The importance of recreating Elijah`s biblical miracles in Paulo Coelho`s the fifth mountain.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF RECREATING ELIJAH’S BIBLICAL

MIRACLES IN PAULO COELHO’S

THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

YOHANNES BRAMANDA RYAN KHARISMA Student Number: 134214093

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

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THE IMPORTANCE OF RECREATING ELIJAH’S BIBLICAL

MIRACLES IN PAULO COELHO’S THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

YOHANNES BRAMANDA RYAN KHARISMA Student Number: 134214093

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

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“

There is a reason

for everything under the sun.

”

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For

My Beloved Parents, Frans and Luhur,

My Brother, Bonaventura,

and My Sister, Carolina,

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I am blessed to express praises and immense thanks to

Jesus Christ for His continuous guidance, showers of blessings, and mercy in every

step throughout the process of making this undergraduate thesis.

Second, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents. They have

become my motivation to finish this undergraduate thesis. I thank them so much for

their supports, both for moral and financial and the endless love and prayers. I hope

that I can make them happy and proud of what I have done.

In particular, my sincerest gratitude is extended to my advisor Paulus

Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D. for his advisory support to conduct this undergraduate

thesis, motivating discussion and suggestions, and for reading and re-reading my

undergraduate thesis. My special thanks also addressed to Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd.,

M.Hum. as my co-advisor for agreeing to review this thesis and her valuable

comments. I would also like to thank all my English Letters lecturers at Sanata

Dharma University whose teachings have enriched my knowledge.

Last but not least, I deliver my best thanks to all my friends of English

Letters Department. I thank them for bringing one more color in my rainbow. All

of our memories will always be carved in my heart.

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Bible is one of the most influential books in the world. Not only for being the holy book for the Christians, but it also becomes the most discussed book. Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament tells about Jesus’s life and the continuance of his teachings by His disciples. The Old Testament tells about the creation of the world and the prophets before Jesus. One of those prophets in the Old Testament is Elijah. He escapes from Israel because the king wants him dead. In his exile, he is accepted in the house of a widow in Zarephath and performs two miracles there. Paulo Coelho, an author from Brazil, also writes a novel about Elijah’s journey. However, the miracles in his novel are different from the miracles in the Bible. Those differences move the writer to have an academic analysis in this undergraduate thesis.

There are two problems observed in this study. The first one is to see how Elijah’s biblical miracles are recreated in Coelho’s novel. Second is to find out what is the importance of recreating Elijah’s miracles. The answer of the first problem becomes the basis to answer the second problem formulation. Therefore, the two problems are connected one another.

In this study, the writer uses library research method. The first problem formulation is answered by using narratological approach. The writer identifies the narrative functions of each story and tries to see how the miracles in the Bible are recreated and constructed in Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain by using Vladimir Propp’s theory of narratology. Hypertextuality also helps the writer to compare the same stories in the Bible and in the novel. The analysis of the narrative functions in both literary works becomes the basis to the analysis of the second problem formulation which leads to the importance of recreating Elijah’s miracles.

Two findings in this study become the result of the analysis. There are 9

narrative functions in the Bible and 21 narrative functions in Coelho’s novel. The

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xiii ABSTRAK

KHARISMA, YOHANNES BRAMANDA RYAN. The Importance of

Recreating Elijah’s Biblical Miracles in Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain.

Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2017.

Alkitab adalah salah satu buku yang paling berpengaruh di dunia. Tidak hanya menjadi Kitab Suci kaum Kristiani, Alkitab juga merupakan buku yang paling banyak dibahas. Alkitab dibagi menjadi dua bagian: Perjanjian Lama dan Perjanjian Baru. Perjanjian Baru mengisahkan kisah hidup Yesus dan kelanjutan ajaran-ajaran-Nya oleh para murid-Nya. Perjanjian Lama mengisahkan penciptaan dunia dan para nabi sebelum Yesus. Salah satu dari para nabi di Perjanjian Lama tersebut adalah Elia. Ia melarikan diri dari Israel karena sang raja menginkannya mati. Dalam pengasingannya, Ia diterima di rumah seorang janda dari Sarfat dan membuat dua mukjizat di sana. Paulo Coelho, seorang pengarang dari Brazil, juga menulis sebuah novel tentang kisah perjalanan Elia; akan tetapi mukjizat-mukjizat di novelnya berbeda dari mukjizat-mukjizat di Alkitab. Perbedaan itulah yang menggerakkan penulis untuk melakukan analisis akademik dalam skripsi ini.

Ada dua pokok masalah yang diteliti di dalam studi ini. Pertama, untuk melihat bagaimana mukjizat biblis Elia dibuat ulang di dalam novel Coelho. Kedua, untuk melihat pentingnya pembuatan ulang mukjizat-mukjizat Elia. Jawaban atas rumusan masalah pertama menjadi dasar untuk menjawab rumusan masalah kedua. Oleh karena itu, dua rumusan masalah tersebut saling berkaitan satu sama lain.

Di dalam studi ini, penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka. Rumusan masalah pertama dijawab menggunakan pendekatan naratologi. Penulis mengidentifikasi fungsi-fungsi narasi dari setiap cerita dan mencoba melihat bagaimana mukjizat Alkitab dibuat ulang dan di susun dalam novel The Fifth Mountain karya Paulo Coelho dengan menggunakan teori naratologi milik Vladimir Propp. Hipertextualitas juga membantu penulis untuk membandingkan cerita-cerita yang sama di Alkitab dan di novel. Analisis dari fungsi-fungsi narasi di kedua karya sastra menjadi dasar untuk menganalisa rumusan masalah kedua yang menuntun pada pentingnya pembuatan ulang mukjizat Elia.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study

Bible has become the most important book for Christians throughout

centuries. It is also one of the oldest literary works in the planet. The Bible tells

about Jesus’ story, teachings, preaches, encounters, messages, commandments and

prohibitions, and the most important, it tells the Gospel or Good News for human

kind. Bible itself is divided into two major parts, the Old Testament and the New

Testament. The Old Testament contains the stories start from the creation of the

world until the moment just before Jesus’ arrival. The tales of the prophets are also

told in the Old Testament, such as Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Hosea,

Amos, Haggai, Micah, Nathan, Elijah, Samuel, Elisha, and many more. The New

Testament contains the stories starting from the nativity until the revelation, which

is written by Saint John.

