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example of hampered-phenomena is the moment when Santiago is falling in love with a merchant daughter. This moment could induce a dramatic question,
because it might distract his passion of becoming a traveller. In the real world, love can be an obstacle. One knows what one wants to
do, but he or she is afraid of hurting those around and who love him or her, consequently, one prefers to abandon everything about the dream. Like Santiago,
he doesn’t realize that a genuine love will not stop him to achieve the goal instead of supporting him to take the journey
. “He recognized that he was feeling something he had never experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever.
With the girl with the raven hair, his days would never be the same again ”
Coelho, 1993: 6. Santiago’s fallacious thought suggests an idea to create a
dramatic question whether he will stop his travelling, live in one place, and get married to a merchant daughter or keep listening to his heart to be a traveller.
d. Exposing Hero’s Back-Story
The narration about Santiago’s father’s desire to be a traveller when the
father was young and the narration about Santiago’s decision to become a
shepherd are actually additional background and history of the hero or what is called as back-story. Coelho exposes the back-story gracefully to avoid those
narrations of becoming isolated or separate. The purpose is to give the readers more understanding about the hero and about the story. This datum is the
exposition of back-story in The Alchemist; He had studied Latin, Spanish, and theology. But ever since he had been a
child, he had wanted to know the world, and this was much more important to him than knowing God and learning about mans sins.
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One afternoon, on a visit to his family, he had summoned up the courage to tell his father that he didnt want to become a priest. That he wanted to
travel. Coelho, 1993:8
From the narration above, the researcher recognises how Coelho plots the back-story gracefully so that it is not being isolated.
Santiago’s plan to tell his background to the girl is the way Coelho adds the additional information of the
hero. Since, Santiago’s dream is to explore the world, he abandons his father’s
will of directing him to become a priest. Then, Santiago chooses to be a shepherd in order to explore all of cities in Andalusia. Actually, travelling the world is his
innate desire that his father also has but has to bury it and chooses to be a farmer. The boy, instead of being a priest, summons up the courage to realize his desire of
becoming a traveller. The fact that he is not a son of a rich family is his additional problem, but his lack of money doesn
’t stop him to be a traveller.
e. Foreshadowing the Model of the Special World
The stage of The Ordinary World also creates a small model of The Special World. It means that some events in the former area foreshadow
hero’s problems and dilemmas that may happen in more serious moments when he enters
the new area to undergo the journey . Santiago’s problems that happen in The
Ordinary World may reflect some trouble that happen in The Special World and hamper him to finish the quest. The problem are lack of fund to continue the
journey, being in love, and self-doubt about his destiny. The datum bellow is one depiction of the problems that Santiago has in The Ordinary World that
foreshadows the troubles in The Special World.
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But Id like to see the castles in the towns where they live, the boy explained.
Those people, when they see our land, say that they would like to live here forever, his father continued.
Well, Id like to see their land, and see how they live, said his son. The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so they can
afford to travel, his father said. Amongst us, the only ones who travel are the shepherds.
Well, then Ill be a shepherd His father said no more. The next day, he gave his son a pouch that held
three ancient Spanish gold coins Coelho, 1993: 9 In The Ordinary World, Santiago has desire to become a traveler so that he
abandons his father’s choice of directing Santiago to become a priest. Santiago’s father tells him that it is nearly imposible to become a traveler, for to travel the
world needs a lot of money. Since they are living in farmer family, his father tells him that the only ones who can travel are the shepherds. The fact that he is lack of
fund to spend, Santiago insist to travel the world anyhow, and he choses to be a shepherd. Then, his father afford him to buy some sheeps.
I can work for the rest of today, the boy answered. Ill work all night, until dawn, and Ill clean every piece of crystal in your shop. In return, I need money to
get to Egypt tomorrow. The merchant laughed. Even if you cleaned my cr
ystal for an entire year… even if you earned a good commission selling every piece, you would still have to
borrow money to get to Egypt. There are thousands of kilometers of desert between here and there Coelho, 1993: 47
In the Special World, Santiago is undertaking the quest, heading to the Pyramid of Egypt. For some reason, however, he loses all his money when he
arrives at Tangier, a port city of Morroco. After chaotic moment and desperate, he decides to work for a crystal merchant. Expectedly, he can get money to continue
his journey. Santiago oferrs his enthusiast to the merchant that he can work for the rest of day, all night, and until dawn. Then, santiago tells the merchant that the
money he gets will be used to go to Egypt. In this situation, the merchant feels
