49 pages • 1 hour read
James RedfieldThe Celestine Prophecy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
In an interview in 2008, Redfield claimed that The Celestine Prophecy is more a parable than a novel. He went on to explain: “A parable has a structure much different than a novel. A parable is to entertain, but also to pull together insights and to not only tell a story, but to tell a story that elevates one’s awareness at the same time.” Do you agree with Redfield’s assessment of his work’s structure? How does this work follow the conventions of a novel or of a parable?
The narrator of The Celestine Prophecy is never named. How does this impact your understanding and experience of the text? Does its anonymity make the story more universal? How would its effect be different if the “I” were named and the character were developed with more particular details?
The Celestine Prophecy can be interpreted as a critique of modern Western culture. What evidence could you use to make this case?
In his influential work Poetics, Aristotle argued that plot developments must reflect clear logical causation. Does the reliance on “coincidence” as a plot device in The Celestine Prophecy enhance the theme of synchronicity, or does it lessen the overall impact of the story?
Select a well-known example of “the hero’s journey,” and compare and contrast it to The Celestine Prophecy. For example, you might choose Epic of Gilgamesh, Odyssey, or Lord of the Rings, to name a few possibilities. How does The Celestine Prophecy follow the quest formula? How does it deviate from that formula?
Since the emergence of realism in 19th-century literature with writers like Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, and Henry James, many readers have come to expect factual accuracy in much of the fiction they read. In your view, how important are historical, geographical, and/or psychological accuracy to a story like The Celestine Prophecy, which is clearly allegorical or symbolic in nature? How do questions of believability or authenticity affect your reading of the novel?
Many critics have negatively assessed such aspects of The Celestine Prophecy as its flat characterization and its frequent coincidences. Take the opposite position, and write an essay defending the novel’s literary strengths.
As a philosophical novel, The Celestine Prophecy features extensive dialogue in which characters present abstract ideas while little action takes place. Rewrite a scene that presents one of the nine insights with equal clarity but a greater emphasis on plot and action.
Most of those seeking the Manuscript in the novel are Western academics—historians, biologists, and psychologists. Does this limit the meaning, scope, and application of the novel’s message? How would a non-academic person receive the insights?
Given its Western focus, cast of white college professors, and traditional views of gender, The Celestine Prophecy could be described as deeply conservative, despite its message about religion that was somewhat radical for its time. Defend or refute this assertion using evidence from the text.