Prophet Elijah is one among great prophets in the Old Testament. He is the

only prophet who is not dead, but instead carried by chariots of fire into heaven. He

answers God’s calling in such a young age and receives a huge impact because of

his decision. He is banished from Israel for telling God’s words to King Ahab so

that the king does not worship Baal or any idols anymore. Prophet Elijah escapes

from Israel and goes to the brook of Cherith where he gets foods from a crow sent

by God. So God sends him to a widow in Zarephath and Elijah performs a miracle

there by resurrecting the widow’s son. He lives with that widow and her son until

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One of the world’s famous authors, Paulo Coelho, also writes the same story

about Prophet Elijah. Coelho re-tells, or re-create, the story by putting in some

additions such as romance, adventure and drama that are told in details. It seems

that the story itself is beautifully reconstructed by Coelho. In his novel, The Fifth

Mountain, Coelho creates the events which are not mentioned in the Bible. For

example, when Prophet Elijah is chased by Israeli troops and banished from Israel.

He creates a conversation between Prophet Elijah and a crow by the brook of

Cherith. He makes Prophet Elijah falls in love to the widow in Zarephath. He makes

Prophet Elijah struggling his calling when that widow burned in a fire caused by

Assyrians. In a way, Coelho makes Prophet Elijah accepts God’s design.

There are two different stories sharing the same idea of Prophet Elijah. The

Bible and Coelho tell us about Prophet Elijah’s story. Both are telling the story with

their own version. It is the writer’s belief that Coelho writes his novel based on

Bible, since the Bible is already written in the 3rd century. The story itself is all

about Prophet Elijah’s journey, his interaction, his encounter, and his conflict; but

there are so many additions that can be found in Coelho’s novel if it is compared to

the Bible. Of course there is a purpose why Coelho puts some additional stories in

his novel and that purpose re-creates the story of Prophet Elijah. Both stories have

their own narrative structures in telling and that is what makes them different. That

difference has encouraged the writer to conduct further research to analyse both

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B. Problem Formulation

This undergraduate thesis is aimed to answer several questions related to the

topic, The Importance of Recreating Elijah’s Biblical Miracles inPaulo Coelho’s

The Fifth Mountain, such as:

1. How are Elijah’s miracles recreated in Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain?

2. What is the importance of recreating Elijah’s miracles?

C. Objectives of the Study

In accordance with the problems above, this undergraduate thesis is aimed

at discovering some points. Firstly, how Elijah’s miracles are recreated in Paulo

Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain. Secondly, the importance of recreating Elijah’s

miracles. The first and the second problems are related to each other. The answer

of the first problem helps the writer to answer the second problem. The process of

recreation of Elijah’s biblical miracles in Coelho’s novel makes the analysis of the

importance of the novel becomes essential. Those are the objectives which are

going to be described and explained in this thesis.

D. Definition of Terms Narratology

Narratology is the study of narrative structure. It focuses on how a narrative

is constructed and how the meaning is attached to it. Narratology sees the nature of

a story as a cultural practice, therefore an author has a major influence to his/her

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Hypertextuality

Hypertextuality is a relation of two texts which makes a text cannot exist

without its pre-text. Gerard Genette defines that a text may exist because of the

transformation of the previous text. It means that text B may have no reference to

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

There is a thesis by Jimmy Joseph Uzhunnupara which is related to this

undergraduate thesis that discusses the same novel, The Fifth Mountain. He states

that themes that run throughout the novel are faith and love which help people

to have trust in the providence of the Lord. There are some symbols related to the

novel: the crow is symbol of one who helps at the moment of needs; the two faces

of the river Cherith symbolize the abundance and the scarcity; the hospitality shown

by the widow and her son and the shepherd family is the symbol of the custom and

practice that any foreigner who comes as a guest must be treated well; the killing

of the general is as equal to that of the Stephan the first martyr; and the angels which

are seen and unseen stand as the providence of the Lord in the moments of needs

(Uzhunnupara, 2016).

There is no other previous undergraduate thesis in English Letters in Sanata

Dharma University that discusses the same novel, however there are two

undergraduate theses in Faculty of Teacher Training and Education which analyse

The Fifth Mountain, although the topics are different. Stephanus Dio Christi

Nugraha conducts a research about the motivation behind Elijah’s confrontation

and struggle with the Lord. He argues that there are two motivations behind his

confrontation. First, Elijah wants to get God’s acceptance. Second, he wants to

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is conducted by Christina Rindang Kurniasari. She says in her undergraduate thesis

that there are three Christian values in Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain: love,

faith, and hope (Kurniasari, 2009).

There is also a study about narrative structure in sea adventure fiction by

Margaret Cohen by analysing the well-known sea novels of the nineteenth century,

such as Daniel Defoe’s Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures of Robinson

Crusoe of York, Mariner. She concludes the plot of such adventure novels focus on

the action. The performance entails a form of human agency skilled at overcoming

dangers. The core of narrative poetics in maritime literature is the saltwater

adventure (Cohen, 2009).

Another study comes from Francisco Collado Rodríguez. He argues in his

paper that the narratological analysis of the famous poem offers one of the best

ways to re-think or to start a process of doubt about some of the most difficult parts

of the text, such as the ultimate or "real" intentions of the author, the effect created

by the editorial work, or the importance of a certain element for the final

understanding of the whole construction. A narratological analysis will reveal the

important role played in the text by technical devices. He also sees that hypertextual

references and the mixture of a "brown fog" in a "winter dawn" in Eliot’s The Waste

Land can make a parody of the cycle of myth, temporal dissolution, and more

hypertextual and ironic references accumulate in the last fragment which ends with

the metaleptical and hypertextual ideas. Eventually, the result created by the use of

hypertextuality can be understood as an indirect comprehension of many different

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Irene de Jong also states in her paper that narratology as a discipline is also

applicable to oral poetry, but it has further consequences as well. It might stimulate

additional narratological research on oral poetry and increase our knowledge of the

narrative techniques applied in these texts. In the particular case of the Homeric

epics, a narratological approach has proved to be fruitful. It contributes to a

stimulating combination of formulaic research and literary interpretation. She

argues that a narratological analysis does not need to restrict itself to the purely oral

nor written elements (Jong, 1991).

This undergraduate thesis is different from the previous studies that have

been reviewed above because the focus of this undergraduate thesis is to analyse

how the narratives structures could construct a meaning and what is its significance,

especially in Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain. This undergraduate thesis does

not analyse the intrinsic elements of the novel, but it emphasizes on how the

meaning is constructed by narrative structures. In a way, this undergraduate thesis

is trying to discover something new if it is compared to the previous studies.

