The Hero’s Journey When wanting to accomplish something in life, there will be a decision that will affect the outcome of leading to the right path. It will either help in achieving the goal that was made or take it further away from being able to accomplish it. In the novel “The Alchemist” written by Paulo Coelho, is about a young boy named Santiago. He is a shepherd wanting to travel with his sheep all around in doing so he goes through the experience called "The Hero’s Journey”. The Hero’s Journey are stages taken to accomplish your Personal Legend which is a goal you want to get accomplish in life. He also goes through stages in the journey that help him overcome any challenges he faces. They also bring him closer to the end of completing …show more content…
Santiago had been rewarded with the treasure earned when completing his journey, “In my dream there was a sycamore growing out the ruin of the sacristy… there were precious stones, gold masks adorned with red and white feathers.” (Coelho 170). Santiago was able to accomplish his personal legend, which he had to go through many stages in the journey that got him closer to completing his goal. In this final stage of his journey was a good thing to accomplish, because he’s gone through all of the stages that had been placed there to challenge and see if he actually wants to accomplish it, so he did not give up and gained trust in himself to keep going. This is an important part of the journey because this had taught him to not give up and trust in his heart to accomplish his personal legend, such as when others believe that it is hard to accomplish what they want to complete and do in their life. In conclusion, Santiago’s journey had different stages that got him closer to achieving his personal legend. Overall the Hero’s Journey of santiago was about him going through challenges and for him to trust in his heart. This can also be compared someone when wanting to accomplish something but then you would think you won’t be able to accomplish it. Clearly, he has been able to complete his journey through stages which had also got him closer to the end every time he has accomplished one of the stages, so the stages are also there so when passing a stage you will be able to keep going without any
The first two obstacles that Santiago faces are that his father tells him he can not do something that he wants to do and that he wants to pursue his personal legend, but he does not want to hurt those that he loves. For example, Santiago’s father said, “The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so they can afford to travel. Amongst us the only ones who can travel are shepherds.” Everyone is told by their parents and friends that everything we want to do is impossible. Since Santiago did not have money to spend to travel his only choice was then to become a shepherd to fulfill his desire. T...
Nothing has been taken from him, he has not been forced into a situation. Instead, he voluntarily goes on a quest to achieve his Personal Legend. He wishes to be a shepherd. This gives him the opportunity to travel and learn new things, which he both enjoyed. Although, his contented mindset changes after a single dream. His new goal is to find the hidden treasure from his dreams. When Santiago thinks to himself, “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting,.. (Coelho, page 11).” Santiago goes on this journey out of fear he will end of like most people: unhappy and useless. If he had never gone on the adventure, he would have never been satisfied with life. Unlike Edmond, Santiago never loses faith. In fact, one of his principal motivations is God. God never leaves his side, He guides Santiago through his journey by the use of omens. These omens give Santiago hope, as well as warn him for future
Despite poor reviews from critics, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the most translated books in the world. It has sold over twenty-one million copies. Its success can be attributed to the story it tells; a timeless folktale made new and different in the pattern of alchemy. A poor boy dreams of treasure in a far away land, and goes in search of it. Along the way, he learns the secrets of alchemy from a wise old man in the desert. Through a simply written, sentimental fable, Paulo Coelho has given the adage of the Hero's Journey a fresh definition—one that is drawn out of the past. In The Alchemist, the character development of Santiago, the protagonist, mirrors not only the Hero's Journey of Campbell and Volger, but the Master Work of Alchemy itself.
