Coelho's
is the perfect bildungsroman; that is to say, it is a story of the main
character's growth, education, and personal edification from novice to expert. Some may also say
it is a novel about rites of passage--those rituals one goes through in order to become an
adult. "The boy," as Coelho calls him, is just that, until he completes his personal
journey to find his treasure and learns the skills he needs to fulfill his personal legend. It
is a story of growing from boy to man.
The narrator, however, seems to be one
who perceives Santiago not unlike how a teacher or parent might speak about a son. For example,
even after Santiago finds his treasure and fulfills his personal legend, the author/speaker
still calls him "the boy" because he is still young and has his whole life ahead of
him. Yet there still seems to be a certain parental/son relationship between the speaker and the
boy, so "the boy" isn't dropped after all of the goals are achieved. Maybe another
reason that "the boy" isn't dropped eventually is to remind the reader that even
though he achieved his goals in many ways, he still wasn't completely a man until he returned to
Fatima and started his next quest.
No comments:
Post a Comment