The Alchemist by Paul Coelho is about a young shepherd boy named Santiago whose desire is to travel the world. He has a dream and begins his journey in hopes to find a treasure in the Pyramids. Throughout his journey, Santiago meets the king of Salem, a thief, candy merchant, crystal merchant, a girl named Fatima, an Englishman, and the alchemist who help teach him important lessons in search for his Personal Legend. Paul Coelho uses the characters Melchizedek, Santiago’s father, the baker, the candy merchant, the crystal merchant, Fatima, and the Englishman to explore the theme to really live and experience life, the characters need to realize their Personal Legend through their own personal experiences or through others and their experiences.
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 child grabs his hand and takes him to the pyramids of Egypt and tells him about a treasure there. This dream was his call to adventure. He returns home to find treasure, but realizes his true treasure was Fatima. In The Alchemist, the female protagonist is Fatima, the girl he met by the well at the oasis. Even though in the book Santiago doesn’t spend an immense amount of time with Fatima, and the book doesn't tell much about her, she plays a key role in the book and in Santiago’s heart.
In The Alchemist, the protagonist, Santiago, goes on a journey to follow his dreams and find hidden treasure. He encounters many problems, including having to face his fears. He eventually finds his treasure
Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist tells the story of Santiago a Shepard whose life changes once he finds out about a treasure from his frequent dreams and meets a strange man who helps him to start his personal legend. On Santiago’s journey he starts to see the hidden meanings behind daily life creating the thesis that through seeing and understanding symbols behind the world people can learn about their own personal legend and live life to the fullest. Santiago’s life starts out all about his sheep, he chose to be a shepherd, so he could travel and meet new people. Santiago’s job is to take care of the sheep, but the sheep have more meaning in the story. The sheep represent how he is comfortable in his life and how he is questioning his frequent dream, to sacrifice his comfortable life to find this treasure or to continue without taking the risk.
Throughout life we experience many things that try to lead us down multiple paths in life. The Alchemist is a very unique experience because it simply shows you that you should just do what you love and find your personal legend. No matter what it is that you love to do you will succeed in life if you follow your dreams and continue down the path that you desire and not what everyone else wants you to do. Not only will you succeed in life but you will enjoy your life a whole lot more if you do what you love to do and not what everyone else wants you to do. Overall The Alchemist shows its readers not to conform to the rest of society and your life will be much better if you do what you love and live life to the fullest.
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 Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, is a famed novel that has had decades of success and admiration for it’s inspirational messages and unique writing style. It plays with themes of self-discovery and destiny. The novel speaks its message by encouraging the reader to profound deep thought, enlightenment and reflection. Coelho’s novel follows the moral and spiritual journey of a young Shepard who after meeting an Alchemist is guided to find motivation, reflection, self-discovery and the meaning of destiny. This novel has been likened to a self help book because of the intense effects of it’s meanings.
Final Essay Novelist Paolo Coelho’s wrote in his novel The Alchemist, “It is not until much later that children understand; their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the water of their lives.” In this quote, Paolo conveys many children grow up with a sense of ignorance to their parents care. In the poem “The Rain Coat,” by Ada Limon, the main speaker demonstrates this by saying, “My whole life I’ve been under her raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel that I never got wet.” (Lines 23-25)
The Alchemist is a famous book written by Paulo Coelho. It’s about a shepherd named Santiago who travels from his homeland Spain to the Pyramids in Egypt. He does this to find a treasure he was told about. Along his hard journey, he meets some people along the way like a gypsy woman and a king in disguise who all direct him towards his quest. He doesn’t let the obstacles stop him toward his goal and eventually he finds his treasure.
Decision-making through the theory of Existentialism Existentialism is a philosophy which means finding self or finding meaning of life. It is theory which talks about freedom. Paulo Coelho in the novel The Alchemist talks about Santiago’s dilemmas and how he takes decision.
Through talks of Abraham and the Quran, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho has an overlying theme of religion. The book follows the life of shepherd named Santiago and his journey throughout life as he wants to travel around the world, where he meets many people that give him advice on his journey. Like the prologue Narcissus story, The Alchemist itself has a message that is concentrating on oneself can unite a person to nature and the spiritual world. Only through single-mindedly attempting to reach his Personal Legend does Santiago learn the mysteries of the Soul of the World, for instance. Throughout the book, Santiago must put his attention first repeatedly, as when he decides to be a shepherd preferably than a priest and when he leaves the haven to continue on his journey.
During the whole story Santiago is trying to find his personal legend, he is trying to find his purpose in life. Therefore in the Alchemist, the most important thing is personal legend. Everything is based off Santiago’s personal legend, if he wouldn’t of became a shepherd the book wouldn’t be all about him following his personal legend and trying to figure out what his was. Santiago has to figure out a bunch of new things that lend his to his personal
After reading 25 pages of The Alchemist, I don't think I have that much of confident to travels around the world with a flock of sheep by myself. The reason that when I go somewhere that I'm not familiar with, I tend to get lost, get fool by people and sometime I feel outcast. But the good things about travels around the world it is that I can discover so many thing that I did not expect. Also, I get to learn more about culture, and who knows I will make a lot of friends from different places where I visits. Like in the story, Santiago meet some interesting people who try to help him find the treasure.
When I was a kid, I always dreamt of going on a journey full of adventures. I was very inspired by Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’. I though one day I will leave this place, with my baggage and my pet donkey on treasure hunt. I was different from other kids of my age. I hated TV, cartoons, even He-Man.
Baslik Before coming to college, I was at a bookshop looking for a book to read and a guy was asking for a book called The Alchemist. It was the first time I’ve seen this book and wondered what it was about. The strange thing was after two days, Jasmin, my SAT tutor, gave me The Alchemist as a reward of accepting into college. My first thought was this cannot be real because what are the chances of getting this book out of all the options and just after two days. So, I thought there has to be a reason of getting this book