These next three stages are the meat of the story since it has most of the content. The fourth stage is “meeting the mentors” and the one of the mentors he encounters is a Gypsy. He initially goes to the Gypsy to interpret what dreams mean but does not get that much help since she tells him to go and pursue the dream and go on his quest. Even though she is considered a mentor but does not act like it, she gives Santiago the first push and wisdom to start his journey. He then runs into a man named Melchizedek who gives him another piece of wisdom about personal legends and offers him two stones for when he is in need of answers. He then makes the courageous decision and the official action of the start of his journey by selling his sheep
Kind of like a test to see if Santiago can handle what is in store for him. The first obstacle is when were being told from birth/childhood that we cannot do what we plan to do. The second obstacle is us having to give up what we love and cherish in order to pursue our personal legend. In this case, Santiago chooses to gives up his sheep in order to go and find his treasure. The third obstacle is Santiago having the fear of defeat stuck in his head and his failure along the journey. He fears that point of not to making it across the desert so Santiago decides to head back home. He eventually overcomes his fear and chooses to keep his composer and go across. The last obstacle is us feeling that our personal legend, we do not deserve it. Santiago is then feeling like he has already everything he as ever wanted and needed with Fatima. He also feels that the treasure is really not that important anymore. Even though that's what he has been searching for this whole time he has realized his true treasure. The Alchemist helps him to overcome all of this and tells him that he can return to his loved ones that really miss him. So he moves on and finds his treasure, and returns to actually receive his treasure inside the the old abandoned
In the novel, Santiago sets out on a journey of self-discovery, in the journey there are significant moments and experiences that helped him on his journey of self-discovery. The significant moments that helped Santiago on his journey of self-discovery was his meeting with the king that helped Santiago set off on his journey of self-discovery, then he met Fatima who helped Santiago know love, and finally Santiago’s meeting with the Alchemist who helped him finish his journey of self discovery.
Santiago achieves his dreams through strength and will. Santiago never really had a purpose to his life besides being a Shepard, and once he really followed his own dreams and did what made him feel right like finding a women and traveling to the pyramids to make her happy, he really wanted to be more than just a Shepard and stay in Spain his whole life. “He was excited, and at the same time: maybe the girl had already forgotten him. (Coelho 6) Santiago never cared about anything but his sheep, and when the king wanted the sheep for Information about what he was supposed to do, he had to let go of something that meant a lot to him, especially because he hasn’t really done anything else but cared for his sheep and his farm. “For the Alchemist, Coelho adapts four principles from the tale: The personal quest, the awareness of omens, the soul of the world, and the idea of listening to one’s heart as a guide.”(Sylvia1) The writer really connects Santiago and Paulo, because they both have principles that they followed in their life to strive past there weakness. The main focus is really their father’s in the young parts of their lives. The connection between the two fathers is very important, and is the reason why Paulo is the person he is today, and really the main reason he wrote the story and how he even became a writer. He adapted this towards the book and Santiago, on how he wanted him to be something he was, and didn’t let him follow what he wanted. This is really demonstrated throughout the whole entire story, a very strong connection between the writer and the mai...
In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Santiago is the main character who is trying to achieve a Personal Legend but faces several triumphs during his journey. According to Enotes, “A personal legend, as it's referred to in The Alchemist, is one's destiny in life. It's identifying our purpose in life and pursuing it.” Santiago encounters several road blocks which allow him to meet different people during his journey who pour some form of wisdom into his spirit and teach him directly or indirectly different life lessons. The key characters that all assisted Santiago are the King, the Alchemist, and Fatima. All these characters were very influential to Santiago during his life long
Santiago did go through the sequence of actions. The departure was when he first set out to go catch a fish. The fulfillment occurred when the old fisherman caught the fish and was able to bring it in to the docks . Finally, the return was when he pulled in to the dock and walked home. Some people will argue that he did not have a true fulfillment. On page 120 it says, “It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought”. The sharks had eaten all of the fish and all that he brought in was the skeleton. No, it was not the fulfillment that he had hoped for, but it was better than bringing in nothing at all. The fact that Santiago survived the four day journey and brought in the skeleton is astonishing. He was able to inspire the people of his community and the young boy. The old man feels defeated in the last few pages of the book, but the boy encourages him: “‘Now we will fish together again’ ‘No I am not lucky. I am not lucky anymore’ ‘The hell with luck,’ the boy said. ‘I’ll bring the luck with me.’ ‘What will your family say?’ ‘I do not care. I caught two yesterday. But we will fish together now for I still have much to learn’”