B. Review of Related Theories

The theory which is related to this undergraduate thesis is narratology. The

review of the theory will help the reader to be able to comprehend the whole concept

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1. Theory of Narratology

According to Peter Barry, narratology is the study of narrative structures. It

is about the study of how narratives make meaning, and what the basic mechanisms

and procedures which are common to all acts of story-telling. Narratology is not the

reading and interpretation of individual stories, but the attempt to study the nature

of story as a concept and as a cultural practice. He differentiates the definition of

story and plot. The 'story' itself is the actual sequence of events as they happen,

whereas the 'plot' is those events as they are edited, ordered, packaged, and

presented in what we recognize as a narrative. So the 'plot' is a version of the story

which should not be taken literally (Barry, 2009).

a. Theory of Narratology According to Aristotle

The history of narratological analysis comes from Aristotle. He identifies

'character' and 'action' as the essential elements in a story, and says that character

must be revealed through action, which is to say through aspects of the plot.

Therefore, plot is very essential to every narrative. The structure of a narrative can

be identified by analysing the elements in its plot.

Aristotle identifies three key elements in a plot. The first element is

hamartia, a 'sin' or 'fault' which in tragic drama is known as the 'tragic flaw'. The

second element is anagnorisis, 'recognition' or 'realization', this being a moment in

the narrative when the truth of the situation is recognized by the protagonist - often

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'reversal' of fortune. In classical tragedy this is usually a fall from high to low estate,

as the hero falls from greatness; or the otherwise (Barry, 2009).

b. Theory of Narratology According to Vladimir Propp

There is another theory of narratology that comes from Vladimir Propp. His

work is based on a study of his 'corpus' of a hundred Russian folktales, and he

concluded that all these tales are constructed by selecting items from a basic

repertoire of thirty-one 'functions'. No tale contains all the items in his list, but all

are constructed by selecting items from it (Barry, 2009).

The basic 31 functions of Propp’s narratological theory are these: first, one

of the members of a family absents himself from home. Second, an interdiction [that

is, a prohibition] is addressed to the hero. Third, the interdiction is violated. Fourth,

the villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance. Fifth, the villain receives

information about his victim. Sixth, the villain attempts to deceive his victim in

order to take possession of him or his belongings. Seventh, the victim submits to

deception and thereby unwittingly helps his enemy. Eighth, the villain causes harm

or injury to a member of a family/or one member of a family either lacks something

or desires to have something. Ninth, misfortune or lack is made known; the hero is

approached with a request or command; he is allowed to go or he is dispatched.

Tenth, the seeker (that is, the hero in 'questor' mode) agrees to or decides upon

counteraction. Eleventh, the hero leaves home. Twelfth, the hero is tested,

interrogated, attacked, etc., which prepares the way for his receiving either a

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donor. Fourteenth, the hero acquires the use of a magical agent. Fifteenth, the hero

is transferred, delivered, or led to the whereabouts of an object of search. Sixteenth,

the hero and the villain join in direct combat. Seventeenth, the hero is branded.

Eighteenth, the villain is defeated. Nineteenth, the initial misfortune or lack is

liquidated. Twentieth, the hero returns. first, the hero is pursued.

Twenty-second, rescue of the hero from pursuit. Twenty-third, the hero, unrecognized,

arrives home or in another country. Twenty-fourth, a false hero presents unfounded

claims. Twenty-fifth, a difficult task is proposed to the hero. Twenty-sixth, the task

is resolved. Twenty-seventh, the hero is recognized. Twenty-eighth, the false hero

or villain is exposed. Twenty-ninth, the hero is given a new appearance. Thirtieth,

the villain is punished. Thirty-first, the hero is married and ascends the throne

(Barry, 2009).

Those 31 functions are the basic tools to make a narrative. Even though a

narrative does not have all the 31 functions, it can be still constructed by selected

or some of those functions. Peter Barry does not mention the minimum

require-ments of Propp’s functions to make a narration, therefore there can be differences

of narrative functions of one’s story compared to other narrative. The identification

of a narrative based on those functions make the analysis of one’s story becomes

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c. Authorship of the Text

Monika Fludernik argues that there is a new concept in literary research

which concentrates to the author who becomes the original constructor of the

ideology in her work:

Among literary specialists, there is currently a renewed interest in the author. Roland Barthes’s contention that the author is dead did not prove particularly useful to British Cultural Studies and the New Historicism. These approaches foreground the idea of the author as a conduit for ideologically charged discourses rather than as an individual responsible for her/his text. At the present time, narratologists are also more immediately concerned with the ﬁgure of the author (Fludernik, 2009: 13).

The author of a text is not necessarily the person who composed that text.

As Harold Love explains in his book on textual criticism, there are different types

of authorship: for example precursory authorship, executive authorship, declarative

authorship and revisionary authorship (Fludernik, 2009).

The first kind is precursory author, an author that has the authority to

inﬂuence a text. The second type is executive author who responsible for the

creation of the text, we can say that these writers are the ones who write down the

words on the page or composes text. The third type is declarative author, the person

who features as author on the title page, even if that person has had nothing

whatsoever to do with producing the text. The last type is revisionary author who

is responsible for amendments to the text and is often the publisher or editor of a

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2. Theory of Hypertextuality

The concept of hypertextuality can be ambiguous if it is compared to the

concept of intertextuality. Intertextuality as a term was firstly used by Julia

Kristeva. The concept of intertextuality she initiated as a dynamic site in which

relational processes and practices are the focus of analysis instead of the static

structure (Alfaro, 1996). The interpretation of Bible already depended on an

intertextual practice and, at a time in which literature was subordinated to Theology,

what was true of religious texts was also made extensible to secular ones. All

literary works were seen as going back to the Bible and all could be read like it. The

production of art and literature during 1800s – 1900s has become an act of creation

based on a re-cycling of previously existing works. Sometimes it becomes

ambiguous if we read some literary works, in this case is a text. Ambiguity exists

only as a stage in the reading process and serves to alert the reader to the presence

of an intertext that will resolve the work’s difficulties. Such "clues" are enough to

set in train an intertextual reading, even if the intertext is not yet known or has been

lost with the tradition it reflected. Alfaro also re-states Genette’s ideas in

Palimpsestes and offers five subcategories on the globality of the notion of

transtextuality. They are:

a. Intertextuality: the relation of co-presence between two or more texts, that is, the effective presence of one text in another which takes place by means of plagiarism, quotation or allusion.

b. Paratextuality: the relations between the body of a text and its title, subtitle, epigraphs, illustrations, notes, first drafts, and other kinds of accessory signals which surround the text and sometimes comment on it.

