wife, a war correspondent, has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover. The narrator does not have any answers but he has plenty of questions of his own, though he does not know where to start looking for Esther. In fact, he wants her back. The narrator becomes ‘zahir’ to his wife. The Zahir is a fixation on everything that has been passed from generation to generation; it leaves no question unanswered; it takes up all the space; it never allows them even to consider the possibility that things can change. The narrator begins to change his life and understand more about life after his wife leaves him. Then, one day, Mikhail finds the abandoned husband and promises to bring him back together with his wife. In addition, in his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected. Then the narrator, accompanied by Mikhail, finds his wife in Ithaca, Kazakhstan, a place where Mikhail was born and meets the narrator’s wife. Finally, the narrator meets his wife who is learning to make carpets besides teaching French.

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Both of them are very happy, and they talk with each other for a while. The narrator’s heart breaks after he knows that his wife is pregnant by someone. She does not want to tell his name, but the narrator thinks that there is not much to do. He just places his hands on her shoulders and accepts this reality.

Biography of the Author

Paulo Coelho was born in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city where he now lives. When Paulo was seventeen, Paulo was involved in a theatre group and began working as a journalist. In the eyes of the comfortably off middle classes of the time, the theatre was a hotbed of immortality. His frightened parents decided to break their promise not to confine him again and had him readmitted to hospital for the third time. When he came out, Paulo was even more enclosed in his own private world. Thirty years after these experiences, Paulo Coelho wrote Veronika Decides to Die.

In 1970, after deciding that law school was not for him, he traveled through much of South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. Returning to Brazil after two years, he began a successful career as a popular songwriter. In 1980, he experienced one of the defining moments of his life: he walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.

In 1988, he published The Alchemist. In addition to The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho has written luminous novels about the different stream of our lives, including By the River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept, The Valkyries, The Fifth Mountain, and Veronika Decides to Die. A winner of numerous literary prizes,

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Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for humanitarian causes. In 1999, He received a Crystal Award for Artistic Achievement at the Davos Economic Forum Conference. And in 2005, he published The Zahir which means “visible”, “present”, “and incapable of going unnoticed”.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

I have chosen Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir to analyze. Paulo Coelho is one of the biggest-selling authors in the world, “Paulo Coelho is not only one of the most widely read, but also one of the most influential authors writing today,” (http:/www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/bio.sthml,2002,page1). In fact, he is a well-known novelist, essayist, songwriter and columns writer. Paulo Coelho has written many best-selling novels, and for that, he has been awarded with Crystal award and many others. “Coelho’s most important contribution has been to touch and unite so many different

cultures through the power of language.”(http:/www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/bio.sthml,page2).

The Zahir is Coelho’s fiction in 2005. The Zahir is the most popular work that he has ever written. “The Zahir has been published in more than 150 countries, been translated into 56 languages, and sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. On its publication overseas, The Zahir was a bestseller in Britain, Europe, Latin America, Russia, and India.” (http://www.paulocoulho.com/engl/bio.sthml,2002,page2). The Zahir

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tells about an intriguing and sophisticated yet insightful story, which makes the readers learn to control and lead a life to betterment.

I have decided to discuss the portrayal of the protagonist. According to Dictionary of Literary Terms: portrayal is “to draw forth”, “to depict”, refers to the portrait (characterization) of individuals presented in literary selections… (Shaw, 1972:295). It is clear that characterization is an important way to analyze the portrayal of characters.

I refer to the characterization techniques from M.J.Murphy’s book, Understanding Unseens. The characterization techniques based on Murphy are speech, past life, personal description, conversation of others, character as seen by another, reactions, direct comment, mannerisms, and thoughts. The techniques that I am going to use are speech, reactions, and character as seen by another. Based on speech, the author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what that person says (Murphy 1972:164). From character as seen by another, the author can describe a character directly through the eyes and opinions of another (Murphy 1972:164). While from reactions, the author can give us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how that person reacts to various situations and events (Murphy 1972:168).

I consider that the author portrays the protagonist as a round character to show the changes of the characteristics of the protagonist. According to X.J. Kennedy “a round character is shown in much greater detail, and shown more deeply.”(Kennedy, 1991:78).

