Kierkegaard’s Ideas of Despairs in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

Abstract

Having despair is universal for human being as the results of our efforts in understanding our self which is an eternal torment within our finite and infinite, necessity and possibility. Kierkegaard called it as a sick of spirit that consciously or unconsciously attack ourselves. It is an indicator that there is a potential that is abandoned or ignored to stimulate us to move to a better self. The despair is remained in the self until it is aware and finds the cure, and comes to another despair of the cure. Santiago, the protagonist in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist also has his despair in realizing his dream of travel, he sees that there are many people in his social suffer from similar despair. Learning from their despairs, Santiago tries to cope with his own despairs to avoid the worse despair that will ruin his dream.

The study results the findings that the protagonist realize his dream by choosing to get rid of the despair experienced by the people around him, and take all the risks of his own despair on realizing his dream. He is able to cope with the unconscious and conscious despairs covering despair of finitude, weakness, and defiance and make his dream possible.

Key words: Despair, Unconscious Despair, Conscious Despairs, Despair of Finitude, Despair of  Weakness, and Despair of Defiance.

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/78-08

Publication date: April 30^th 2021