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d. Archtextuality: the generic category a text belongs to. The text may not recognize its generic quality, which should be decided by its readers, critics. However, this generic perception determines to a great extent the reader's "horizons of expectation", and, therefore, the work's reception. e. Hypertextuality: the relation between the late come text (hypertext) and its pre-text (hypotext). He defines hypertext as every text derived from a previous one by means of direct or indirect transformation (imitation), but not through commentary. In the former, direct or simple transformation, a text B may make no explicit reference to a previous one A, but it couldn't exist without A (Alfaro, 1996: 280-281).

Therefore, by seeing those definitions, there are major differences between

intertextuality and hypertextuality. It is important to understand the meaning of both

terms because they are often revered in an ambiguous way. The ambiguous concept

of them may create a confusion, however Riffaterre mentions that there are four

differences between intertextuality and hypertextuality (Riffaterre, 1994):

First, hypertextuality comes from the text in a concerted effort to summarize

the ideas, of the descriptive and narrative sign-systems, of the thematic material the

text has appropriated to its own purposes, and, finally, of the text's social, cultural,

and historical backgrounds, while intertextuality comes from textuality which

beyond the text's limits, the production of those formal features that make for the

text's unity.

Second, hypertextuality is a metalinguistic tool for the examination and

interpretation of an existing text. This analysis may go beyond the text, while

intertextuality is a linguistic network connecting the existing text with other

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Third, hypertextuality contextualizes the text, examining literature in the

light of what is not literature but what may lead to the creation of it. Intertextuality

decontextualizes the text.

Fourth, hypertextuality is open-ended analysis because it leads to a further

analysis, while intertextuality is a closed-circuit exchange between text and

intertext. As this closed circuit defines the autonomy of the text and depends on

necessarily perceived signs.

3. Theory of Miracle

Humans are striving to comprehend the questions regarding chance and

miracle as a natural desire for a broader and more thorough study of the perspectives

revealed by contemporary natural history. In everyday life, human sometimes

misunderstands miracle as fate or chance. In common parlance, the word "chance"

means an event or occurrence, unexpected and unlooked-for, which we are unable

to predict on the basis of either the known laws of nature or experience. It is

sometimes called "coincidence," "a twist of fate," or "a stroke of luck;” nonetheless,

Leucippus posited that nothing happens by chance, but everything arises from a

cause and an inevitability, while the successor of his thinking, Democritus of

Abdera, believed that humans devise an illusory image of chance for themselves as

a cover for their powerlessness. The common understanding of chance was as the

materialization of an event unintended by the causative factors, due to their inherent

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Baruch Spinoza also argues that, in nature, nothing occurs by chance;

everything, of nature's divine necessity, is determined with a particular way of

existing and acting. Many persons believe, for instance, that the natural calamities

visited upon us are a matter of chance. They believe so for no more reason than that

they know naught of the laws governing these matters. If they were to become

familiar with those laws, if they were therefore to learn, that such-and such a

calamity is determined by such-and-such a previous event, on the strength of the

laws of nature, they would no longer hold that calamity to be a matter of chance

(Spinoza, 2001).

It should be noted that chance can appear or disappear as soon as the

perspective from which we view a given event changes. Kazimierz Kloskowski

considers that two types of event exist; that determined by circumstances, which we

are not always able to define, and the miracle, understood as phenomena that elude

the laws of nature, phenomena that we fail to understand, and the role of which is

an affirmation of God (Kloskowski, 1990).

The understanding of the miracles itself is very various. There are some

definitions of miracle related to certain literatures. First, it is an unusual occurrence

by means of which God gives humankind a sign, through which they are filled with

wonderment (Léon-Dufour, 1977). Second, an event caused specifically by God's

intervention, stepping beyond the normal law of nature and bringing with it a

religious message for the people of today and later times (O'Collins, 1911). Third,

a marvel act by God, who as a Creator is able to interrupt the operation of ordinary

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by God, and of religious significance (Swinburne, 1970). Fifth, a miracle is God's

intercession in the natural order of things (Kellenberger, 1968); and the last one, a

special or immediate act of God, as opposed to God's continuous work of creating

and sustaining the world. The result of this act will be beneficial and religiously

significant (Corner, 2005).

There are also some classifications of miracle by Świeżyński related to the

miraculous events. Those classifications are (Świeżyński, 2011):

a. The miracle in the wide sense, the "relative miracle," where the empirical

element can be considered as momentary chance.

b. The miracle in the strict sense, the "absolute miracle," the empirical element

of which can be defined as constant chance, or as ontological chance.

C. Review of Related Background

Paulo Coelho’s background contributes a lot in the analysis of this

undergraduate thesis. His role as the author also contributes in making his novel.

He was born on August 24, 1947, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Coelho studied in Jesuit

school and was raised by his devout Catholic parents. He determined to be a writer

but was discouraged by his parents, who saw no future in that profession in Brazil.

Coelho's rebellious adolescence made his parents to send him to a mental asylum

three times, starting when he was 17. Coelho eventually got out of institutional care

and enrolled in law school, but dropped out to indulge in the "sex, drugs and rock

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protesting the country's military rule. He was jailed three times for his political

activism and subjected to torture in prison. After drifting among several

professions, Coelho changed his life's course while on a visit to Spain in 1986 at

the age of 36. Coelho walked more than 500 miles along the Road to Santiago de

Compostela, a site of Catholic pilgrimage. The walk and the spiritual awakening he

experienced inspired him to write The Pilgrimage in his native Portuguese. He quit

his other jobs and devoted himself full-time to the craft of writing (Hefner, 2016).

Paulo Coelho’s country, Brazil, was also affected by the global economic

crisis in 1990s. Inflation is the primary reason of Brazil’s crisis. Brazil’s central

bank made an action during the 1990s to rein in inflation and public spending.

Investors, attracted by high interest rates, poured money into the Brazilian economy

at unprecedented rates. In 1997, foreign direct investment grew by 140% over the

year before (Evangelist, 2006).

D. Theoretical Framework

There are two problems in this undergraduate thesis. First, how are the

Elijah’s miracles recreated in Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain? Second, what is

the significance of recreating Elijah’s miraclesfor the novel’s readers?

