The Alchemist is a story about a shepherd from Spain named Santiago whose parents have him attending a seminary to become priest and while he was there was taught to read. Santiago could be considered an educated person and achieve a much higher status than Shepard. Instead, he chose to become a Shepard since they travelled around the country side while grazing their flocks of sheep. Santiago’s father did not object to the traveling sheep herder idea and gave him his blessing and inheritance early so he can buy sheep. During Santiago’s journey, he gets a crash course and learns valuable life lessons through the experiences and what he perceived as obstacles that he encounters. I will compare situations of his journey to those of my own along with my perceptions of obstacles and deterrents that I encountered along the way in my pursuit of education. I was born in the State of Nayarit, Mexico, in a little town by the name of Coamiles where my father met my mother. My father’s family had moved to Mexico from Yuma, Arizona where my father was born. Six sons later he brought the family from Mexico to California in 1970. I am the fourth to the eldest and was eight years old at the time with all six of us being approximately two years apart in age. You can say that like Santiago who traveled to Egypt searching for his treasure and personal legend, our father brought all of us to find our treasure here in the United States. Perhaps he also intended for us to realize our personal legend as well. Had we followed our father’s vision of our future, our personal legend would have been to attend college and improve the family with every generation to come. My father was one of those parents that always encouraged his sons to achie... ... middle of paper ... ...fair to me. I feel this way because without passing the WST I cannot sign up for some of the classes I need. This is more impacted since I only have a couple of years left to graduate. This would make anybody feel inadequate and makes me feel like Santiago. Santiago too seemed to have it all before being left with nothing. After Santiago being a Sheppard and having his own sheep he got robbed by his “Guide” in Algiers. This left him feeling discouraged and lost in a strange place he’d never been before. He feels forced to take a job with the Crystal Merchant, but he makes the best of it and soon prospers by using his wits to improve sales in the Crystal shop. I have not found my wits yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Works Cited coelho, paulo. Thge Alchemist. Trans. Margaret Jull Costa. gift edition. Rio De Janeiro: HarperOne, 2002. book. 13 November 2013.
People often do not realize their differences, but the differences in people are what set them apart from all others. In Paul Coelho’s “The Alchemist” two characters do such actions. The main character, Santiago, and the arguably secondary character, the Englishman, do such aforementioned actions. The two characters meet in a caravan that is traveling across the Saharan Desert. Although they do have some pretty interesting similarities, their differences are what intrigue the reader more.
In addition, fearing the experience of failure enables us to feel vulnerable but vulnerability is the birth place of innovation, creativity, and change. Failure takes a hold of most people but regularly do they see it as a chance to learn and react. They step aside from the lessons that they play and give up. But in The Alchemist “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” (Coelho 11)In the end he felt fully elated and feeling alive brings birth to his adventure and a path to succeeding his personal legend. In an interview with my uncle, German, he talks about the fear of failure but most of all what comes from the acceptance of fear. Born in Mexico, the expectations from his parents where diminished to what
The Alchemist was a great book about a young boy, Santiago, who wanted to travel the world. In the beginning of the book Santiago’s family wanted him to become a priest, but Santiago wanted to travel the world. Santiago’s father told him that the only people that travel the world are the rich and shepherds. When Santiago heard the information he then told his father he will become a shepherd. In response to his son’s decision, he gave his son one gold coin to buy his flock of sheep. As time went on Santiago began having a dream, a dream that he kept having. Eventually he met a merchant that he sold his wool to once a year. The boy had fell in love with the merchant’s daughter and the next year the dream was finally going to
...In conclusion, we can say that after applying Joseph Campbell's theory of The Monomyth on The Alchemist; it is noticeable that despite The Alchemist being a postmodernism wok of literature, the author Coelho used all major patterns of the hero's journey of ancient myth in his novel and this developed Santiago's journey from an ordinary one into an archetypal one.
Have you ever encountered problems while trying to fulfill a goal in your life? In the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago overcomes obstacles to reach his personal legend. Throughout the book Santiago encounters many friends to help him fulfill his destiny. Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. He overcomes them with the help of his friends and his wife-to-be. These problems shape Santiago into a dignified man of many traits.
