The Alchemist Journey

While people come in all shapes in sizes, underneath it all we are still flesh and blood. Even if people have a different skin color or orientation we are all humans living on this earth. This idea, no this fact was really driven home to me when I was traveling with my family around the world. We met people in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Ecuador and though they looked and talked different they had the same needs, concerns and wants. I found a quote by Santiago, a boy in The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho that really explains this better than I ever could, “I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything in the universe.

The hero's journey is a classic narrative pattern that has appeared in stories and myths across cultures and ages. It involves a hero who embarks on a journey, faces challenges and obstacles, and ultimately brings about a change in their life. Two texts that explore the hero's journey are "Monsters" and "The Alchemist." In "Monsters," the main character Sully embarks on a journey to help a young human girl, Boo, return home. This journey represents the hero's departure from their ordinary world, as Sully leaves the familiar world of the factory to venture into the unknown world beyond the door.

For example, after some tribesman captured the Alchemist and Santiago, the Alchemist said Santiago is an alchemist and can easily turn into wind and destroy the camp. Santiago talks to the forces of nature including the desert, the wind, the sun, and the hand that wrote all, which leaves two people smiling. "But there were two people smiling: the alchemist, because he had found his perfect disciple, and the chief, because that disciple had understood the glory of God." (157). When the Alchemist tells the tribesmen that Santiago can turn himself into the wind and destroy the camp, Santiago is left with no choice but to do it.

The Alchemist Santiago has many mentors along the way during his journey. He had the alchemist, the crystal merchant, and his own sheep. The alchemist helped Santiago turn himself into the wind. Turning Santiago into the wind saved his life, he was being held captive and when he turned into the wind he was able to escape from the people holding him captive.

He needed to cover his head from dust. He came all this way just to find food and indeed he found it. The storm started. He couldn’t hear anything but whooshes of dust passing by. He sat down and ate his food.

Juilius Caeser Argumentative Essay The alchemist is about a traveler that wants to find a man that can turn lead into gold and wants to learn this trick so he can use it himself and travels to egypt and meets amny people. But the story is about a boy who wishes the same thing. He travels all over egypt first by getting a flock of sheep, then he meets a crystal merchant and works there for many days until he is ready to leave. He ends up on a caravan that is headed to an oasis that is a safe haven. When they arrive the man from before wants to see if the alchemist is there and so he makes the boy ask around but he keeps getting told he shouldn't be asking that.

A mentor is someone who guides others in the right direction of their Personal Legend, and when looked at in the novel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, meeting with the mentor is the most important stage in Santiago's quest. Without the encouraging push given by the mentor, Melchizedek, Santiago, would have never embarked on his life-changing journey in the first place. He questions the faith in himself and almost throws away the idea of his Personal Legend. The old king comes to the rescue and convinces Santiago that he needs to take control of his own destiny. He tells Santiago about “the world’s greatest lie” and that it’s a false statement “that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become

Paulo Coehlo’s, The Alchemist, explores the Hero’s Journey through the story of a shepherd, Santiago. Throughout the novel, Santiago becomes more aware of his potential as he pursues his Personal Legend. He faces temptations and obstacles as he develops as a character. The hero crosses the threshold when they leave their old reality in search for a new one. Santiago crosses the threshold by selling his sheep and taking a boat to Africa.

The boy overcomes his fear of failure when he thinks about Fatima, the woman he loves. Initially unprepared to turn himself into the wind, he tries asking for help from the desert: “‘Somewhere you are holding the person I love,’ the boy said. ‘So I want to return to her, and I need your help so that I can turn myself into the wind’” (144). Love is what overcomes his fear.

This gives Santiago the confidence that he needs in his true love believing that he will return safely. Also in The Alchemist, the wise alchemist himself grants Santiago confidence when, after all he has done for Santiago, leaves him to finish his journey

In life a single event can dramatically change a person forever but how they survive is what matters the most. In Night by Elie Wiesel and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, two character named Elie and Santiago are placed in life altering situations where they have to figure out how to persevere. Night is a dramatic book that recounts the reprehensible treatment that Elie had to live though during the Holocaust. Elie has to endure deplorable conditions in a Nazi concentration camp and learn to survive. He has to choose to separate himself from his experiences and still have hope. In contrast, The Alchemist is a hopeful book where Santiago goes on a journey and discovers new ideas and hidden treasures.

"What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate." (Thoreau). This quote means that every person can have a fulfilling life if they believe in themselves. It suggests that everyone who pursues their dreams and does not allow obstacles to stop them is commanding of their own fate. As exhibited in The Alchemist and The Power of Myth, the quote is a true statement that is applicable to all people.

Some people’s ignorance of dreams can be harmful for themselves just like knife is for butter. Santiago’s dream of a treasure in Egypt, for instance, reveals to him his Personal Legend and sets the entire plot of the Alchemist into motion. For Santiago finding treasure wasn’t easy. He had to sacrifice his shepherdess (as he sold his sheep) and work for year at Crystal Merchant’s shop to gain money to travel because he was robbed. Crystal Merchant did not believe in his dream of going to Mecca.

He explained to the boy a bit about alchemy. The boy got into alchemy that he wanted the man to show him more about it. The man said the more you believe in it, the more you would know about the Language of the World. The boy thought that if he could know the language of the world, he would be able to find his Personal Legend. The boy worked hard to know the language, but he didn't know how to do it.

As Ban Ki Moon once stated; “Migration is an expression of the human aspiration for a better future.” All migration accomplished by mankind has followed a consistent pattern of looking for a better living. In Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, we can see this similarity. Migration is greatly influenced by geography. Human Geography is the study of the interaction between human beings and their surrounding environment.