Abstract
Purposeful Distraction: Analyzing the significance of Dust ‘staub’ and Distraction ‘zerstreuung’ in The Alchemist and Brida
Highlights
The word ‘distraction’ carries a baggage of negative connotations
The themes of dust and distraction have been used in The Alchemist and Brida in a unique way where distraction is seen less as a 'vice' and more as a 'virtue'
Unlike La Bruyere’s figure of Menalque, the picture of distraction, who keeps getting himself into trouble or situations of embarrassment due to his absentminded nature, Paulo Coelho’s protagonists, Santiago and Brida, do not succumb to distractions, they triumph in them
Summary
The word ‘distraction’ carries a baggage of negative connotations. More often than not, it is associated with madness, insanity, hindrance, frenzy, interruption, disturbance, hysteria, delirium, perplexity and other similar words. The core message of his path-breaking philosophical fiction The Alchemist seems to be that one should embrace distractions as milestones that will lead one towards achieving one’s true goals. This idea might seem outrageous and even ludicrous at the outset because we are so used to equating distraction with absentmindedness, disruptions and by extension failure, but in this particular novel, distractions come in the form of ‘omens’ and ‘opportunities’ that form a part and parcel of the Universe’s greater plan for an individual. We have been brought up on the principle that pure, unadulterated focus is the only virtue that can enable one to achieve one’s goals and that is what is being contested here
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