In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho an Andalusian boy named Santiago leaves Spain to travel to Egypt in order to achieve his Personal Legend. During his journey he meets four people, a Gypsy, a King named Melchizedek, an Englishman and an Alchemist, all of whom help Santiago along his journey towards his Personal Legend. However, only the King and the Alchemist teach Santiago lessons that he can learn from and use along his journey. The King teaches Santiago two lessons, to follow omens and that it is not always about the destination but that it is also about the journey. The Alchemist teaches Santiago to listen to his heart for guidance, what the Language of the World is and what the Soul of the World is. He eventually arrives in Egypt after
The two books by Markus Zusak and Paulo Coelho tells the stories of two characters, Liesel Meminger and Santiago, each in their own respective stories. In The Alchemist, Santiago’s story is a much lighter tale with an overall optimistic and adventurous air. He journeys from Spain all the way to Egypt and back before his adventure ends. Zusak’s The Book Thief, sharply contrasts Coelho’s story with the much darker and dangerous world of Nazi Germany.
There are many obstacles in everyday life, but none as detrimental to ones future as fear. Fear can cause people to not only avoid achieving their goals in life but it also forces them to think about it throughout every day. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist shows that those who wallow in fear will never achieve their personal legend, and those who conquer fear will achieve anything they strive for. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is a commonly analyzed and criticized piece of literature. One of these articles is Rejendra Kumar Dash’s “Alchemy of the Soul: A Comparative Study of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist”. Dash’s article is a literary criticism of the different parts of the character’s journey in The Alchemist. He talks about, in his article, how the theme in The Alchemist is found through analyzing the different parts of Santiago’s journey and what those parts mean. Another one of these articles is Lily Hasanah’s “Decision Making in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist”. Hasanah’s article is a literary criticism of the main character in The Alchemist, Santiago. She searches for the theme in The Alchemist through analyzing the decisions, and the outcomes of those decisions, made by Santiago. Paulo Coelho provides access to his theme, for the most part, though the actions and adventures of the main character, Santiago. Although this is the method of delivery he had in mind, Dash and Hasanah view the delivery of his theme differently.
The president. An astronaut. A spy. A movie star. A veterinarian-- Everyone has their lives planned out when they’re a child. People dream of doing the most impossible things; however, most people never even start to pursue that dream. Practicality wins out and people gradually begin to compromise their dreams until it reaches a point where it is impossible. In the Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, a young shepherd boy stakes everything he’s worked for on his dream of discovering a great treasure. On the way, the boy learns some universal truths of the world. Coelho uses metaphors and similes to show that to achieve a dream one must never give into fear and always stay true to oneself and therefore one’s dream.
In The Alchemist the unity of the self is provisional, dependant upon continuous social reinforcement. The characters who are successfully gulled are the ones who lose sight of their socially reinforced identities as they play out their fantasy ideal selves.
I truly enjoyed the book a lot. It told an interesting story and put in life lessons that would make you smile at and understand better. I found it interesting that Paulo Coelho used many characteristics to make an interesting book. After learning about the characteristics and linking them with the book, I understood the book much more. By linking the characteristics to a story, I learned that anyone can write an amazing story becauseThe Alchemist has everything that a book needed to keep the reader on the edge of his or her seats.
“We are born with he fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears are imposed by society”, is a quote from the author of The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is an epic journey about a man named Santiago, who sets out to find treasure as well as his Personal Legend. Santiago has to overcome multiple obstacle that stop him from living his Personal Legend throughout the novel. Society influences Santiago, the crystal merchant, Santiago’s father and the baker by societal expectations, fear of failure and the desire for success.
“ Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart”(159). This is what the alchemist said to the main character. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, tells a story of a boy named Santiago, who goes on a long journey to discover his personal legend. As Santiago goes on his journey to pursue his personal legend, he is faced with many challenges, as well as left to make difficult decisions that change him forever. As Santiago travels the world, he becomes a hero. In The Alchemist, Santiago shows characteristics, as well as archetypal characteristics that make him a hero. Santiago displays kindness, bravery and wisdom; also he is considered a hero because he displays many characteristics of an archetypal hero. He displays archetypal characteristics such as: receiving supernatural help, proving himself many times and receiving an apotheosis.
The Theme of “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho is, always follow your dreams and listen to your heart. At the start of the novel Santiago does not know what he should do when he is confronted by his dream. But by the end of the novel Santiago completely trusts his heart to guide him though life. Santiago’s story shows him learning and living out the theme of the novel.
The Alchemist is a very unique novel written by Paulo Coelho, a rather unique person. Among other things, this singularity may be attributed to a distinctive spirituality, which is an important facet of The Alchemist and Coelho’s life. The aspects of spirituality in The Alchemist are important to analyze because they comprise a major factor of this worldwide best-selling novel. Moreover, some of the values contained in this work contradict with the values of Coelho’s Catholic faith. Coelho also expressed some rather controversial interpretations of his faith outside of The Alchemist.