In analyzing the portrayal of the protagonist, I divide the portrayal into two stages of condition, before the protagonist’s wife disappears and after the protagonist’s wife disappears. The purpose of it is to analyze the characteristics of the protagonist from the

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beginning of novel to the very end while observing the changes and differences that happen in the course of the story.

Statement of the Problem

In order to analyze the novel, I state the problem as follows: 1. How does the author portray the protagonist?

2. How does the development of the protagonist’s characteristics in the course of the story?

Purpose of the Study

The purposes of this writing are:

1. To analyze how the author portrays the protagonist.

2. To find out the development of the protagonist’s characteristics in the course of the story.

Method of Research

In this thesis, I use the library research. First, I read The Zahir by Paulo Coelho as primary text. Next, I explore further through other reference books and Internet websites to obtain more relevant information about the topic. Finally, from the information, I analyze the primary text and conclude my analysis.

Organization of the Thesis

I divide the thesis into three chapters. Chapter One contains Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research and

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Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains an analysis of the portrayal of the protagonist. Chapter Three is the Conclusion. The thesis ends with Bibliography and the Appendix, containing a synopsis of The Zahir and the biography of the author.

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After reading and analyzing the characteristics of the protagonist in Coelho’s The Zahir in the previous chapter, I come to the following findings. Before his wife disappears, the protagonist is selfish. He only thinks about his own interest. Besides, he is a pessimistic person. He not only loses his wife but he also thinks that he cannot be a good person, a loving person or a good writer as his wife always wants him to be. The protagonist is also a dishonest husband. He always has affairs with other women. He also pretends as if he were really interested in whatever his wife has said to him. Although he has a dream to be a good writer, he is still lacking of self-confidence whether he can write a useful and good book or not.

After his wife disappears, the characteristics of the protagonist change for the better. Now, he becomes a realistic person who cannot live without his wife. He decides to look for his wife as he tries to do his best to prove to his wife that he can change.

Furthermore, the protagonist becomes realistic when he realizes that he cannot erase Esther, the Zahir, from his mind. He is obsessed by the Zahir. Now he becomes confident with what he does because his readers can accept his work. Moreover, he

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becomes insightful. When he begins to write, he realizes that he needs someone to live with and is capable of saying that he really loves his wife. In his mission to look for his wife, he shows his wisdom to his wife through his book. Besides, he finds his true identity after Mikhail, a Kazakh, has given him a lot of valuable things, like knowledge and advice. Later on, he becomes an understanding person after he realizes that he must go forward to reach his happiness. Finally, he knows about love and becomes a loving and appreciative person.

From the development of the protagonist’s characteristics throughout the story, I find out that before the protagonist’s wife disappears, the protagonist had a bad attitude until his wife decided to leave him without trace. But after the protagonist’s wife disappears, his character changes. In fact, he is a round character because his characteristics continue to develop and make him a lifelike character. In terms of the characterization techniques, the author has used speech, character as seen by another and reaction. Yet, the most frequently used technique is speech.

After analyzing this novel, I realize that Coelho wants us to be the observers and relate the problems presented in the novel to our life. In this novel, the author writes about life, sex, love, religion, marriage and God, as well as how he faces the reality of life, how he sees marriage and how the protagonist realizes that he loves someone more than himself for the first time in his life. Sometimes, it occurs to many of us that we always ask the question whether we are happy or not. This can happen because people usually keep themselves busy with their job without considering their happiness, and this is the reason why people always feel unhappy in their life. The author tries to remind the

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readers that we should start realizing the happiness we have been given and learn to appreciate it as to live a better life with a better self.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• References

Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Kennedy, X. J. An Introduction to Fiction. Fifth Edition, 1991. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseens. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1972. Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1972.

• Internet Websites

Martin & Ballesteros,Paulo Coelho-Official Site,2002, 2nd May 2006 <http:/www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/bio.shtml>

Analysis on The Zahir, 2nd May 2006

<http://wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho>

• Primary Text

Coelho, Paulo. The Zahir. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2005.

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