Analysis of Existentialist Theme Through The Protagonist of Paulo Coelho's 'Veronika Decides To Die'.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… ii

ABSTRACT ………. iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study ………... Statement of the Problem ……….. Purpose of the Study ……….. Methods of Research ………. Organization of the Thesis ...………..

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CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF EXISTENTIALIST THEME THROUGH THE PROTAGONIST IN PAULO COELHO’S VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE …….

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CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ………... 17

BIBLIOGRAPHY ………... 21

APPENDICES:

Synopsis of Veronika Decides to Die …………...………. Biography of Paulo Coelho...……….

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ABSTRACT

Tesis ini menganalisis novel Veronika Decides to Die yang ditulis oleh Paulo Coelho. Dalam novel ini banyak ditemukan nilai - nilai tentang eksistensialisme yang sangat kental yang dialami oleh protagonis yang bernama Veronika. Tema yang ingin disampaikan oleh Coelho kepada para pembacanya dianalisis dan disimpulkan melalui teori eksistensialisme yang sangat berkaitan erat dalam tema tersebut.

Teori eksistensialisme adalah teori tentang individu yang mempunyai kebebasan dalam hidup dan mempunyai tanggung jawab terhadap kebebasan yang dimilikinya, sehingga masing – masing individu berhak menentukan keputusan yang menurutnya benar. Dan teori eksistensialisme yang sangat menonjol dalam analisa ini adalah teori eksistensialisme dari Jean – Paul Sartre yang berpendapat bahwa individu mempunyai kebebasan dalam memilih, berkomitmen dalam keputusan yang diambil dan juga menerima konsekuensi yang timbul dari keputusan yang diambil.

Dari novel tersebut dapat terlihat dengan jelas eksistensialis protagonis yang tergambarkan dengan sangat jelas dari cara tokoh protagonis menjalani

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hidup dalam lingkungan sosial yang tidak diharapkannya, hal ini menimbulkan dilema yang dihadapi olehnya dalam menjalani kehidupan. Dan juga nilai – nilai yang berlaku dalam lingkungan sosialnya yang mempengaruhi tokoh protagonis dalam mengambil dan membuat keputusan. Hal tersebut dapat mempengaruhi esensi dari eksistensialisme menjadi tidak berarti.

Dari analisis tema melalui teori eksistensialisme dapat disimpulkan bahwa Paulo Coelho pada waktu menulis Veronika Decides to Die, dia ingin menyampaikan pesannya kepada masyarakat bahwa dalam mencapai suatu kepuasaan yang ingin dicapai seseorang tidak dapat dipengaruhi oleh nilai sosial yang berlaku dalam kehidupan tetapi berdasarkan keinginan sendiri.

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika Decides to Die is a story about a twenty-four-year-old woman named Veronika. She seems to have everything she can wish for, attractive physical feature, a boyfriend, a steady job as a librarian, and a loving family, but she is bored with her routine tasks, which becomes the reason of her frustration and unhappiness.

She sometimes even feels useless, unworthy and incapable. She feels like doing something in her life that can be beneficial to everyone around her but she feels powerless and helpless. So she decides to commit suicide by taking a high dose of sleeping pills to end her meaningless life. But her plan fails and she wakes up in Villete, a local mental hospital in Slovenia, where she is told she has only one more week to live.

Veronika herself during her stay in Villete hospital starts to see her past life much more clearly and understands why she previously has felt her life to have no meaning. In this heightened state, Veronika discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love – even sexual awakening.

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Against all odds, she finds that she is falling in love and wanting, if she were to live again. She learns that she desires to live once again. Much to her surprise, Veronika is still alive and knows that she is only given a shock therapy by the doctor to learn that she can live without running from reality.

Biography of Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 1947 from a middle-class family, the son of Pedro, an engineer, and Lygia, a housewife. Paulo's parents wanted him to be an engineer and when Paulo was seventeen his father had him committed to a psychiatric hospital three times. Paulo bought a typewriter and started writing, without much success. The following year, he returned to Brazil, where he worked as an executive for another record company, CBS.

He has sold over 86 million books in over 150 countries worldwide. He has received numerous literary awards from a variety of countries, including La Legion d'Honneur (France), Grinzane Cavour (Italy), His other novels include The Alchemist, and has been translated into 56 languages. In addition he has written The Pilgrimage, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Valkyries, The Manual of the Warrior of Light, Veronika Decides to Die, Eleven Minutes, The Fifth Mountain, The Zahir, The Devil and Miss Prymm. His books have appeared on bestseller lists in countries not only in Brazil, but also in the UK, the USA, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Israel, Finland and Greece. He is the all time best-selling Portuguese language author (Wikipedia).