The first problem is answered by applying the theory of narratology. The

theory of narratology by Aristotle stands as the base and theory from Vladimir

Propp helps to identify the narrative structures in both literary works. They are very

important in analysing narrative structure in the novel and in the Bible. The theory

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foundation on which the further ideas are built; the theory from Vladimir Propp

helps to conduct further analysis related to the narrative structure of both literary

works. Both theories support each other to make a clear stressing on the miraculous

events. By comparing and analysing the narrative structure on miracle in the novel

and in the Bible, the question about how Elijah’s miracles are recreated in Paulo

Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain is going to be answered.

The answer of the first problem contributes a lot in answering the second

problem formulation. The review of hypertextuality creates a relation between the

novel and the Bible, while the review of miracle will help us to see the difference

of the miracle in the novel if it is compared to the bible. The authorship of the text

also stand as an important element. The review of author’s background and the

condition of Brazil in the late 1990s (time when the novel was firstly published)

also help the writer to see the significance of the novel in the bigger scale. Such

differences become the significant things for novel’s reader in comprehending the

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

This undergraduate thesis analyses a novel by Paulo Coelho, entitled The

Fifth Mountain. It is a fictional novel which is similar to an event in the Bible (Book

of 1 Kings Chapter 17: 1-24). This novel is the eighth novel written by Coelho and

it contains of 245 pages. Those previous novels are Eleven Minutes, The Alchemist,

The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries, By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept,

Veronika Decides to Die, and Warrior of The Light: A Manual. The novel itself,

The Fifth Mountain, was originally published in Portuguese version in Brazil in

1998. It was translated later into English by Cliford E. Landers and internationally

published by HarperTorch in June 2004.

The novel tells a story about Prophet Elijah in the ninth century B.C., when

the Phoenician princess Jezebel orders the execution of all the Israelite prophets

who refuse to worship the pagan god Baal. Commanded by an angel of God to flee

Israel, Elijah seeks safety in the land of Zarephath, where he unexpectedly finds

true love with a young widow. But this newfound rapture is to be cut short, and

Elijah sees all of his hopes and dreams irrevocably erased as he is swept into a

whirlwind of events that threatens his existence. In what is truly a literary milestone,

Coelho gives a quietly moving account of a man touched by the hand of God who

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Ejilah’s journey is not easy. He must face many obstacles in achieving his

goal. Elijah, as the representation of humankind, put all of his life in God’s hand.

Instead of getting help from God, Elijah has to face never-ending tests in his life.

Finally Elijah can see God’s grand design for him after overcoming those test. In

the hard times, God performs miracles through him. He can create a miracle.

Humans, in a way, can do the miracle; therefore, it is essential to see how the

miracles are recreated in Coelho’s novel to know its importance.

B. Approach of the Study

This undergraduate thesis uses theory of narratology as the literary approach

to analyse the novel. Narratology is a study about narrative structures. It is a branch

of structuralism, but it has a certain independence from structuralism. Different

from structuralism which relates narratives to some larger structure and interpreting

literature in terms of a range with the structure of language, narratology looks at

individual narratives seeking out the recurrent structures which are found within all

narratives. Narratology also counteracts the tendency of conventional criticism to

foreground character and motive by foregrounding instead action and structure

(Barry, 2009).

It seems appropriate that narratology is used as the approach in this

under-graduate thesis since the title is The Importance of Recreating Elijah’s Biblical

Miracles in Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain. Narratology helps the writer to see

the narrative structure and the significance of miracles in the novel. The same

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structure and so does the novel. Each work share a different structure with the same

miracles. Therefore, narratology can be applied to see how the biblical miracles are

recreated in the novel and the importance of those miracles.

C. Method of the Study

There are two main texts used in this undergraduate thesis: primary texts

and secondary texts. The primary texts are the novel, The Fifth Mountain, by Paulo

Coelho and the Bible, Book of 1 Kings 17:1 -24. The novel is used to analyse the

narrative functions of the biblical miracles and to see how those biblical miracles

are recreated in the novel, while the Bible is used to see how the miracles are

originally narrated and stands as a comparison to the miracles in the novel. The

secondary texts are the books, journals, other undergraduate theses, and internet

articles in reliable websites which provide supporting literary theories, approaches,

and information to this undergraduate thesis.

This undergraduate thesis uses library research method. There are several

steps needed in finishing this undergraduate thesis. The first step was that the writer

read Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain several times and focused on the miraculous

events. After reading Coelho’s novel, the writer read the Bible, Book of 1 Kings

17:1 -24, to comprehend the miracles within the text. Then, the writer identified the

narrative functions of each story and tried to see how the miracles in the Bible were

recreated and constructed in Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain by using literary theories.

After knowing the identification of each story, the writer observed the Brazil’s

condition in 1990s to see the effect of the recreation of the miracles in the novel in

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter aims to answer the two problems that have been stated in

Chapter I in this undergraduate thesis. This chapter is divided into two parts. The

first part discusses how the Elijah’s miracles are recreated in Paulo Coelho’s The

Fifth Mountain. The second part of this chapter discusses the significance of

recreating Elijah’s miracles. In answering those two problems, the analysis is based

on the steps in the Theoretical Framework which have been discussed earlier in the

Chapter II.

A. The Recreation of Elijah’s Biblical Miracles in Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain

There are two tales that tell Elijah’s story and of course one story is different

from the other. Knowing the differences between these stories is very essential in

analysing them. Narratology provides a just answer in that matter. There are two

important terms in narratology that can be used to differentiate two similar stories;

they are 'story' and 'plot.' The 'story' is the actual sequence of events as they happen,

whereas the 'plot' is those events as they are edited, ordered, packaged, and

presented as a narrative. It can be summarized that the 'plot' is a version of the story

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It can be concluded by those definitions that the story of The Fifth Mountain

is the 'plot,' and the Bible (1 Kings 17: 1-24) is the 'story.' Bible not only stands as

the Holy Scripture for Christians, but also as historical recorder as well. It records

human history, especially Israelite history, excluded from their experiences of

God’s companionship. Therefore, Bible is considered as the actual sequence of

events that happened, whereas the novel is those events as they are edited, ordered,

packaged, and presented in what we recognize as a narrative. Paulo Coelho is the

author who created all the events in the novel, arranged them by structure, and

edited them so that the novel has a greater impact toward its readers.

There are three elements of plot in the novel if it is seen from Aristotle’s

point of view. First, the hamartia is the moment when Elijah decides to do God’s

command and he is banished from Israel (Coelho, 2004: 14-15). Second, the

anagnorisis is when Elijah has understood God’s will and accepts himself as an

Israelite prophet (Coelho, 2004: 236). The last one, the peripeteia is when everyone

in Akbar against Elijah and decide to banish him to the Fifth Mountain, however he

could live and resurrect the widow’s son. People of Akbar respected Elijah ever

since (Coelho, 2004: 55-58).

