Ontology of Self: AThematic Analysis of Coelho’s Philosophical Style in The Alchemist

Abstract

This paper analyzes Paulo Coelho’s philosophical style in his novel ‘The Alchemist’. Through his philosophical style, Coelho is able to communicate his ontology of self. In The Alchemist, Coelho stresses the need for recognizing one’s ‘self’ by proposing the importance of decision-making and an optimistic approach to life. This is how an idea
of ‘self’ as a free and self-directed agent apparently emerges. However, the conception of autonomous self has been backed by an exhaustive connection with the mystic concepts presenting ‘self’ simultaneously both as a dependent and an independent entity. To analyze Coelho’s ontological themes and his peculiar style, the theories of ‘ontology’ and ‘literary stylistics’ have been applied as a conceptual framework in this paper. An English translated version of ‘The Alchemist’ by iPaulo Coelho (1995) has been analyzed as a sample. The findings reveal that a variety of narrative styles, such as mysticism, magic realism, multiple accounts, recollections, and framed stories, have been used to convey the notion of ‘self’, giving an impression of both implicit and explicit suggestiveness. Moreover, self-recognition, decision-making, realizing one’s dreams and destiny, optimism, determination, presence of unseen human-friendly force, the concept of ‘UNISON’ and philosophy of existence are some of the themes through which the ontology of self is realized in the novel. The paper is significant because no previous analytical work has been found to examine purely ontological aspects in literature, especially in Coelho’s novel ‘The Alchemist’.