The Alchemist: Finishing Thoughts

I have officially finished The Alchemist! It was really good, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting it to be so, inspiring? Or at least, trying to be inspiring. And it was quite a deal more religious than I ever expected it to be. Which was interesting to me. I liked it because it was different than what I was expecting. Here are some of the main things that stood out to me in the novel:

-Personification. SO much personification. Of the wind, the desert, the sun, 

everything. In my own opinion, it wasn't too much personification, but 

anymore and it might have been. It added a nice effect, and emphasized 

the inspirational parts.

-Existentialism. I don't know if this is quite the right word to describe it, 

but that's kind of the feeling I got. Santiago was trying to be so in tune with 

everything around him, and paying so much attention to nature and the desert

 and what the world was trying to tell him. It reminded me of some of Ralph 

Waldo Emerson's work.

-Values and Ideals. I do believe it contains some good, important values

that need to be taught and put into action more so than they are being

currently. For example:

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

The value in this quote, is that we all have dreams. And we should all strive to achieve them! There is nothing wrong with going after your dreams. In fact, I think there is something admirable about it. Dream big. (Being an education major, I hope to be able to instill this in my future students.)

"When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."

With this quote, love, obviously is a big one. It's important to learn how to love, and to be loved in return. When we love, something in us changes. And when someone loves us back, even more changes. If we can learn to love, and better ourselves, then everything else will become better too.

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

This is pretty similar to the first quote there, but it's a big one! We shouldn't fear failure! It reminds me of another quote, the only failure is in not trying. Go after your dreams! Even if you fail, at least you tried and learned a few things along the way. 

"The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times."

The Alchemist seemed to me to just reiterate a commonly held belief, that the joy is in the journey, not the destination. If Santiago hadn't of gone through all the trials and struggles he did to fulfill his "personal legend" then he wouldn't have learned and grown so much on the way. Which, I would argue, was the most important part. It wasn't in him reaching the Pyramids, although that was technically his goal. I think the point of his journey was to become the person he was meant to be by the time he arrived at the Pyramids. I would also argue that Santiago didn't realize that till pretty late on in his story.

I think this can DEFINITELY relate to all of our lives. I claim that Paulo Coelho is making a religious claim through this book, that God knows us. He is fully aware of our goals, and what we need to do to get there. And, like with Santiago, He is fully aware of who we need to be, and what we need to go through to become that person.

It would be extremely hard for me to read this book and not have some religious insights from it. Of course, that could be simply because I'm a religious person. But I do believe that that is one claim Coelho is making with this book. 

I'm still curious as to why this book did not succeed when first published. I need to research it still. It could just be the timing, but I'm curious. 

Overall, I'm grateful I read the book. It was inspiring, if nothing else. I hope to be able to go after my dreams as much as Santiago did. I also hope to be as in tune with my surroundings as he is. 

And to finish off The Alchemist...

The Book Thief: Last Thoughts

This will most likely be my last post on The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Not because there isn't more I could say about it, because there most definitely is. I could go on about that book forever. But because I have other books to read, thoughts to have, and papers to write, I need to move on. 

(On a side note, I'm jamming out to KISS right now because I'm going to be Gene Simmons for Halloween. I'm pretty excited about it...but anyways.)

Well, I finished reading The Book Thief a couple weeks ago, but it took me a little while to finally write the paper. I had given myself such a broad topic that I didn't even know where to begin. So finally I just started thinking about why I loved the novel so much. In large part it as because it took me out of my world and into another one that I had no idea about. It also gave a fresh, new look on a lot of hard things in life, such as death and trials. Once I came up with that idea I was able to write the paper. I ended it at nine pages, but trust me, I could have kept going. 

(If you're interested in reading that paper, email me.)

I also FINALLY watched the movie of it yesterday, and I sobbed. About as much as I did while reading the book, and writing the paper. It is just so heartbreaking!

My main conclusions after reading the book and watching the movie:

-Although I think they did a really good job on the 

movie, I prefer the book. I think it's deeper, and 

you get more of Death's perspective in there. They

tried with the movie, but it's hard to do. I was

impressed that they did so well with the movie, 

but if I had to pick...

the book would win.-

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Book Thief, as well as writing about. I will definitely read it again and again. And for those of you who happen to be interested, here are some of my main thoughts I wrote about in my paper:

“Through the point of view in which The Book Thief is written, as well as the characterization of death, Papa, Liesel, and Ilsa Hermann, and the depiction of relationships through the book, the reader is plunged into Liesel’s world and experiences a new view on Death, and how the hard times in life don’t dictate our happiness. Whether the reader likes it or not, through reading the Book Thief, they will experience Liesel’s life, both the joy and the heartbreak.”

and

“Death is portrayed as having a conscious throughout the novel, which makes it more relatable to the readers of the story. Similarly, the other characters throughout the story are also all too familiar with Death. Zusak’s characterization of Death throughout the Book Thief parallels the way the characters view him, as an old friend they can’t seem to escape. And Death can’t seem to escape them either. The very last line of the novel is Death stating, “I am haunted by humans,” (page 550).  Neither party cares to run into the other again, yet there is no choice, and neither has the power to change that.”

And on that note...I'm off to write some about The Alchemist.

The Alchemist: First Thoughts

I started reading The Alchemist last night (I wasn't feeling writing my Book Thief paper yet, so I just started another book) and so far I like it. It's interesting, and I know I like it, but other than that I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. 

I read for about an hour and finished Part One of the book, and I'm definitely intrigued to know what finally happens to Santiago. 

All the religious references/allusions are interesting to me, too. For example, the old man's name is literally "Melchezidek." And he tells a story about Abraham. There is also lots of talk about God, and Melchezidek having to take a little pride in himself. I'm interested to see how this plays into the rest of the book. 