In order to know Elijah’s biblical miracles, it is necessary to analyse the

Bible as well. However, there is something interesting. The hamartia is not found

in the Bible. There is no sin or fault done by Elijah as a character. If there is a tragic

flaw, it is done by God for bringing the drought to Israel (1 Kings 17, 2016). The

anagnorisis does not exist in the Bible as well. It is because there is no truth of the

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truth sent by God and he knows it from the beginning of the story, but there are two

peripeteia-s in the Bible. Those are the stories when Elijah performs miracles in

Zarephath and followed by other characters’ acknowledgement (1 Kings 17, 2016).

The Aristotle’s elements are complete in the Coelho’s novel. The events

which are encountered by Elijah bring a major role to his presence, while the

absence of hamartia and anagnorisis in the Bible becomes the fact that the Bible

does not consist of sufficient elements of plot to analyse. The two peripeteia-s

becomes a significant point to show that the Bible wants to emphasize the miracle

as its core.

The analysis about the structure of the story of The Fifth Mountain and the

Book of 1 Kings Chapter 17: 1-24 is classified by using Vladimir Propp’s thirty

-one 'functions.' The stories are identified by using those functions. It is very

important to see how the miracles are seen from both stories.

According to Propp’s functions, the structure in the Book of 1 Kings 17:

1-24 starts when the misfortune or lack is made known; the hero is approached with

a request or command; he is allowed to go or he is dispatched. It happens when God

brings drought to Israel for several years as it is stated in the first verse (1 Kings 17,

2016). The drought or the misfortune stands as the starting point of the narrative

that leads to another narrative function.

The function goes when the hero leaves home. God commands Elijah to

leave Israel and go to the brook Cherith, which is in the east of the Jordan and stays

there for a period of time. Elijah drinks from the brook and the ravens deliver bread

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The next event continues and the hero is transferred, delivered, or led to the

whereabouts of an object of search. After a while the brook is dried as God has told

Elijah before. God speaks to him to go to the Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon

and dwell there, where God has commanded a widow to feed Elijah (1 Kings 17,

2016_).

The narrative keeps going and the hero is tested, interrogated, attacked, etc.,

which prepares the way for his receiving either a magical agent or helper. Elijah

meets a widow that is gathering sticks when he arrives at the gate of Zarephath. He

asks her for water and she gives him water, but she refuses to give to Elijah bread

when he asks for it. That widow tells him that she does not have anything left, only

a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. She gathers the sticks so that she

could make a bread for her son and herself for the last time and die. Even though

Elijah knows the condition, he tries to persuade her to make him the bread and give

a little piece of it to him first (1 Kings 17, 2016_).

The story continues with the magical agent that is used by the hero. Elijah

tells the widow that she does not need to be panic for God has spoken to him that

He will keep the flour in the jar and the oil in the jug running until the day that He

sends rain on earth. The widow does what Elijah has said and it is true that the flour

and oil are multiplied. Elijah stays in her house and her household can survive for

many days (1 Kings 17, 2016_{). That is the first miracle according to the bible: the}

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The next two Propp’s functions come in inseparable order: the villain causes

harm or injury to a member of a family and the hero acquires the use of a magical

agent. The widow’s son becomes ill after Elijah stays in the house. The illness

becomes so severe and it leads to the boy’s death. She blames Elijah over her son’s

death because he was fine before Elijah’s arrival. It becomes an unfortunate event,

but it prepares Elijah to perform the second miracle. He takes the boy to the upper

chamber in the house. Elijah prays and cries three times to God so that He would

give the boy’s life back. After listening Elijah’s voice, God gives what Elijah asks.

The boy is back from the death. He lives again. Elijah takes him downstairs so that

the widow could see the miracle (1 Kings 17, 2016_{). That is the second miracle: the}

resurrection of the widow’s son.

Finally, the task is resolved along with the widow’s final utterance at the

final verse of the chapter that shows her belief in God: 24_{And the woman said to}

Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in

your mouth is truth” (1 Kings 17, 2016_).

The novel The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho also has that kind of

Propp’s narrative function as well. In order to make an equal comparison, the

novel is also classified using Propp’s 'narrative functions.' However, they may

appear in a different order than the Bible. It begins when Misfortune or lack is

made known; the hero is approached with a request or command. It all starts when

Elijah receives a vision from God in his carpentry shop. He sets a task to Elijah

to remind King Ahab because the king worships a Phoenician god after marrying

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always makes time to see his subjects. Then, Elijah tells King Ahab about his

vision that the king must stop worshiping the Phoenician god or there will be a

great drought upon Israel. Even though Elijah talks to the king, his eyes are fixed

to the queen because that Phoenician princess is now his queen. He never sees a

beautiful princess before. He knows that the queen also pays attention to him.

Elijah returns home after telling the king about his vision and thinks that his job

is done. By the morning, the king has ordered to capture all prophets in Israel who

refuse to worship Baal, the Phoenician god, but there is no option other than death

for Elijah (Coelho, 2004: 14-15). Jezebel knows that Elijah is a great threat for

her religion and he has to be eliminated. Now she is the queen of Israel, the wife

of King Ahab, and she has persuaded the king to capture all prophets and to kill

Elijah.

The stories continues and the hero leaves home. Elijah is forced to leave

Israel because of Jezebel’s threat. There is an archer, the greatest among King

Ahab’s infantry, that tries to shoot an arrow while Elijah tries to escape from

Israel. That archer misses his shoot and he stops because he thinks that God

protects Elijah. Elijah does not waste that opportunity and runs leaving the city.

He keeps running away from the city until he arrives at a bank of the rivulet of

Cherith (Coelho, 2004: 17-18). Elijah is ashamed for his cowardice but glad that

he is alive. He keeps thinking and reflecting about his experience during his time

there. Yesterday he was in his carpentry shop but that day he runs away from his

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The next function comes when the hero is tested, interrogated, attacked,

etc., which prepares the way for his receiving either a magical agent or helper.

There is a crow comes every day and gives Elijah a piece of meat to eat. In the

morning Elijah pretends to be a crow and in the evening he pretends to be the moon

that both interrogate him. The crow asks who Elijah is and he answers that he is a

man that has found peace in the desert and he has known himself, but he cannot

give an answer when the moon asks the same question in the evening. It always

happens until one day Elijah answers the crow differently. He says that he is a

prophet in confident. He has heard God’s voice and banished because doing God’s

command. He knows that a man must go through many challenges to fulfil his

destiny (Coelho, 2004: 29-30). The crow and the moon stop asking him ever since

he gives that answer. This is the fact that Elijah has passed the test or the

interrogation.

