Brief of Biography The Author

2. Brief of Biography The Author

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His father, Pedro, was an engineer, and his mother Lydia was a home-maker. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with My dear, your father is an engineer. Hes a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer? After researching, Coelho concluded that a writer always wears glasses and never combs his hair and has a duty and an obligation never to be understood by his own generation, amongst other things. At 17, Coelhos introversion and opposition to follow a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. At his parents wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream to become a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippy, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and becoming immersed in the drug culture of the 1960s. Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. In 1974, Coelho was arrested and tortured for subversive activities by the ruling militia, who viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous. In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage. In an interview, Coelho stated [In 1986], I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water -- to use the metaphor in The Alchemist, I was working, I had a person who I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer. The Alchemist is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. It follows Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd, on a journey to fulfil his Personal Legend. It has been hailed as a modern classic. According to Publishing Trends, The Alchemist was to be found in the 6th place of world sales in 2003. Eleven Minutes topped all lists in the world, except for England, where it was in second place. The Alchemist was one of the most important literary phenomena of the 20th century. It reaches the first place in bestselling lists in 74 countries, and so far has sold 35 million copies. This book also brought the author in 2008 the Guinness World Record for most translated book in the world 67 languages. APPROVAL SHEET OF ADVISOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS ANALYSIS ON HUMAN CONCEPT IN THE ALCHEMIST A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to the Strata Degree S1 SYARIF HIDAYTULLAH NIM. 101026021555 Approved By Danti Pudjianti, S.Pd. M. Hum NIP. 132 233 516 ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2010 THE PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT ANALYSIS ON HUMAN CONCEPT IN THE ALCHEMIST Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities in Partial Accomplishment of the Requirement for the 1 degree SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH 101026021555 ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2009

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literature is always becoming a fertile mind to be studied and analyzed, because a literary work is a mirror of human life, society, morality, culture etc. With literature, a culture of the nation could be discovered, but on the other hand, a literature also can be studied from the daily and habitual activities of society. Both of them cannot be separated each other. Thus, as long as this world is still running on and the people breath, a literature work will always exist, and develop dependent on the situation and condition wherever it is. The terminology of literature etymologically taken from Latin; Litera means the writing or the alphabets. Literature itself arose in Europe in 18 th century, where firstly was applied as a writing language. Then it developed by the basis of paradigms that a literature was the use of esthetical language in literary work. Mostly, some novelists agreed with the opinion about the impossibility to construct a definition of literature universally. 1 What is literature depends on culture, environment, and situation where the literature acknowledged. A literature could appreciate with tree elements; First, Expression that is, feeling which described through words that are in orderly arranged. 1 Yosep Yapi Taum, Pengantar Teori Sastra, Flores: Nusa Indah, 1997 p.11 1 Second, feeling which is describing the material or theme of the literature, such as the feeling of love, hatred, enjoyment, sad etc. Third, rule of the literature itself, it means a literature has to be a literary work that accepted by mostly people in society convention. 2 Such as William Shakespeare in his era, his work was not easily accepted as a literary work at that time, it was only considered as a punk fiction. 3 Then after this work passed several periods in Britain’s poetry afterwards, it begun to be considered as a literary work and William Shakespeare achieved as the biggest poet who ever born in that country. Literature is a fiction work in the imaginative form or using the esthetical language that symbolizes either the outside world or its own world. Generally, literary work is divided into several genres: Poem, drama and Prose. Novel - which is becomes the object of this research – is sub-genre of prose. Novel appeared in the world literature later on than heroism poem, epic, and drama, and it all becomes the last at once. Nevertheless, novel is a literary works which more flexible and has a bit rules in the literature critics. The simplicity of novel brings it so fast to be the foremost literary work of this age. Novel does not only need a character and plot, but also it needs also an artistic language with an absolute present. A novelist able to arrange the incidents according to the plot by locating all actors in the certain place at 2 Rene Wellek Austin Warner, Theory of Literature, USA: Harcourt, Brace World. Inc, 1965 p. 34 3 Andrew sanders, The Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 p. 28 2