PAULO COELHO’S

BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN & WEPT

PRESENTED BY: OSAMA M. NABI

STUDENT NUMBER:20142519

11/5/2015

BIOGRAPHY Coelho was born in Rio in 1947. As a teenager he found his vocation: to be a writer. His parents refused the idea and when failed to suppress his desire they

thought he is mentally ill and at age of 17 was committed to a mental institution from which he escaped for 3 times before being released at the age of 20.

He enrolled to the school of law and left his dream, but dropped out one year later and lived as a hippie. He sought spiritual experiences traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started in1960s.

Upon his return to Brazil worked as a songwriter. In 1973 he joined to “The Alternative Society” an organization defending the

rights of individuals, and later on was arrested with the rest of the members and also was kidnapped and tortured by paramilitaries.

He had an encounter with a stranger first in a vision and two months later met him in a café in Amsterdam, the stranger suggested to him that he should return to Catholicism and study the benign study of magic and encouraged him to walk the Road to Santiago “ the medieval pilgrim’s route” in northwestern Spain.

this was turning point in his life and a year after finishing the pilgrimage he wrote “The Pilgrimage”.

The following year he wrote “ The Alchemist” which the first edition of it sold only 900 copies and decided not to reprint.

He found another publishing house and with the publication of his next novel “Brida” which received a lot of attention in the press, his books “The Alchemist” and “The Pilgrimage” appeared on the best sellers lists.

65 million of “The Alchemist” were sold, it is one of the best-selling books in Brazilian history, and has been translated into 80different languages

Won the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.

He has sold 190 million copies worldwide and is the all-time bestselling Portuguese language author.

He published 33 books and the most recent of his works is the “Adultery” novel, 2014.

He is still alive

GENERAL INFO. ABOUT THE NOVEL AND THE CONTENT.

It was bublished in 1994. It is the first part of Coelho’s trilogy “And on

the Seventh Day” The other two parts are  “Veronika Decides to Die” and  “The Devil and Miss Prym”.

The trilogy (the book) is “A week in the life of ordinary people, all of whom find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death and power.

THE CONTENT

Author’s note Pillar sitting on the side of the river of Piedra

narrating the events of her story which happened in the course of one week (7)days in 1993.

Saturday, December 4, 1993 Sunday, December 5, 1993 Monday, December 6, 1993 Tuesday, December 7, 1993 Wednesday, December 8, 1993 Thursday, December 9, 1993 Friday, December 10, 1993 Epilogue

EXPOSITION Authors' note and the story of the Spanish missionary. Pilar Writing her story on the bank of river Piedra, she recounts her

youth love and what happened to her in the course of one week. She travels from Zaragoza to Madrid for attending her friend’s lecture.

DECEMBER 4 (RISING ACTIONS ) Pilar attends the lecture and listens to the conversation

of two women sitting next to her. She asks her friend to drink a coffee together, but he

asks her to go with him to Bilbao as he has a conference there. (the begging of the rising actions).

He believes in the feminine side of God (p17) Brida takes her around the city and the fountain of

Cybele, then tells her that “he” loves her but Pilar doesn’t believe and leaves.

DECEMBER 5

They drive to Bilbao for two hours and don’t speak to each other.

Pilar wants to return back to Zaragoza but he ask her to stay for the conference. And tells her he is going up to the mountains and wants to show her something

He gives Pilar a small red pouch containing her old medal.

He announces his love to her. after the conference they go to dinner, Pilar doesn’t

believe in love and wants to tell him it’s not true but he changes the subject and they get in an indirect argument, but still she is reluctant.(p37)

As soon as they leave the restaurant a man follows them begging and weeping him to go with him saying “it is my son”. But Pilar doesn’t understand and her friends asks her to return to the hotel as he will not be back till the down.

DECEMBER 6 They drive to go to Pyrenees. Pilara asks him for the reason he wants to go

there, he says for seeing a house that she might be interested in. Pilar feels a struggle between her heart and mind. (p42) They see a village (San Martin de Unix) at the top of mountain which has chapel

and she asks him to go there, however, she doesn’t want to pray but she is attracted by the silence of the churches. The old man prevents them from entering the chapel but he takes her by her hand and enter. She is worried but he tells her to stop playing a role.(p47)

They go to a restaurant and she still feels nervous. She claims her tense is because of the old man “bcz of love liar”, but he knows the truth and tells her he will fight for her love. She tries to control herself by all means.(p50)

They reach at Saint-Savin, France , and start to explore the city on foot searching for a room to rent. Again, Pilar opposes her self to admit that she is in love. He say a prayer but she doesn’t say amen, explaining that she doesn’t believe in religion since she truly loved for several times but was betrayed and God didn’t listen to her suffering.

He tells her the story of “The Exercise of the Other” (p62) They find a house, take a shower, and go outside for drinking wine on the edge

of well, she talks about the danger of the falling in love but she feels the break in the dam.(p62)

She asks him to talk about his life since the last she saw him. He talks about his believes and the feminine side of God and tells the story of Bernadetted 1858 and the Immaculate Conception (p67). (Water, Fog)

They return to the plaza and for a moment she thinks about Zaragoza, her studies and the man she was hopping to find but all semeed far away.