The next two Propp’s narratve functions come in inseparable order: the hero

acquires the use of a magical agent and he is transferred or led to the whereabouts

of an object of his search. One day Elijah meets his guardian angel in his dream.

The guardian angel reminds Elijah that he must go to the brook of Cherith. Elijah

tells his guardian angel that he has done that command. Then his guardian angel

tells him to wake up because an angel of God is waiting to speak to him. Although

it is night, Elijah sees a great light. That is the angel of God. That angel tells him

that his task is to avenge God that is forsaken by the Israelis. Elijah is ready to go

back and destroy Jezebel, but the angel tells Elijah not to destroy anything until he

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belong to Sidon, for God has ordered a widow to help him there (Coelho, 2004:

30-31). By the help of the angels, Elijah knows his next task. He is led to a widow

in Zarephath.

The narrative structure keeps going when the hero, unrecognized, arrives

in another country. In this case, Elijah arrives at Zarephath as a stranger in a strange

land as the angel’s guidance. Zarephath is also known as Akbar by the locals. He

meets a widow that is gathering woods as he enters the city (Coelho, 2004: 32). It

is just like what the angel has said: there is a widow in Zarephath to help him.

The event goes when a misfortune is made known; the hero is approached

with a request or command. Elijah lives in the widow’s house in Akbar. That

widow has a son, her only son that lives in that house too. One day, the boy

becomes sick after Elijah’s arrival. He cannot stand, nor recognize people who

come to visit him. The high priest comes to the house for two weeks to give the

boy herbal poultices. The women of Akbar also come to the Fifth Mountain to offer

a sacrifices so that the boy’s soul wouldn’t leave his body. One day the boy wants

to go outside and he is accompanied by his mother and Elijah. After a few steps,

he falls on the floor. The boy is dead (Coelho, 2004: 45-47). The death of the boy

is the misfortune that leads Elijah to the next development.

The narrative function continues when a difficult task is proposed to the

hero. The Phoenicians believe that their gods live on the top of the Fifth Mountain

and they strike whoever tries to climb that mountain with lightning as punishment.

Because of the death of the widow’s son, Elijah is forced to climb up the Fifth

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him with lightning. If the gods don’t strike Elijah, the people would execute him

by the morning. His head would be removed from his body and his heart would be

removed from his breast. He is scared to be executed because according to ancient

beliefs, a man without a heart could not enter the paradise. He asks God for help

but nothing happens at that time (Coelho, 2004: 49). Climbing the mountain

becomes the difficult task that is proposed to Elijah.

The next event comes when Elijah, as the hero, finishes the difficult task.

He enters the forbidden terrain and begins to climb the slope of the Fifth Mountain.

He keeps climbing until he cannot hear the sound of the people behind him. He

walks a bit farther until he enters the mountain top. He thinks to run away but he

is afraid if the curse follows him. Elijah sits on the rock while he decides to go back

to Akbar (Coelho, 2004: 51-52). He finishes his task to climb the Fifth Mountain.

However, there’s nothing happens when he arrives at the top of the mountain. He

does not get struck by the lightning. Nothing happens.

The next narrative function goes when the hero is tested, interrogated,

attacked, etc., which prepares the way for his receiving either a magical agent or

helper. Elijah stays for a while at the top of the Fifth Mountain. He sees the scenery

of Akbar from distance and dwells on his past. Now he accepts himself as a failed

prophet and God needs someone else to continue His work. Suddenly there is a

light from the sky. Instead of being struck by lightning on the top of Fifth

Mountain, Elijah meets an angel that that gives him instructions. The angel

commands Elijah to return to the Akbar and pray three times for the boy to come

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is for the grandeur of God. This is Elijah’s task and he must not question it because

no one can doubt God’s plan (Coelho, 2004: 52-53). Elijah is interrogated by the

angel who prepares Elijah performing the miracle.

The next Propp’s function in the story is that the hero acquires the use of a

magical agent. Elijah comes down from the mountain to resurrect the widow’s son

and does what the angel has commanded. Elijah tells the guard that has waited for

him that he must go to the widow’s house and ask for her forgiveness. Despite all

of his guilt, doubts, and fear, Elijah takes the boy’s body from his mother’s arm

and goes to a chamber upstairs. He prays and cries to God so that He makes the

boy lives again. Three times he prays and nothing happens. His mind travels to his

past where he was only a carpenter in Israel. He believes that something happens

for a reason. It is then that the boy opens his eyes. The boy tells him that he had a

strange dream but Elijah awoke him from that dream. Then Elijah takes the boy

downstairs to meet his mother (Coelho, 2004: 56-58).

The story continues with the recognition of the hero. There are already so

many people in the widow’s house when Elijah takes the boy downstairs. The

widow takes her son in her arm. She is fulfilled with joy. After experiencing that

miracle, the widow throws herself on her knees and believes that Elijah is a man

of God. The people who gather in the widow’s house cannot believe by what they

see. One by one, they also kneel before Elijah (Coelho, 2004: 58). It happens when

people of Akbar knows that Elijah has resurrected the widow’s boy and all of them

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The next function comes when the hero is tested, interrogated, etc., which

prepares the way for his receiving either a magical agent or helper. Akbar is

surrounded by Assyrian army at that time. They want to have Akbar in possession.

Elijah sees that this event can bring chaos to the city, so he prays to God. An angel

of God comes before him. The angel instructs Elijah to gather people to the

mountain. He must make two altars with bullocks on the top; one altar is meant for

God and the other for Baal. Elijah must tell the Phoenician to call their god to

come forth and take the offering, but nothing will happen. After that, Elijah must

call upon the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and ask Him to receive the

sacrifice. However, that miracle can only happen once. Elijah must choose to use

it whether to avoid the battle for Akbar or free the Israelis from Jezebel. (Coelho,

2004: 124-125). Again, the arrival of God’s angel before Elijah is to help him

preparing a miracle. He must choose where to perform this miracle for it can only

happen once.

The next narrative function is that the villain causes harm or injury to a

member of a family. Elijah decides to use the miracle in Israel, so there is a war in

Akbar. The Assyrian army attacks the city during the night. They break through

every house and kill the people who live in it. Elijah is awoken from his sleep and

taken by force by the soldiers. He does not have a chance to check whether the

widow or her son are alive or not. Now he is out from the house. Elijah is there

when he sees the widow, whom he finally loves, is burnt alive in the house. The

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by watching the widow dies. (Coelho, 2004: 158). This is the moment where harm

or injury is done to a member of a family.