As Santiago's final piece of his journey, it is obvious that the desert was the most significant part, due to him finding his true power since the desert "challenges all men" (Coelho117). Santiago learned of his inner power and the final clue to his treasure in the desert. Not only did he find his inner self, but over the many years that he traveled he matured into a wise young adult. His progression of maturity allowed him to accept his final clue which essentially is a slap to the face, making him travel all the way back to where he began. Trudging through the desert made Santiago like a sponge, soaking up knowledge both from the desert and the Alchemist because Santiago "learned the alchemist's secrets in his travel" (Coelho 154). These newly acquired skills gained from the desert contributed to the overall outcome of the story. His skills taught him how to converse with the wind, which saved his life and saved the journey. Santiago's fate was revealed to him in the desert, and the only way he knew that he had the will power to continue was through the word "maktub," which, translated, it means that fate will reveal itself and let us unite. Many people ,such as Fatima, told Santiago this phrase and reminded him that if they were to be together, fate would allow them to. Fatima was not only a love interest in the story, but convinced Santiago that his legend was worth all the trials. Without the testing desert, Santiago would not have been able to learn all the things he needed to, which would allow him to accept his
Although Santiago encounters various influential people along the way, one of the most important is the refugee. He was almost killed and wanted the refugees to stop. “I had a recurrent dream, too…but I’m not so stupid as to cross an entire dessert just because of a recurrent dream, since the refugee did not follow his dream, his Personal Legend was never fulfilled therefore he has an unhappy life” as for Santiago, the refugee’s Personal Legend was never acquired, which is why the refugee discourages Santiago from following his own Personal Legend (Coelho 167-168). Santiago follows his dreams, until he sees the Egyptian pyramids. He realizes that the treasure he was looking for all along was the path getting there, because it taught him that following his dreams will grant him
Throughout the book, he shows a level of ferocity towards his goal to achieve his personal legend by overcoming obstacles in his life. Although he changes, he is still thoughtful. He represents innocence because while he was in his journey, he witnesses the cruelty of the world around him. As he is the protagonist in the story, he is patient and he trusts in his destiny and his fate. Santiago represents mankind because in each person’s life, they either change mentally, physically, or emotionally. Santiago may symbolize us trying to figure out the questions that are hard for us to solve: What is my purpose in life? What is the meaning in life? Santiago also represents the youth of today. In the beginning of the novel, his father wanted him to become a priest similar to parents wanting their children to have careers they like, but Santiago later tells his father that he wanted to travel the world. His father was disappointed, but he gave his son his blessing almost like parents giving their children their
Starting from the very beginning of the novel, Santiago was defined as someone struggling against defeat. He had gone eighty-four days without catching any fish. However, the old man refused defeat every time; he made up his mind to sail out past all the other fishermen to where the bigger fish usually were. He finally caught a marlin after a difficult three-day battle, and even after that he continued to fight off sharks from eating his prize, even though he knew the effort was useless. Both Santiago and the marlin showed pride, honor, and bravery, and both were victims of the same general rule: they must kill or be killed. Santiago realized this as he reflected upon a tired warbler flying towards shore, where, he believed, it would surely
Santiago knew from the start that his dreams were important to him, it all started when he decided he wanted to become a shepherd. Santiago’s family was set on him becoming a priest, but Santiago dreamed of traveling and saw becoming a shepherd as a way of fulfilling that dream of his. Santiago said very early on in the story “It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting (Coelho. 11).” What this quote means is that without having his dream to be a shepherd his life would have been plain and boring as it was planned to be. But since Santiago decided to do something that would make his dream come true, is what made his life interesting. This quote also
Fear is Santiago’s greatest enemy. Throughout his journey, Santiago is challenged with a feeling of self-doubt. When faced