The Alchemist Literary Criticism Assignment
Caelyn Mastracchio
3/14/14
English 1 Honors
Mr. Michael Santoro
The Alchemist
As one of the top twenty five books in human history, Paulo Coelho’s The
Alchemist's impact on the publishing world cannot be ignored. However, due to its’ massive success worldwide, important components such as the poorly assembled structure are often overlooked. Although millions of copies have been sold and loved by people all over the nation, The Alchemist’s structure was unsystematically written and rushed, leading to an inconsistent message.
Consisting of approximately 170 pages, The Alchemist is split into two parts; the proper splitting would be seventy five to eighty pages in each part, but instead, is completely disorganized. In a literary criticism article by David Kelly this is pointed out: “The book is lopsided, with part 2 comprising of roughly two and a half pages as
Part 1.” The book was not only physically unbalanced, but the amount of major events in each part were also varying. The first 47 pages deal with Santiago on his journey to find his personal legend seeming to drag on, whereas Part 2 seems to be bombarded with a variety of events that confuse the message of the story. Part 1 conveys a message of following dreams and aspirations.
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting (Coelho 21).”
Part 2 introduces themes such as love, unity and fate as Santiago continues his journey, all in less than 150 pages. The uneven split of the book was detrimental to not only its structure, but the overall message was also affected and eventually became unclear.
Not only did the lopsidedness of The Alchemist cause confusion
Caelyn Mastracchio
throughout the plot, but it seemed to be rushed, with a course of events thrown together all at the same time. For example: when Santiago arrives in Al-Fayoum, war, love, temptation and fate all hit him within the course of about twenty pages. The storyline was often confusing to follow at certain parts
3/14/14
English 1 Honors
Mr. Michael Santoro
The Alchemist
As one of the top twenty five books in human history, Paulo Coelho’s The
Alchemist's impact on the publishing world cannot be ignored. However, due to its’ massive success worldwide, important components such as the poorly assembled structure are often overlooked. Although millions of copies have been sold and loved by people all over the nation, The Alchemist’s structure was unsystematically written and rushed, leading to an inconsistent message.
Consisting of approximately 170 pages, The Alchemist is split into two parts; the proper splitting would be seventy five to eighty pages in each part, but instead, is completely disorganized. In a literary criticism article by David Kelly this is pointed out: “The book is lopsided, with part 2 comprising of roughly two and a half pages as
Part 1.” The book was not only physically unbalanced, but the amount of major events in each part were also varying. The first 47 pages deal with Santiago on his journey to find his personal legend seeming to drag on, whereas Part 2 seems to be bombarded with a variety of events that confuse the message of the story. Part 1 conveys a message of following dreams and aspirations.
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting (Coelho 21).”
Part 2 introduces themes such as love, unity and fate as Santiago continues his journey, all in less than 150 pages. The uneven split of the book was detrimental to not only its structure, but the overall message was also affected and eventually became unclear.
Not only did the lopsidedness of The Alchemist cause confusion
Caelyn Mastracchio
throughout the plot, but it seemed to be rushed, with a course of events thrown together all at the same time. For example: when Santiago arrives in Al-Fayoum, war, love, temptation and fate all hit him within the course of about twenty pages. The storyline was often confusing to follow at certain parts