Plot Intrinsic Elements of Narrative
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In a research conducted by Julia Boll 2011 the topic of the archetypes of hero’s journey is presented. Her research entitled Harry Potter’s Archetypal
Journey Heroism in the Harry Potter Series, Berndt Steveker, eds has the aim to explore the narrative structure underlying J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter heptalogy.
The study suggests that this heptalogy follows the model of the Monomyth of hero’s journey not only as a basic pattern for the whole story line, but also for
each individual volume. Her work is published by Ashgate publisher and focuses on archetypal and myth theory. Julia Boll relies on Joseph Campbell’s The hero
with a Thousand Faces and Carl Gustav Jung’s psychological archetypes. She
found that the novel series apply the original form of hero’s journey through the cycle of Separation- Initiation- Return. Meanwhile, the characters of the novel
take on the roles of different Jungian archetypes. The last related research study is conducted by Gatricya Rahman, a former
student of Yogyakarta State University. Her research 2014 has the aim to reveal the archetypes of hero and hero’s journey in The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales
and uncovers the literary methods used to reveal those archetypes. Through her research entitled
The Archetypes of Hero and Hero’s Journey in Five Grimm’s Fairy Tales, she found that there are four archetypes of hero in the tales. Then,
there are mainly eleven stages among twelve stages of the archetypes of hero’s
journey found in the tales. The last result, the archetypes of hero are mainly revealed by character revelation, mostly through actions and speeches, the
archetypes of hero’s journey are presented through plot and setting of time and place.
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From the related researches above, the researcher generates some assumptions relating to her own research and the use of previous researches as a
part of research writing process. From the first research conducted by Lily Hasanah, the sequential data collected on the research is helpful in tracking the
tragedies or events that Santiago has undertook. However, Hasanah did not include various research methods and in-depth reading observations. Actually,
using additional methods in revealing the finding can give more authentic result. Anyhow, Hasanah’s research gives understanding to the researcher that the hero
in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist can be investigated not only in his journey but also in his process of decision making in dealing with his dilemma.
Julia Boll’s research includes all of the series of the novel not just individual volume of the series since focus on the entire series serve the
chronological order of the whole story line. Yet, she is only relying on the literary theory instead of adding with others approach and method. Actually,
employing additional method or approach in the research can prove that the finding is more authentic.
Gatricya Rahman’s research employs children literature fiction that is Grim
’s fairy tales in investigating the archetypes of hero and the structure of the archetypes of hero’s journey. In this case, the researcher postulates that the
archetypes of hero’s journey do not only emerge from one literature genre, like Children literature, but also from others literature genres like quest, adventure, or
fantasy. For this reason, archetype of hero’s journey could be found from multiple sources of literature genre.
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After examining the findings and considering the strengths and weaknesses of the previous researches above, the researcher firmly nominates a
quest or an adventure book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho for her research. The researcher agrees with Julia Boll to analyse the narrative structure of the novel
focusing on the archetype o f hero’s journey by exploring the stages or patterns in
the cycle of Separation-Initiation-Return. In this research, the researcher relies on Vogler’s theory of mythic structure especially the stages of the archetypes of
hero’s journey. The researcher also agrees with Gatricya in using structuralism to get deeper analysis in displaying the archetypes of hero’s journey.