is a novel that abounds with conflict and is, in fact, built on a
premise of inescapable life conflict. In the Forward to the 2015 25-year anniversary edition,
Brazilian authorwrites that soon after the original publication of the book, with sales so slow
that one bookseller sold only two copies in six months, the publisher canceled the book and
Coelho's contract: "They wiped their hands of the project and let me take the book with
me." Afterward, "he started knocking on the doors"--plural, many doors--"of
other publishers" until one publisher finally opened and gave The
Alchemist another chance. Coelho also writes in the Forward that "when you want
something, the whole universe conspires to help you" but--as he reveals in the Forward and
in the shepherd boy's story--not without great and sometimes grave conflict: In The
Alchemist , Coelho describes this contradictory dualism that helps and hurts as a
single "force": "It's a force that appears to be negative .....
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
What are two specific scenes in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho that each show a conflict in the novel?
Karyth Cara
No comments:
Post a Comment