CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS
This chapter consists of three major parts. The first part concerns Santiago’s portrayal, as the main character in the story. The second part concerns
the minor characters’ portrayals as portrayed in the story of The Alchemist. The third part concerns about the influence of the minor characters on Santiago’s
motivation in realizing his dream.
4.1 The Characterization of Santiago
A character is the key in the story. It becomes essential because from a character’s role in the story, the reader can obtain the messages behind the story.
A character is the person who is life-like presented in a literary work and interpretable by the readers from his or her dialogues and actions Abrams 23.
According to Milligan 195, major or main character is the focus of the story. He appears more often than other characters from the beginning until the
end of the story. In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago is the major character. The readers’ attention is focused on him. Since the story is about his
journey to find the treasure in Egypt, he appears from the beginning until the end of the story.
Forster as quoted by Abrams 24 says that round character is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularly.
Therefore, he or she is capable of surprising the readers, just like a real person.
22 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Santiago is portrayed as a round character. For example, in the beginning of the story he is a seminarian who studies theology as well as learns Spanish and Latin
languages. Then, he quits and becomes a shepherd because he likes to travel around the world. However, after he gets a recurrent dream about treasure in
Egypt, he abandons shepherding and starts travelling to Egypt to find it. There are nine methods to reveal the personalities and traits of a character
used by the author for the readers Murphy 161-173. Those are personal description, character as seen by others, speech, past life, conversation of others,
reactions, direct comment, thought, and mannerism. Some of nine methods are applied to convey Santiago’s personalities and traits in The Alchemist. Santiago is
portrayed as:
4.1.1 Intelligent
Santiago is an intelligent person. His schooling at seminary shows this. To be a seminarian is not an easy thing for a farmer family like Santiago’s except that
he is really smart. At the seminary, Santiago learns Latin, Spanish, and theology. Unfortunately, he has no interest in learning God and man’s sins. Then he decides
to quit. Santiago interests are more in travelling around the world. That he had attended a seminary until he was sixteen. His parents had
wanted him to become a priest, and thereby a source of pride for a simple farm family. They worked hard just to have food and water, like the sheep.
He had studied Lain, 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 man’s sins. Coelho 8 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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