“Zahir, in Arabic, means visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else.” (Quoted from the foreword of the book).
After a slew of depressing, heartbroken novels about the presumably corrupt world of today and the jaded cynicism of most intellectual writers, the Zahir is like a fresh ray of hope, because it is essentially a very positive book. The concept of the Zahir is very important here, because it puts the entire plot into perspective, which is necessary to grasp the Meta plot of this multi layered and wonderfully complex story.
It is easy to relate to the narrator and protagonist, because it is just not about how a rich writer who is obsessed with his disappeared wife, it is about the human experience of learning to follow dreams, realizing them, and unleashing the powerful force of truth, the truth about love and the truth about life. It is about-facing who you are and what you are afraid of, erasing past histories in order to create more and more love every day.
It is easy to sense that the protagonist is a broad minded individual, who is brighter than the average person and progressively spiritually aware as the book goes on to describe his journey. The narrative is never tedious or tense, it is alive and vibrant and so insightful that it is sometimes overwhelming. The narrator’s view of life and society is very difficult from the conventional and commonsensical, and hence it provides new interpretations of even the most mundane things.
The symbolism is very significant in the book once the reader has grasped the basic plot; within that outline the story progresses to reveal new dimensions into the writer’s search for his wife and his initially inadvertent stumbling into the truth about his own life. Paulo Coelho creates magic with words, as this piece of art clearly demonstrates.
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knowing the arabic language,i just have a comment about the meaning of “zahir”.
zahir means the obvious and apparent reality of something as opposed to “baten” it’s inner secretive reality.
i got confused in some parts of the book when the word “zahir” meant “obsession”
Thats good point Salwa Elhakim.
But Zahir also means “an object that has the power to create an obsession in everyone who sees it so that the affected person perceives less and less of reality.”
Well, I can’t debate on it and I guess you will be a better person to decide on it as you know Arabic, but that’s the meaning I got when I looked for it in Wikipedia.
Since Wikipedia is human edited, can’t trust completely on it either :).
Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I’m glad to join your conmunity,
and wish to assit as far as possible.