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.

Paulo Coelho is a writer who has been nominated by Brazilian Academy of Letters and he is “the all time best-selling Portuguese language author” (Wikipedia). Coelho has always managed to come up with extraordinary topics for his writings and his artworks have won numerous literary awards and have also appeared on best sellers list in many countries.

One of his critically acclaimed book is Veronika Decides to Die. According to critical acclaim by Denver Post Veronika Decides to Die is “Coelho’s most artful work to date… pulling the reader into discussion” (Paulocoelho). For these reasons, I choose this literary artwork for my analysis.

Moreover, according to critical acclaim by Revista Ercilla, it is stated that Veronika Decides to Die is “an invitation to reflect closely on our existence” (Paulocoelho). Because of that, I decide to analyze the theme of this novel, “the central idea or dominating idea in literary work” (Shaw 378) by applying existentialism approach. I believe it will provide a great existentialist insight to the readers regarding choices and satisfaction in life.

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Existentialism views human existence as a set of underlying theme and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing (Wikipedia). Existentialism is based on moral individualism, where everything is subjective for it is impossible to find an ultimate justification in making choices. The lack of standard in right and wrong deed is exactly why humans are free to make their own choice.

A well-known philosophical thinker in existentialism is Jean Paul Sartre (Wikipedia), he is one of the founders of existentialism and has declared with his slogan “existence precedes essence” that means there is no predefined essence to humanity, except that which people make for themselves.

Existentialism based on Sartre is a concept to the individual view which deals with human being’s existence in finding the meaning of life and emphasizing on individual freedom and choice. In Sartre’s theory, everyone in this society is given the free choice and the right to choose whatever one desires, and conform to the society will only lead one to nothingness and meaninglessness in life. So in his view, taking decision in one’s own will has its values and appreciation because one can only define oneself with personal choices. And after someone chooses, he or she also has to commit to the choice and must accept all the consequences of the choice, that is what makes the value and existence created solid based on the theory. So I decide to analyze the book Veronika Decides to Die through the concept based on Jean Paul Sartre’s theories because of the strong relation between the life of the protagonist Veronika with this philosophical view.

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Society has a strong relation to existentialism because the values in society always affect the decision one makes in life. Meanwhile according to existentialism, decision should be made independent of social values (Tameri). Because existentialism appreciates individual values in taking decision.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.

1. What is the theme of existentialism in Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die?

2. How is the theme presented through the protagonist?

III. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY.

1. To show the theme of existentialism in Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die.

2. To show how the theme is presented through the protagonist.

IV. METHODS OF RESEARCH.

In this thesis, I begin my research by library research. First by reading Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho as the primary text. Next, to support my study in analysis I search reading materials through reference books and Internet sites and I obtain more relevant information on the theory related to the approach that will be used and applied to the analysis of the thesis. Finally, I use all the information for the analysis of the topics I choose for my thesis.

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understand the protagonist’s life through the portrayal of the protagonist. I study the protagonist’s choice, freedom, and individual existence that leads the protagonist’s into meaningless in life. And all the theory I relate to her personal life, society, and her desires in social environment.

V. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS.

The thesis divides into three chapters, starts with acknowledgements, table of contents and abstract. In chapter one the introduction, which consists of the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the methods of research and the organization of the thesis. Chapter two contains an analysis of the existentialist theme of Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die. Chapter three presents the conclusion of the analysis of literary works. The thesis ends with lists of references in the bibliography and the appendices, which present the synopsis of Veronika Decides to Die and the biography of the author, Paulo Coelho.

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analyzed the novel Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, I conclude that the theme is ‘One must make decision on the basis of personal interest and not of social expectation so as to gain happiness in life’ through the life of Veronika as the protagonist of the novel in her pursuit of her happiness which can only be reached through choices of personal interest and not based on the judgement of society.

Furthermore, suicide is the alternative choice that Veronika chooses to end her suffering in among the dilemmatic choices and to get her existentialism value, she has to face the choices between confirming and going against the society which cause her dilemmatic situation in making the choice. She has been tormented by her helplessness in submitting to social expectations and how to get happiness in her way. She realizes that conformity can only bring dissatisfaction, and she is not pleased with the life she is leading which is against her wish. As a result, this condition creates void in her view of the meaning of life. It happens because of the disabilities of the protagonist to face pressure from the society and

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to go against the existing value of the society. So in view of existentialism, the effect is that the individual loses his or her existence while her anxiety clouds her in finding the ultimate justification for the choice that she must make.

