A Study of the Philosophy of The Alchemis

• Main Authors: Chiang Wan Lin, 蔣宛玲
• Other Authors: 張子樟
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ny2mfd

碩士 === 國立臺東大學 === 兒童文學研究所 === 92 === The paper takes The Alchemist, a book written by Paulo Coelho, as the subject to analyze how the author structured his world of novels with theories of C.G. Jung and mythology, by using archetype of dreams and symbols to lead the major character of The Alchemist to reach the status of Self archetype. The paper studies the literary aspects as well as the different perspectives of life within the context of the book. Through this research, this paper tries to derive a philosophy domain from the stories of literature. The paper first interprets Paulo Coelho’s intention through analysis of western alchemy. Second, this paper studies the magic-reality technique and the ultimate concerns of writing that Paulo Coelho deployed to express the general image of order and unity. This paper describes the images of The Alchemist to explain the substances of the archetype and symbol. This paper further analyzes mythical symbol and metaphor of the archetype image in a literary view. This paper explains the mental journey of the of the boy’s adventure, through the mythical theories of Joseph Campbell . The paper applies the theories of Carol S. Pearson, a Jungian psychologist, to frame the archetype changes of the main character in The Alchemist. The paper also applies the theories of mysticism to explain the experience of All In One of mystical communication. Then, it goes on to analyze the text of The Alchemist and the chaos of dreaming foresight and simultaneous illusion, through the view of alchemist and the Mysteriuznm coniuntionis of C.G. Jung, to reveal the unknown side of Paulo Coelho and the consistency of understanding of western mystics. The paper starts with the comparison of integrated image of alchemy with the Paulo Coelho’s writing technique. The paper further discovers that C.G. Jung was inspired by the book, “the complete alchemy principles”(「太乙金華宗旨」), an ancient Eastern alchemy book. Finally, The paper discusses the Chinese alchemy from the Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.