Essay/Term paper: The celestine prophecy

Essay, term paper, research paper:  World Literature

The Celestine Prophecy


The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. More popular than The Bridges of
Madison County, more philosophical than Socrates, and it rivals onlu R.L.
Stein's Fear Street series in bad writing. It's a "novel of ideas" says Kenneth
Moyle in his very critical essay "Why I Hate the Celestine Prophecy."
"A novel of ideas;" that's a good phrase for this "novel." I read it twice
during this assignment: the first time I thought he had great ideas and themes
to live by; the second time I still thought he had great ideas, but a terrible
way of presenting them. Moyle says "...for all intents and purposes, this is
not a novel but rather a New-Age manifesto..." That just about sums it up.
This is a great book for someone looking for direction and conflict resolution.
However, if you're looking for a book with depth and literary merit, you'd be
better off with Danielle Steele.
First of all, Redfield's characters are more two-dimentional and
unbelieveable than Barbie paper dolls. "The characters...are featureless
mouthpiecesfor the monotone authorial voice," says Moyle. A major problem I had
with reading The Celestine Prophecy was keeping track of who was who; the
characters have little or no distinction between them, and it was a bit
confusing because he keeps encountering the same people in different situations.
Another thig is Redfield repeats himself and the insights, and I'm assuming
he does it on purpose but it gets monotonous. Moyle calls it "considerate," but
I think it's just plain repetative. The only way I got complete understanding
was to make notes and think about it a LONG TIME.
"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside
with great force," says Dorothy Parker. I don't feel that strongly about The
Celestine Prophecy. "I think there is indeed something to this book," as says
Moyle. I think the insights may actually have something to them. I know that
our energies (positive and negative) affect other people, things, and situations.
The insights helped me put it into a clearer perspective. Another thing that
helped me is the insight about control dramas. Although I don't really see
myself in any that Redfield talked about, I now realize that I do have one that
I need to get out of. Despite the poor writing and chracterization, this book
helped me to realize all of the love around me, and how to be a more positive
person. I think Redfield's ideas are great, but if he wanted to write an
adventure, he should have gotten some help.