Reading Response- Second Section

I dislike one small yet significant part of Coelho's writing. One of the thing that bothers me the most about reading this novel is that many of the characters in the novel do not get names. So far, the Andalusian girl, the Crystal Merchant, and the Englishman have been semi- to very significant to the plot of the novel, as well as to the development to Santiago as a character. The reason I dislike these characters not getting a name is that it makes the characters a lot less connectable and not very memorable (as I had to go look back through the novel to figure out what the "merchant's daughter" was referred to as). Even though I can see how Coelho wanted to use these characters more as symbols to contribute to the development of Santiago, it gives off more of a message that Coelho simply got lazy and did not want to come up with a lot of names for his characters. It even bothers me more that the only two characters that have gotten names so far (even though this is about to change) are Santiago and Melchizedek, one of which was a direct allusion to the Melchizedek from the Bible. This writing just feels unoriginal and makes remembering these characters a lot harder.

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