Another side note, when The Alchemist was first published in Brazil, it did NOT do well. In fact, that's probably an understatement. I think the author wrote that it sold 1 copy in 6 months, and then the exact same person bought the second copy later. Then finally it got some interest from an American, and later some good buzz from publisher's in the U.S.

Why did it not do well in Brazil? Was it just the timing, or something about the book that the people there just weren't feeling. I'm curious.

Maybe as I keep reading it will start to make more sense. One can hope, at least. 

Another thing that struck me about the book so far was how full of good one lined quotes it is! If you're interested, here are some of the best ones (in my own personal opinion.)

       

  

I'm excited to keep reading. I can't imagine it will take me that long to read, considering it's not super long and I've already made it through Part One.

British Contemporary Literature

On a Completely unrelated note, I just found this website with some really good suggestions for British Contemporary novels to read. So I'm going to take note of them here, and when I have time I'll come back and read them! 

1. Almost English, by Charlotte Mendelson

2. Swimming Home, by Deborah Levy

3. Being Dead, by Jim Crace

4. Darkmans, by Nicola Barker

5. The Child in Time, by Ian McEwan

6. The End of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas

7. The Patrick Melrose Novels, by Edward St. Aubyn

8. The Unconsoled, by Kazoo Ishiguro

9. There but for the, by Ali Smith

10. The Northern Clemency, by Philip Hensher

11. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell

12. The Biographer's Tale, by A.S. Byatt

13. The Panopticon, by Jenni Fagan

14. An Experiment in Love, by Hilary Mantel

15. White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi

16. The Quickening Maze, by Adam Foulds

17. After the First, A Still small voice, by Evie Wyld

18. The Teleportation Accident, by Ned Beauman

19. Small Island, Andrea Levy

(Thank you Flavorwire for those suggestions.)

I would like to be able to read at least one of these books this semester. Depending on how much time I spend on everything else, I might. I'm kind of leaning towards Small Island by Andrea Levy, because it is also an international bestseller. We'll see. 

The Book Thief: Concept of Time

I've been thinking about my paper on The Book Thief, and I remembered another thought I had while reading the book: time. 

The order in which events take place throughout the book isn't quite linear, but it also isn't completely sporadic. And I guess, with a narrator such as Death, in which it knows everything that has happened and will happen, it would be weird to NOT have that in the book. But it was still interesting to me.

For example, with what happens to Rudy. We got a ton of hints before anything ever actually happened to him, thanks to the narrator.

Also, with Papa and Mama's son. Before anything happened to him, we knew it would, because Death gave it away.

There was also a ton of foreshadowing (is that the right word? I'm not sure.) for Max. We knew he would come into the character's lives before they did.

Looking at it now, I could connect all those ideas to perspective. I could include that with the 'perspective' discussion that I'm going to do in the paper. There's just so much I could write about with this book! It's hard to narrow it down. But the paper I'm going to write only needs to be 5-7 pages, so I'll try and keep it to 7 pages maximum.

The Book Thief: Random Thoughts

Well, in accordance with the main purpose of this blog here, I'm going to write about some literature. Today being, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm going to write a legit paper about it in the near future, but today I'm mainly going to be brainstorming and just writing random thoughts I have down.  (Hopefully these will help me write that paper...we'll see.)

Here are the current thoughts/impressions I have about this book:

1.   WHY have I not read this before? It's been around for long enough, I just never got around to it. I  feel like everyday I realize how much amazing literature there is out there to read, and never in all my years could I possibly get to all of it. I'm glad I finally got to the Book Thief. Whoever says contemporary literature, or young adult literature isn't worth reading, has obviously never read that book. (I'm not quite sure if people actually say that, but I'm sure there are some who do.)

2.   What makes this book so good? What makes it so easy to get lost in? Because there's no arguing that is one thing this book does, it gets you lost. 

3.    It's told from death's perspective, which is a new thing. I don't think I've ever read another book told from death's perspective. Talk about de-familiarization. What's worse is that 'Death' is actually likable in the book. Thats new. 

4.    The characterization of basically ALL the characters in the book is amazing. You've got Papa, who is loving, kind, and pretty much the best Father figure Liesel could ever imagine. (Random side note...what happened to Liesel's birth father again?) Then of course, you have Rosa, or Mama. She's loving in her own way, in spite of all the yelling and swearing. Liesel herself is way too lovable. The audience doesn't really have any choice but to sympathize with and love her. And then there's the Mayor's wife. She's a hard one to understand. But as the book goes on, she becomes more lovable too. And of course Rudy. No one can forget Rudy. Is it just me, or is one of the saddest parts of the book simply the fact that Rudy never got that kiss from Liesel? At least not while he was alive. That breaks my heart. I could go on, but those are the main ones I can think of now. 

5. I think it is such an honest book. It's not afraid to break hearts and make us cry (which I did, not going to lie). I mean - SPOILER ALERT - everyone dies but Liesel and Max. If I could have chosen an ending, it would not be that. By far. Liesel and Rudy would have grown up together, and gotten married. Max would forever be a part of the family. Papa and Mama would have known they did a great thing by helping out Max, and they'd go on bickering for the rest of their lives. Everyone in the town would have grown old. But no, that's not how the book ended. And that's not how the actual even would have ended in real life. I respect that about this book. It doesn't super coat anything. 

On a side note: this is for all of you out there who love the Book Thief, and those who haven't read it yet...you should. 

I think that's what I'll end up writing about. Something to do with the characterization of all the characters, including death. Which then, I could also go into perspective. That seems like a good idea. 

I'm going to keep brainstorming though.