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be interpreted in light of the individual’s experience. This approach involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern 13-15.
In this study, the writer uses the psychological approach to analyze Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir. By using this approach, the analysis of the narrator’s motivation
in the novel can be done profoundly. The psychological approach uses psychological theories to explain human motivation, personality, and behavior patterns written in
literary objects. Moreover, this approach believes that characters’ thought, personality, and behavior may reflect their psychological order.
2.1.2 Theory of Characters and Characterization
Characters play essential roles in a literary work. They are the first point to build a story. Most stories contain a central character, which is relevant to every event
in the story; usually the events cause some changes in himher or in our attitude toward himher. Characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work,
who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogue – and by what they do –
the action Abram 23. Stanton clarifies that the term character is generally used in two ways 17.
The first, character marks out the persons in the story, the persons who appear in the story. The second, character refers to the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and
moral principles that make up each of the persons. Thus, the meaning of character can
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be both the actor in a story and the character traits of the characters. There must be a relationship between an actor and the character traits that he or she has.
There are types of character as a person in a story. Holman and Harmon categorize character into two types 82. First, major character is the character that
plays the most important role in a story. A major character becomes the focus of the story. He or she is the most frequently appearing character in the story from the
beginning until the end. Second, minor character is the character that takes a less important role in the story. He or she does not always appear in the story.
Characters can also be flat and round characters, as E. M. Forster categorizes in his book. Flat characters are easily recognized, “they are constructed round a single
idea or quality” 47. They have only one outstanding trait or feature. They change only a little part from the beginning to the end of the story. In contrast, round
character is dynamic and changes. Round character is more complex than flat character. Round character is presented with more facets with greater depth and more
details. He or she is complex in emotion and motivation. This kind of character has unpredictable action and therefore often surprises the readers.
Abrams in Glossary of Literary Terms states that there are two methods in portraying characters. They are telling method and showing method. Telling method
is a method, in which the author himself can interfere authoritatively, in order to describe and often evaluate the motives and dispositions qualities of his characters.
Showing method is a method in which the author merely presents his characters’
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talking and acting, and leaves the readers to infer what motives and dispositions lay behind what they say or do 21.
Murphy in his book Understanding Unseens mentions nine methods to understand personality in characters. They are personal description, character as seen
by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reaction, direct comment, thoughts, and mannerism Murphy 161-173.
The first one is personal description 161. It deals with physical appearances. The author describes a person’s character from his or her face detail and clothes that a
person wears in the story. For example, a person wears cashmere and silk scarf can be identified as a rich person. A person with scars, whiskers and untidy clothes can be
assumed as a criminal. The second is characters as seen by another 162. Using this method, a
person’s character is described through the eyes and opinions of another character. Therefore the readers can get a reflected image of one’s character. The reader gets, as
it were, a reflected image. This method can give the impressions of shape, cleanliness, firmness, smoothness, colour, and many other things.
The third is speech 164. It is an important way that we can use to describe a character. The author gives us a description of the characteristic of one person in a
novel through the words that come out from his or her mouth and the style of his or her speech. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he or she is in a conversation with
others, whenever he or she puts forward an opinion, the person is giving us some clues to his or her character.