And here there is a pleasure that Veronika gets in her personal choice by the satisfaction of her desires through masturbating which is sinful and she breaks all the values of the society. In my opinion for Veronika’s happiness can only reach her wish and need in her life, if Veronika has managed to reach that by making that personal decision of committing suicide even if it costs her life and her sexual act which is forbidden but it makes her satisfied.

From Veronika’s life, I find that there is an authoritative society that makes someone be limited in making her choice. So in such society, there is a choice but the option is limited and this makes people in the society be left with limited options. Authoritative society has a purpose to make the people unable to express and appreciate different values in the uniformed society. This purpose is to minimize people from having different ideas or wishes in the society so it is easier to organize people to gain certain goal or purpose. On the contrary, individualism promotes individual freedom and causes more chances for than in a perfect uniformed order society. In other words, individualism constructs people with various thoughts, ideas, and beliefs which make it hard to uniform based on the existing social value. That is the reason why authoritative society rejects such values. These people will be rejected one way or another so they cannot contribute nor make anything significant to the society and make them feel alienated and useless, and it will come to the stage where one will either submit

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to the will of the society, joining them with their uniformed value or persisting on their individualism and reaching a stronger and more solidified satisfaction. So in analyzing this novel, I have found that authoritative society is not positive for individual life because it will create discrimination in forms of pressure and alienation to individualism and the contradictory agenda of the individualism to society which is seen as hindrance to the development of the society in fulfilling their vision.

And also through this novel, a mental hospital is a used as a symbol of absence of authority for the individual who has pressure from society so here people can get freedom of value as they need. Furthermore, the writer wants to show the society that cannot accept differences in forcing individuals having to try to fit into patterns of society and become meaningless in terms of existentialism of freedom of choice. As a result, the society will find ways to alienate these individuals by creating an isolated place as a media to reject the people who have different thoughts and ideas from them. Our present society still does have such discriminative tendency toward individuals, if we cannot accept someone who has different behavior we will isolate the people into the place where we can cure his or her individual-assumed mistaken or weird acts and thoughts. In Veronika’s society, these individuals are isolated into the mental hospital as a symbol of rejection. In the mental hospital, the rejected people interestingly find happiness through their absolute freedom that they can free to act and think because there are freedom from restriction and authority. The mental hospital in Villete has zero authority as there is no exact value and rule

Maranatha Christian University

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controlling them in contrast to the authoritative society. In the novel, Villete turns out to be a sanctuary for these outcasts for they can utilize their given freedom of choice and act without any restrictive force that threatens them with undesirable consequences.

The writer wants to emphasize that the individual has the right of expressing his or her own acts and wills and the society cannot underestimate and judge the people based on his or her decision because the betterment of life is not based on the judgement of others. Instead, we must accept differences in many subjects in life because I think that is what makes life more colourful and attractive. So overall, the author has successfully presented an existentialism theme to the readers of this literary work about freedom of choice in life and the satisfaction to be reached by fulfilling it. And I think through the novel Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho successfully reveals the themes of ‘One must make decision on the basis of personal interest and not of social expectation so as to gain happiness in life’ through the four stages of Veronika’s life and her individual freedom of choice.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw – Hill, Inc., 1972.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Eksistentialism and Human Emotions. New York: Kesington Publishing Corp., 1987

Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy the Classics. New York: Routledge. 1998

Internet Websites

Wikipedia.com: Existentialism. 2006. 3 September 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism>.

Tameri.com: The Existential Primer. 2005. C. S. Wyatt. 3 September 2006 <http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/exist.html>.

Wikipedia.com: Paulo Coelho. 2006. 3 September 2006

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho>. Paulocoelho.com: Paulo Coelho. Sant Jordi. 2002. 3 September 2006

<http://www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/bio.shtml>.

Primary Text

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understand the protagonist’s life through the portrayal of the protagonist. I study the protagonist’s choice, freedom, and individual existence that leads the protagonist’s into meaningless in life. And all the theory I relate to her personal life, society, and her desires in social environment.

V. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS.

The thesis divides into three chapters, starts with acknowledgements, table of contents and abstract. In chapter one the introduction, which consists of the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the methods of research and the organization of the thesis. Chapter two contains an analysis of the existentialist theme of Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die. Chapter three presents the conclusion of the analysis of literary works. The thesis ends with lists of references in the bibliography and the appendices, which present the synopsis of Veronika Decides to Die and the biography of the author, Paulo Coelho.

CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analyzed the novel Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, I conclude that the theme is ‘One must make decision on the basis of personal interest and not of social expectation so as to gain happiness in life’ through the life of Veronika as the protagonist of the novel in her pursuit of her happiness which can only be reached through choices of personal interest and not based on the judgement of society.

Furthermore, suicide is the alternative choice that Veronika chooses to end her suffering in among the dilemmatic choices and to get her existentialism value, she has to face the choices between confirming and going against the society which cause her dilemmatic situation in making the choice. She has been tormented by her helplessness in submitting to social expectations and how to get happiness in her way. She realizes that conformity can only bring dissatisfaction, and she is not pleased with the life she is leading which is against her wish. As a result, this condition creates void in her view of the meaning of life. It happens

18

to go against the existing value of the society. So in view of existentialism, the effect is that the individual loses his or her existence while her anxiety clouds her in finding the ultimate justification for the choice that she must make.

And here there is a pleasure that Veronika gets in her personal choice by the satisfaction of her desires through masturbating which is sinful and she breaks all the values of the society. In my opinion for Veronika’s happiness can only reach her wish and need in her life, if Veronika has managed to reach that by making that personal decision of committing suicide even if it costs her life and her sexual act which is forbidden but it makes her satisfied.

From Veronika’s life, I find that there is an authoritative society that makes someone be limited in making her choice. So in such society, there is a choice but the option is limited and this makes people in the society be left with limited options. Authoritative society has a purpose to make the people unable to express and appreciate different values in the uniformed society. This purpose is to minimize people from having different ideas or wishes in the society so it is easier to organize people to gain certain goal or purpose. On the contrary, individualism promotes individual freedom and causes more chances for than in a perfect uniformed order society. In other words, individualism constructs people with various thoughts, ideas, and beliefs which make it hard to uniform based on the existing social value. That is the reason why authoritative society rejects such values. These people will be rejected one way or another so they cannot contribute nor make anything significant to the society and make them feel alienated and useless, and it will come to the stage where one will either submit

to the will of the society, joining them with their uniformed value or persisting on their individualism and reaching a stronger and more solidified satisfaction. So in analyzing this novel, I have found that authoritative society is not positive for individual life because it will create discrimination in forms of pressure and alienation to individualism and the contradictory agenda of the individualism to society which is seen as hindrance to the development of the society in fulfilling their vision.

And also through this novel, a mental hospital is a used as a symbol of absence of authority for the individual who has pressure from society so here people can get freedom of value as they need. Furthermore, the writer wants to show the society that cannot accept differences in forcing individuals having to try to fit into patterns of society and become meaningless in terms of existentialism of freedom of choice. As a result, the society will find ways to alienate these individuals by creating an isolated place as a media to reject the people who have different thoughts and ideas from them. Our present society still does have such discriminative tendency toward individuals, if we cannot accept someone who has different behavior we will isolate the people into the place where we can cure his or her individual-assumed mistaken or weird acts and thoughts. In Veronika’s society, these individuals are isolated into the mental hospital as a symbol of rejection. In the mental hospital, the rejected people interestingly find happiness through their absolute freedom that they can free to act and think because there are freedom from restriction and authority. The mental hospital in Villete has zero authority as there is no exact value and rule

20

controlling them in contrast to the authoritative society. In the novel, Villete turns out to be a sanctuary for these outcasts for they can utilize their given freedom of choice and act without any restrictive force that threatens them with undesirable consequences.

The writer wants to emphasize that the individual has the right of expressing his or her own acts and wills and the society cannot underestimate and judge the people based on his or her decision because the betterment of life is not based on the judgement of others. Instead, we must accept differences in many subjects in life because I think that is what makes life more colourful and attractive. So overall, the author has successfully presented an existentialism theme to the readers of this literary work about freedom of choice in life and the satisfaction to be reached by fulfilling it. And I think through the novel Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho successfully reveals the themes of ‘One must make decision on the basis of personal interest and not of social expectation so as to gain happiness in life’ through the four stages of Veronika’s life and her individual freedom of choice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw – Hill, Inc., 1972.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Eksistentialism and Human Emotions. New York: Kesington Publishing Corp., 1987

Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy the Classics. New York: Routledge. 1998 Internet Websites

Wikipedia.com: Existentialism. 2006. 3 September 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism>.

Tameri.com: The Existential Primer. 2005. C. S. Wyatt. 3 September 2006 <http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/exist.html>.

Wikipedia.com: Paulo Coelho. 2006. 3 September 2006

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho>. Paulocoelho.com: Paulo Coelho. Sant Jordi. 2002. 3 September 2006

<http://www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/bio.shtml>. Primary Text