Identify and describe a minor character in the novel, The Alchemist Essay

Identify and describe a minor character in the novel, The Alchemist - Essay Example Fatima is an Arab girl who meets with Santiago in an oasis on the way to the pyramids. On the way to Egypt, Santiago takes time to listen to the desert and the main reason is to discover the soul of the world. The Arab girl reaches in the oasis together with other people where Santiago starts a conversation with Fatima, during the entire conversation Santiago falls in love with Fatima and Fatima falls in love with Santiago (Coelho, 1993).  As the caravan starts to go to the alchemist to learn the secret of alchemy who lives in the desert, Fatima as a desert woman is willing to wait for Santiago so that the hidden treasures in Egyptian pyramids can be disclosed and thus fulfill his personal legend. The purpose of Fatima is to encourage Santiago and go to Egypt and thus promised him that if he finds the treasures, they will marry. Additionally Fatima was looking for her man though she had interest in the hidden treasures. The camel driver meets with Santiago on their way to the oasis where their main agenda was to visit the alchemist in the desert. During this time, it is when Santiago is ready to go to Egypt to find the hidden treasures. After loosing everything in the flooding river Nile the camel driver is content with his daily routine of riding the camel. The purpose of the Camel Driver is to update Santiago and make him understand the importance of the present. The Tribal Chieftain is the guard of the oasis since the oasis should not be attacked since it was a violation of rules of the desert. After Santiago shares a vision with the tribal chieftain of two hawks fighting in the sky meant that it was an army entering the oasis to destroy it and attack those who were around. The interpretation of the vision makes the tribal chieftain to arm the men and prepare them well incase if they are attacked by enemies. The purpose of the chieftain is to make sure that in the oasis omens are listened carefully and thus when around one should be aware of desert

A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney - Essay Example There is no attempt to connect the play to a wider social world, by 'argument' (characters do not debate the issues between themselves); nor does the play articulate a position on that world (there is no obvious authorial 'point of view' on display); nor, despite the contextual readings, does Delaney exploit the metonymic function of the characters, action or set, but rather the issues are visible in the texture of the personal relationships themselves. Stuart Hall noted this aspect of the play: Delaney is not at all self-conscious about her ability to portray Salford life but she accepts this as a framework for what she is really interested in communicating-her extraordinarily fine and subtle feel for personal relationships. No themes or ideas external to the play disturb its inner form: her values are all intensive. A Taste of Honey is remarkable partly because it breaks a number of racial and sexual taboos: Jo's lover is a black sailor and her flat-mate is homosexual, and the main action of the play is the journey into motherhood of a young, unmarried teenager. It is not simply that these things are represented, but that they are represented positively-that the form of the play elicits sympathy for characters that come to us heavy with connotations, who are part of a world that we 'read about every Sunday in the News of the World'. It is precisely such socially marginal and 'a-typical' characters with which the Wolfenden Report-and the press debate that followed it-was so concerned. The action of the play is contained by a 'comfortless flat', and the stage space is clearly marked as domestic. It is, however, an interior in which all the domestic activities are potentially on display; the kitchen area, the double bed, the living and eating areas-these are all visible, delineating a whole 'way of life' in its routines and chores. Very little conventional domestic activity actually takes place in this space, though, and when it does, it is not performed by characters who inhabit traditional roles. This is part of a complex series of reversals and oppositions in the play, in which expected connections are severed. The mother figure, Helen, is very unlike a 'mother', having no domestic abilities, being feckless and sexually active. The caring role is taken initially by Jo, the daughter, and then by Geoff, a man who displays none of the conventional 'male' attributes. The nearest to a white, male, heterosexual gender norm in the play is to be found in Peter, Helen's l over and fianc, who is presented as a lecher and a drunk. The three central characters are all potentially sexually active, and the two women become so. However, sex is destructive to happiness in the world of the play-as it is in Look Back in Anger. It separates mother and daughter (Helen's marriage to Peter) and leaves Jo with a baby. Jo's relationship with Geoff is only possible because it is without sex. The only moments of genuine difficulty between them are when sex is involved; Jo's demand that Geoff tell her what he does with