The Hero's Journey In The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho

He is a stronger and smarter man because of what happened to him. Santiago hit a lot of adversity at the beginning of his journey and it prepared him for the worst of his journey. “Now he understood why the owner of the bar had been so upset: he was trying to tell him not to trust that man.” (Coelho 43). He lost it all and he was prepared for anything for the rest of his journey.

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.

By continuing he finds his true inner strength. In the story, the author shows the importance of perseverance, and how to face the many obstacles that people are presented in their lives to complete their goal. In Coelho's novel, Santiago faces many difficult challenges, but because of his courage and perseverance, he is able to face them head on. While in the town of Tarifa, Santiago meets

Santiago's temptation is when he has the choice whether or not to stay with Fatima and abandon his Personal Legend. After leaving Fatima he has a difficult time coping with the separation, even if Fatima is a woman of the desert, who knows he will return. The Alchemist offers him a sole piece of advice, “love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend.” (120) Santiago’s heart is aching for the loving arms of Fatima. He realizes that he needs to focus on what he needs, pursuing his Personal Legend and not what he desires to be with Fatima.

In the novel “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho there is a young shepherd named Santiago who is in search for his personal legend. Santiago’s personal legend is to find the treasure at the pyramids. Throughout his journey, there are a lot of emotions especially the emotion fear. Santiago encountered a lot of challenges like crossing the desert, being in a war and turning himself into the wind. He learned the different levels of fear; fearing fear, being in fear, and overcoming fear.

The Crystal Merchant tells the boy that more customers came into the shop since he started working there. The merchant tells him that this is a good omen and Santiago finally starts to that omens factor into his personal legend. Santiago thinks to himself, “People talk a lot about omens, thought the shepherd. But they really don’t know what they’re saying. Just as I hadn’t realized that for so many years I had been speaking a language without words to my sheep” (46).

Santiago's journey. In the beginning of his journey to the pyramids, he realizes he is going to need to find a guide, because he is a simple shepherd who knows little to nothing about the pyramids. Even at this point he could just say “ I am a shepherd and I know nothing about the pyramids, why try”, but decides to follow his dream

Santiago then tells the alchemist: “My heart is a traitor. It doesn’t want me to go on.” The alchemist replied with a smart answer and said “That makes sense. Naturally, it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.” A fear of uncertainty is what Santiago is feeling and he worries he’ll lose everything he’s accomplished so far.

The decision was difficult as both options don’t provide him a steady choice. As being a shepherd does not promise him to be with the merchant daughter and for finding a treasure he need to give up his well settled life. But at the end he chose to find treasure as it allows him to purse his personal legend or dram of travelling throughout the world. He always considers his choice before taking a decision this can be seen through this conversation of Santiago with himself, “Here, I am between my flock and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have.

During his journey, Santiago receives knowledge that he treasures and uses on his behalf when he hopes to achieve his personal legend. During his time with the Crystal merchant Santiago learned the five sacred obligations of all Muslims, and he learned that the Pyramids were not nearly as close as he thought when he arrived in Africa. During his time with the Alchemist he learned how to find life in the desert, and how to

Fatima was more important than his treasure” (95). Santiago is willing to drop everything

“The Hero’s Journey” is term for a narrative style that was identified by scholar Joseph Campbell. The narrative pattern would depict a character’s heroic journey, and categorize the character’s experiences into three large sections: departure, which contained the hero’s call to adventure, fulfillment, which consisted of the hero’s initiation, trials, and transformation, and finally the return. The novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan investigates the relationship and actions of four Chinese women and their daughters. The character Lindo Jong’s youth in China exemplifies the three part heroic journey in how she leaves the familiar aspects in her life, faces trials in the home of her betrothed, ..... Departure:

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

He is robbed at the beginning of his journey and must work hard to earn back the money he lost. Then, he is able to travel into the desert, facing more peril along the way. This is where he meets the Alchemist, who tells him, “You must not let up, even after coming so far” (113). The wise man teaches him things unknown to most people. With his instruction, Santiago survives his travels in the desert, even while faced with war and threats of death.

In Part one Santiago could be described as weak character. He is easily manipulated and persuaded by others such as the gypsy and the tour guide he met at the bar when he first arrived in Africa. His hunger for money blinds him from seeing his