JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 A Study into the Style and Narrative Techniques Adopted in Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir Dr. Kumar Gaurav Assistant Professor Department of English K.S.R. College, Sarai Ranjan, Samastipur, Bihar, India Abstract Paulo Coelho, the famous Brazilian author is one of the most influential writers of modern age. Coelho’s The Zahir is an attempt to understand the different possibilities that life throws at us. The Zahir which means ‘obvious’ or ‘conspicuous’ in Arabic is a story that revolves around life of a unnamed narrator who is a famous celebrity and a bestselling novelist. His wife, Esther who is a award winning journalist and a war correspondent has gone missing. The aim of the research paper is to study the different narrative techniques and styles that the author has adopted in this novel to make it a literary masterpiece. Keywords: Paulo Coelho, Narrative Techniques, The Zahir. 1. Introduction Coelho’s protagonist of the novel, the unnamed author, is a renowned author. As he is a famous celebrity the local police and press both initially suspect the narrator might be having some role in the disappearance of his wife. The disappearance of his wife forces him to analyse his married life with Esther as well as his own life with a different perspective. Initially he is unable to figure out the actual reasons which might have led to Esther’s disappearance. But after meeting Mikhail, the translator guy, with whom Esther was supposed to have eloped with, he finds out that Esther has left him because the narrator after becoming a successful novelist and a famous celebrity started to look for happiness in other things thereby ignoring her happiness and emotions. The narrator tells his current lover, Marie who is a successful actress and a celebrity about Mikhail and his special powers. Marie warns the narrator against Mikhail as Volume XIII, Issue XI, NOVEMBER 2020 Page No: 294 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 she is susceptible towards him because of his epileptic fits. Marie advises him to go in search of Esther despite being in love with him as she knows that is what the narrator’s real desire is. The narrator finally decides to embark on the journey to find his Zahir, his wife Esther. The journey which started from Paris will take him to Kazakhstan as that is where his Zahir is, making carpets and giving French lessons. The journey from Paris to Kazakhstan will help the narrator explore true meaning of love, life, happiness and lead him towards discovery of self. 2. Discussion The story of The Zahir is set in the year around 2000-2005. This can be concluded from the fact that Mikhail who is a resident of Kazakhstan is around fifteen years old when the country gets freedom from communist regime of Russia. And in the novel at the time when he meets the narrator he is twenty five years old. Kazakhstan got its freedom in the year 1991. Besides the story also mentions that the wife of narrator had returned from Iraq after covering the war as a war correspondent. As Iraq has been at war since beginning of twenty first century, therefore, that confirms the assumption that the novel is set in the year 2000-2005. The plot of the novel is set at various locations. The story starts from Paris. Paris is the centre of the plot throughout the novel. It does go to Spain, Kazakhstan and Croatia for a brief period in flashback but the story always returns to Paris before ending at Kazakhstan. The narrator who is a bestselling novelist and a celebrity lives at Paris with his journalist wife Esther. He is well known in Paris which is evident from the fact that the police man who arrested him on the charge that he might be involved in the disappearance of his wife knows him though he has not read any of his books. The story also travels to Spain in a flashback. The narrator was a lyricist before becoming a writer. His wife, Esther suggests him to walk on the medieval pilgrimage route i.e. the road to Volume XIII, Issue XI, NOVEMBER 2020 Page No: 295 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 Santiago which will motivate him to start writing the book he had wanted to write since childhood. The setting moves to Kazakhstan more than once. This place is important in the context of the story. It is where Esther meets Mikhail for the first time and finds out the reason behind unhappiness in her life. She has been to Kazakhstan to cover some war report but decided to stay there and make carpets as it brings peace in her life. The place is also important in the context of the novel as it tells the atrocities committed by the communist regime of Russia before Kazakhstan got freedom. Besides the narrator’s search for his missing wife ends at Kazakhstan where he finds her waiting for him. The setting of the novel also goes to Croatia for a brief period. The importance of this place lies with narrator as it is where he has been coming when he used to travel looking for adventure much before he became famous as a novelist. It is at Croatia, where he finally decides that he will go in search of his wife. He already knows that Esther is in Kazakhstan but cannot go there to find her as advised by Mikhail. Unlike previous books e.g. The Alchemist, Veronika Decides To Die and Eleven Minutes considered for this research work, Coelho decided to use first person narrative to describe the story of The Zahir. Though the novel is not based on autobiographical account but the character of unnamed narrator is inspired from the life of Coelho himself. The first person point of view helps Coelho in convincing his readers about the plight of the narrator, the trauma he undergoes after finding out that his wife has left him. Also Coelho makes his readers develop empathy for the narrator as they spend most of the time in character’s brain. Coelho has strong reasons for writing the novel in the first-person narrative. The Zahir highlights the story of the narrator’s love, neglect, suffering and reunion with his wife Esther. By using first person narrative, Coelho allows the narrator to tell his story to the readers in Volume XIII, Issue XI, NOVEMBER 2020 Page No: 296 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 whatever way he feels is right thereby establishing direct connection with readers. An example of first person narrative used in one of the text is illustrated below, “I’ve spent a large part of my life enslaved to one thing or another, so I should know the meaning of the word. Ever since I was a child, I have fought to make freedom my most precious commodity, I fought with my parents, who wanted me to be an engineer, not a writer. I fought with the other boys at school, who immediately homed in on me as the butt of their cruel jokes, and only after much blood had flowed from my nose and from theirs, only after many afternoons when I had to hide my scars from my mother – because it up to me not her to solve my problems – did I manage to show them that I could take a thrashing without bursting into tears. I fought to get a job to support myself, and went to work as a delivery man from a hardware store, so as to be free from that old line in family blackmail: “We’ll give you money, but you’ll have to do this, this and this”.(Coelho 9)1 The ‘Rising Action’ of the novel is the disappearance of his wife Esther. Esther’s disappearance without telling the narrator any reason for doing so sets the tone of the novel. Her disappearance pushes the narrator to revisit and understand the marital aspects and responsibilities of a husband which he has forgotten under the influence of his celebrity status. Esther’s disappearance will take the narrator back in time to make him realize true value of his wife. The ‘Falling Action’ in the novel is when prior to finding his wife the narrator admits to Mikhail that the travel across the steppes of Kazakhstan has made him remember all his past life which help him realize what all wrong he did with his wife Esther which forced her to leave him. His visit to steppes has turned him into a believer as he now believes that Mikhail “hear voices” and Mikhail “did have visions when he was a child”. Coelho’s The Zahir has few ironies in his story. The story starts with an irony. Early in the novel, the narrator admits to the police officer that he loves his wife very much and is unaware Volume XIII, Issue XI, NOVEMBER 2020 Page No: 297 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 of any particular reason because of which she can leave him. Though he claims to love his wife very much but he is released from the prison because a lady friend of his wife confirms to the police his version of the story that he was sleeping with her when his wife disappeared. Coelho’s protagonist and his wife, though claim to love each other and are married to each other for ten years, don’t mind in having affairs outside marriage.