The story keeps going when the hero is transferred to whereabouts of an

object of search. The Assyrians don’t kill Elijah because they think that he would

only become a burden. Then the soldiers leave Akbar because their true target is

Sidon and Akbar’s location is just before that city. Elijah meets the widow’s son

who also survived from the attack. The boy becomes the widow’s legacy for Elijah.

He is determined to take care of the boy. They walk together through the city. The

victims of the attack are countless. They go out of the city and walk to the valley

even though Elijah does not know a place to go (Coelho, 2004: 170). Elijah and

the boy are transferred to a place they don’t know yet. It is the process to

whereabouts of an object of search. The place that is referred in this function is a

shepherd’s house in a valley. The shepherd lives with his wife and two children

(Coelho, 2004: 176). They welcome Elijah and the boy in their house because there

is a law of hospitality. The law says that the host must welcome strangers is his/her

house so that he/she will also be welcomed in a stranger’s land.

The object of search that is referred in the previous function is Elijah’s

motivation in doing God’s will and be loyal to Him. The shepherd has seen so

many people on their way to Akbar. He tells Elijah that they are men without

purpose when the go to Akbar, but they return home with ardour and pride. There

are also some men that go back to their home with bags full of gold because Akbar

is a good for trading. The shepherd tells Elijah that those people achieve what they

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life is a constant triumph. The shepherd’s words touch Elijah’s heart. Elijah realizes

the fact that it is not difficult to rebuild a life if he has the strength and

determination. The shepherd does not know Elijah’s past but he suggests him to

forget his past and start a new one. He also tells Elijah that there is a prophet in

Akbar who help him. The prophet is so powerful that he could bring back the dead.

The shepherd tells Elijah to go to him so that that prophet can help Elijah (Coelho,

2004: 180-181). After hearing those words, Elijah knows that he needs nobody but

himself to move on. The shepherd helps Elijah to rediscover that motivation.

The development of narrative function continues when the hero returns

home. Elijah decides to go to Akbar after staying in the shepherd’s house for two

days. He can see Akbar from distance. He is not strong enough to see the destroyed

city. He closes his eyes and asks the boy to guide him into the city. Elijah has asked

the boy to rebuild Akbar if he dies on the way into the city. His mind travels as he

walks. He knows that this battle is not between Assyrians and Phoenicians. This

battle is between him and God. He asks God to kill him now because Elijah would

destroy God’s plan if he opens his eyes. He is determined to rebuild the destroyed

Akbar. He wouldn’t let God destroys Akbar as God has killed the widow (Coelho,

2004: 185-186).

The next narrative function is difficult task is proposed to the hero. Elijah

know that he and Akbar are similar. But just like the city, his task is no yet

completed. God has told Elijah to remove Jezebel but He ignores and sends him

away from his homeland. God has forgotten Elijah. He must do things by his own

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would always be with them. She has gone and united with the city. She is Akbar.

Elijah must help her recover her beauty (Coelho, 2004: 189). It becomes the new

difficult mission for Elijah to rebuild Akbar, which is already destroyed completely

by the Assyrians, as an act of protest to God.

The next development comes when the difficult task to rebuild Akbar is

finally done. In rebuilding the city, Elijah gathers all the survivors. He put them in

groups according to their capability: the men rebuild the houses, temple, and city

wall; the women collect food and treat the sick people; the children study the

alphabets and write what Akbar’s has been through in clay tablet so the people will

not forget it. Elijah goes to the high temple when the city is rebuilt. He sees the

Akbar from above, the great city of Akbar. The city is his lover, the widow. He is

proud for bringing back the beauty of his lover. He is one with his lover. He is one

with Akbar. Elijah realizes that he too is Akbar (Coelho, 2004: 226-227). The new

Akbar symbolizes the new Elijah. By rebuilding the city, Elijah also rebuild

himself.

The next two Propp’s narrative functions come in inseparable order. The

hero acquires the use of a magical agent and he is transferred or led to the

whereabouts of an object of his search. An angel of God comes to Elijah after he

has finished rebuilt the city. The angel tells Elijah to return to Israel to liberate his

people from Jezebel. Elijah refuses the angel’s command, then the angel says that

Elijah must return to Israel and apply what he has learnt in Akbar to rebuild Israel.

Elijah does not want to leave Akbar, but he knows that Akbar can survive without

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leave Akbar and go to Israel. Therefore he leaves the city at night when all people

is asleep. Without looking back, he goes Israel (Coelho, 2004: 240).

The classification of narrative functions from the Book of 1 Kings 17 and

the novel are very essential for the analysis. They are put in a table in order to

simplify and to compare the order of narrative functions in both literary works as

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Propp’s theory of narratology, it can be seen that The Fifth Mountain and the Book

of 1 Kings 17: 1-24 do not share the same order, yet they have some similarities. It

is very clear that the novel and the Book of 1 Kings Chapter 17: 1-24 share some

similar functions. They start with the same function: the misfortune is made known

which makes the hero (Elijah) approaches his task or command. The misfortune in

the Book of 1 Kings 17 is the drought sent by God, while in the novel, the

misfortune happens when Elijah tells King Ahab about his vision that leads to a

mass execution of Israelite prophets.

The second narrative function that appears in both literary works are also

similar: the hero leaves home. The Book of 1 Kings 17 tells that Elijah leaves Israel

to do God’s will.Elijah is displayed as an obedient servant that obeys God’s will

and he does not ask the reason why he has to go. God himself is considered as a

‘magical helper’ who helps Elijah in accomplishing his task that becomes the focus

in further structure, while the magical actions refer to the miracles done by Elijah.

The novel also tells the same sequence where Elijah leaves Israel, however the

reason is different. He has to leave his hometown because he is chased by king’s

soldier. God has spoken to him and made him to go to King Ahab as a messenger

The importance of recreating Elijah`s biblical miracles in Paulo Coelho`s the fifth mountain.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RECREATING ELIJAH’S BIBLICAL

MIRACLES IN PAULO COELHO’S

THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN

THE IMPORTANCE OF RECREATING ELIJAH’S BIBLICAL

MIRACLES IN PAULO COELHO’S THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN

“

There is a reason

for everything under the sun.

”

For

My Beloved Parents, Frans and Luhur,

My Brother, Bonaventura,

and My Sister, Carolina,

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS