1

KOTEBE UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

(Post Graduate Weekend Program)

THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF DESTA BOOK 4

TERM PAPER TO THE COURSE

SURVEY OF ETHIOPIAN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE (LITE: 504)

SUBMITTED BY: TESFAYE MEBRATU

SUBMITTED TO: ANDUALEM HADERO (PHD)

November, 2022

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

1
 2

1. INTRODUCTION

Desta roots 4(volume 4) was published first in July 17,

2018. Desta, the lead character in the story, is on an epic adventure to find a
three-thousand year-old magic coin and unite it with the one his family owns
plus getting modern education far from his home town. Epic is
a genre of narrative defined by heroic or legendary adventures presented in a
long format. Prophesied since ancient time, this union is belied to bring mercy
and good fortune to all mankind.

The author of the book Getty Ambau was born in Ethiopia. He came to the

United States as a student; where he attended one year at

high school in Ohio. Later, he entered Yale University, where he majored in
economics and molecular biophysics and biochemistry.

After he graduated, he worked in research labs, earned an advanced degree in

business, ran his own companies, but writing has always been his inner
calling. He is the author of the award-winning Desta series and nutrition books
which became international best sellers. Book Two of his novels was featured
in both the digital and print versions of Kirkus Reviews magazine. He lives in
the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Rosario and a precious terrier called
Scruffy. The writer of this paper is interested to see the book in the bird’s eye
view to analyze its thematic analysis.

Theme analysis of literary texts is one of the oldest and most established
disciplines in literary studies. Critics have been generally concerned with

2
 3

identifying the themes within literary texts. It was thought that part of the
critic’s job is to understand the deep meanings conveyed by authors, and make
observations about literary texts in order to construct the expression of themes
in these works (Headrick, 2013; Pugh & Johnson, 2013).

2. Thematic Analysis
The book has a wonderful narrative style exploring history, culture, strength
and unity, adventure and magical realm. This paper analysis the theme of the
book reflected through these exploration techniques. Although thematic
analysis has long been used in literature studies, the issue of how themes are
defined is still controversial in literary criticism. Over the years, there has been
no consensus among critics on the best ways of interpreting texts and deriving
thematic concepts, and there is no single agreed approach to thematic analysis
in literature. Therefore, it is still the case that thematic analysis is controversial
and problematic in literary criticism studies (Mulhern, 2014). The objective of
this study is to:

2.1. Explore the historical elements of the novel

2.2. To reveal the novel adventurous, cultural and magical realm
2.3. Present what makes the novel best seller and beneficial for adults and
children
2.4. Discover the final mission of the main character

2.1. Historical themes

Getty’s one purpose of writing the novel is, the writer of this paper believes based
on extracts from the book, because he wants to educating his readers about the
value of our history and heritage as well as to reveal the golden civilization sign,
Abay for the rest of the world and his fellow people of Ethiopia. .

In terms of our records,” Gebru continued, “we fought 238 battles against the
Chinese and North Koreans soldiers, either as aggressors or defenders, and we
won every one of them—we lost only 121 soldiers, and I was one of the 538
injured.”

Here the writer of the book recall our fore fathers bravery even outside their country
where the land, the people and the language is strange for them. We can also infer
from the writer unity is important for success albeit challenges and suffers.

‘’fixed his eyes on Gebru and shook his head slowly in awe.
“You see,” Gebru said. “We were united in our purpose and mission. Also,
right… ‘’
This is the secret behind the victorious deed of Korean war, I believe.

3
 4

Loyalty, faith and keeping promises are another crucial source of well beingness and
bravery stated in the novel. Let’s read extract:

‘’…the Emperor personally handed each one of us a

small paper Ethiopian flag on a stick, saying, “You need to bring back this
bandira upon your return”.
“The message was very clear. We were not going all the way to Korea to die. We
were to go there to fight, win the war, and return…. And that’s essentially what
we did.” Gebru smiled…’’

How our fathers were bare enough to keep their promise and have respect for their falg.

According to some writers (e.g.Gish Abay: The source of Blue Nile by

T.oestigaard&A.F.Gedef,2011) Abay (Nile) is the most is the most important river in the
world. They added Abay the majority of have focused on hydrology and not on cultural
and religious aspects of the river and the holiness of Abay and the source, including
Tana, in particular have had and still have an important role in Ethiopian Orthodox
Church. Mr.Getty vividly highlights repeatedly the role Abay and Tanan for civilization
and home of heritage.

“…The Abay Desta knew came from Gish—bubbling out from the holy
ground,near the famed church—Gish Abay, a couple of miles from
his elementary school in Yeedib and not too far from his
birthplace.“Yes,” the bystander said. “It comes across Lake
Tana…”

2.2. Fantasy Or magical realm and cultural

Adventure and fantasy

Adventure and magical realm Magic realism is a style of literary fiction and art.

It paints a realistic view of the world while also adding magical elements, in the
Desta book 4. There are dozens of reflection of magic that has little real world
representation. between fantasy and reality. Magic realism often refers to
literature in particular, with magical or supernatural phenomena presented in
an otherwise real-world or mundane setting, commonly found in novels
and dramatic performances. Let’s some extracts

“I’ve heard there are spirits in the woods and in the air that can talk
back to you.” He tried to smile, but his face was unresponsive.

According to the extract, the main character always moves in search of the
second coin in faith and some unrealistic events like hallucination including
his spirit guide, Tsador.

4
 5

Desta book 4 is epic genre of narrative defined by heroic or legendary

adventures that are associated with the finding of the second coin descended
from king Solomon presented in a long format time and space.

All journey Desta is full of faith guided through the help of spirit like Tsadok
and others. Tsadok is the main spirit  

Cultural analysis

The writer of Desta books, Getty Ambau, shows the culture difference of celebrating in
Bulgaria and Ethiopia, as Dr.Petrove is a Bulgarian doctor coming Ethiopia for two
years. The main character, Desta, get the help of Dr. Petrov while he attends high
school in Bahir Dar. In Ethiopia.

‘’…had eaten a mouthful, he took a sip of the tej. “Very good,” he sighed, beaming
with happiness. “The only difference is your tej is not served warm, as with our
rakia. The heat gives the beverage an added kick.”
Lacking the experience to add to Dr. Petrov’s sentiment, Desta just said, “Glad
you like our tej.”“It has that nice fruity taste…. just like rakia…’’

It’s known that the Ethiopian Christmas is celebrated in different way of other
countries. People dressed in white. Most people tradional garment locally called
NETELA, drinks tela and tej….In Bulgaria the preparation of food is unique as
reflected in the novel by the author.

2.3 Why the book is choice of adults and children

Desta book 4 has been the best seller so far. It touches culture, history, magic
and scientific code of inventions. The book is quite exemplary for childer as it
talks about invention of air crafts.

A. ‘’…More people began to arrive, including one large group in Sheik

Mohammed’s Lonchina—minibus. In total, fifty-five adults and children
attended...’’
B. “…Dejen and Gebru held Desta’s flying craft when Desta stepped in
front of the crowd. He thanked them again for the previous night’s
send-off. “These will be my lasting memories of this city…”

5
 6

2.4 Analyzing the mission of finding the second coin

Though Desta has come up with different vicissitudes failed to get the coin,he
continued learning and become successful in his education. Yearning to get the final
coin, he left to America for further education. Besides, He had tremendous opportunity
of getting monk scholars, reading books and adventuring the secret isles of Tana that
initiate or empower readers of the book to know ore about our identity of culture
and history. Desta's vow to reunite the magical coins pulls him away from his

6
 7

personal goals. Torn between his dual callings, Desta must choose whether to defer
his personal dreams, not knowing where or when his search for the coin will end.

Conclusion
Exploration of the thematic concepts developed by novelists and authors is usually
confined and restricted to the critic’s engagement with a given theory or selections
from a text or some texts. The writer of the paper has tried to analyze based on
selected topics presented in the novel like cultural, historical and mission of finding
the coin of King Solomon.

The writer of this paper believes the book is quintessential developed with massive
description of adventure culture and history. lessons of adult and children reveled in
the novel. Especially constructing crafts can be a model for children with dream of
science and crafts. Main points of the analysis:

 Great adventures have been introduced in the lake.

 Many people argue about the presence of spirit , but almost in all cultures
speaking spirits become is common, Mr. Getty introduced the magical practice
In Bulgaria and Ethiopia.
 Many of the lake’s monasteries are sources of great troves of treasures as the
main character and other foreigners visit the place repeatedly.
 The book can be master peace for those who are interested in science
(especially for children) and history.
 Though Desta struggled with dual mission ,learning and getting the coin, and
went far from his home land, he learns wisdom and knowledge of ancestral
roots including our bravery of war like in Korea. In addition to this,
Desta's high school studies and a kindly benefactor inspire him to
pursue a medical career.

FURTHER IMPLICATIONS
It is important to conduct more research about the coin ring of King Solomon
since we have legends related to treasures like the Ark of Covenant and ring of
King Solomon.

References

7
 8

1. Bowers, Maggie Ann (2004). Magic(al) Realism. New York:

Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-26854-7.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy

3.  "epic". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived

from the original on May 20, 2020.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Grant, John, and John Clute. 1997. "Arabian
fantasy." The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. London: Orbit Books. ISBN 978-
1-85723-368-1. OCLC 37106061.
5. https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL20953A/Carlo_Conti_Rossini

6.  Edward Ullendorff, The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and

People, second edition (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 9.
7. ^ Jobi Ludolfi et Godofredi Guilelmi Leibnitii Commercium Epistolicum,
Göttingen, 1755