DECEMBER 7 As they return he goes to sleep, but she stays awake and decides to do the

“exercise of the other” and realizes that she is in love and falls a sleep with a sleep on her lips.(p78)(81)

In the morning they wander for hours through snow and have breakfast in a village.

She recalls the plaza in Soria and the moment she asked him to find the medal.(p81)

He realizes that Pilar did the “exercise of the Other” (the vampires) (p84) They go to mountains for hours enjoying their time, on the sun set they decide

to return back to Saint-Savin.(p85) Upon their return they go to a church, he tells her about his experience in

search for the truth(p88-89). She wants to share her experience but fails to express but he helps her and finally she recovers her faith.(97)

As they return home he asks the owner of the house for keys as they will return late. They go to Lourdes, she again asks him about the seminary.(98-99)

She tells him then why he waited till this day to tell her the story? He tells her about the woman who had left her house to the seminary and his renunciation was not complete. He told his superior about his feelings towards Pilar and the superior told him to return back to resolve what he wants exactly.(p101)

When they reach to a cathedral they see people gathering and one of them tells Pilar that she is with a man who performs miracles, altogether they go to the grotto where the visions of Mary had occurred.

DECEMBER 8 The cathedral clock strikes in the midnight, everyone is saying their prayers,

however, Pilar wants to be alone with him talking about house, children, and her strong feeling towards him.

She sees the Charismatics (p106) and different religious and spiritual rituals, she sees people speaking in tongues “ the language of angels” as she herself tries to imitate them.

After the ritual are finished they return to Saint-Savin. When she wakes up in the morning she finds out he has left, she thinks he

abandoned her and “the Other’ appears again within her (p119), but soon she finds a note left by him telling her he has gone to the seminary and will be back. She calms down and promises not to talk to “the Other” again.

She realizes that she has the key of the house and decides to go to see it. As she wants to get in some one calls her in her name, he turns to be a priest, he wanted to see them but Pilar tells him that her friend went to seminary, he tells her that he is not and asks her to go with him as he knows where he is.

On their way they go to a woman’s house, she tells them that “The young man has cured her husband”, Pilar remembers what happened in Bilbao and Madrid .Pilar blames herself, she believes that she is keeping him away from doing miracles.(p134)

On the way the “padre” tells many stories to Pilar which implies the dangers of the way her friend is taking (p145). As they reach to the mountain he attempts to convince her to go to him, but she refuses, the “padre” tells her he knows that he is making his decision and she might lose him forever. She refuses to go to him and returns back to Saint-Savin and arrives by night, finding her friend waiting for her.

As they go out from Saint-Savin they stop in a restaurant near San Martin de Unix. Pilar senses his fear from the rejection he might get from her. She takes a glass to the edge of the table and asks him to break it.(p157)

Here the ice breaks between them.

DECEMBER 9

In the morning as they wake up, Pilar refuses to return to Zaragoza since she doesn’t want to return to her old life. She suggests to go to the monastery of Piedra.

Pilar reminisces her childhood when she sees the ruins of the monastery and recalls about its historical events.

She explains her ideology about adventures. (p169) They spend all afternoon along the canyon, they arrive to the

largest waterfall of the Piedra river called “Horses Tail” which it concealed a grotto.

They go in a tunnel descending to the cavern, there he reveals to her how he has developed his gift of curing while his four years of stay in the seminary and how he saw the face of the great mother in his room one night(p176), but eventually when he found her he couldn’t cause her suffer more.

He tells her that the day before he didn’t went to seminary but went to converse with the Great Mother to give up his gift and will follow her to Zaragoza.(p180) (Climax)

Pilar gets very disappointed and climbs the tunnel getting out of the grotto.

DECEMBER 10 (FALLING ACTIONS) She gets out of the tunnel and it is midnight, she

walks randomly as she wants to return back to Zaragoza but she can’t find a ride, thus she returns back to the garden of monastery.

She sleeps onthe frozen bare ground of the garden and roughly freezing to death.

She remembers her mother’s story and the story.(p183)

A man saves her and takes her to an old convent where a woman takes care of her, there she recalls the funeral they saw the day before.

The woman gives her a pen and paper and tells her to write everything on it and to through it into the river since the legend says everything falls into the river changes to stones.(p187)

EPILOGUE (RESOLUTION) She stays there for many days going to the river writing her story. On morning he arrives and tells her that he searched for her

everywhere but couldn’t find her. They reunite again and the story ends as he recites a psalm.

(p190-194) CHARACTERS

• Characters are dynamic and flat• Pilar and her beloved are the protagonist• The “Other” is the antagonist

Point of View: The book is written in the first person through the point of view of Pilar. Throughout the book, the reader knows what she is feeling, thinking, and how she is blind to her own logic. She contradicts herself many times, showing the reader that she is going through a lot of turmoil and does not know how to handle herself. Whenever Pilar faces a new challenge, she approaches it very cautiously at first. She teeters back and forth, showing how she is fighting her heart and her mind. Then, as the book progresses and she is getting better and suppressing her negativity, the reader can see her flourish.

Themes: Love Transformation Surrender Religion

Language: Coelho uses simple language to convey deep

notions. There are allusions to religious figures,

history and other literary works and names.

Thank you for your attention ^_^