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Differences and similarities between Christianity and Judaism
Differences and similarities between Christianity and Judaism
Differences and similarities between Christianity and Judaism
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Life is unpredictable. One moment one might be content living a bland and uneventful life but the next moment one might find themselves traveling through the desert looking for treasure. However, this journey will involve more than just finding the treasure as one will also find themselves. This is what happened to Santiago in the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
The novel follows a shepherd boy named Santiago who in the beginning of the novel is content with his life. He knows the sheep, he understands them, speaks their language, and is “accustomed to their schedule.” While camping out by an abandoned church Santiago has a recurring dream about a child who takes him to the pyramids and tells him that she will help him find the treasure.
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The numbers two, three, and four make many appearances in the book and they connect significantly. Before going on his journey to fulfill his Personal Legend Santiago had spent “two years” with his sheep. By this time he had grown content with his life, “become accustomed to their schedule” and believed that this is what he was meant to do, this was his destiny. In these two years he also became accustomed to the Andalusian terrain. The boy in Melchizedek's story waited “two hours” before talking to the wise man, and he carried a spoon with “two drops of oil.” Santiago was also given two stones, Urim and Thummim. These two stones represent yes and no answers to objective questions. The number two is a number of conflict as well as opposition that allows for positives and negatives to exist. The number two appears many times in the novel, but not as many times as the number three. The number three first appears when Santiago wishes that the merchant would “keep him waiting for three days” so that he could continue talking to his daughter. In religious terms three days refers to waiting for divine intervention, such as when Jonah spent three days in the whale, and Jesus being dead for three days. There are many other references to the number three such as when Santiago is given “three ancient Spanish coins” by his father in order to buy some sheep. If Santiago told the baker about what the old king had said then the baker “would spend three days thinking about giving it all up.” There are three characters that speak and interact with each other in the caravan: Santiago, the caravan leader, and the Englishman. Santiago travels with the alchemist for three days and are then taken prisoner by “three armed tribesmen.” Santiago was given three days to “transform himself into the wind” and the alchemist left Santiago when they were “three hours from the Pyramids.” Four is also an important number. Santiago has four handicaps that
The knowledge and universal understanding derivative from a journey can leave the traveller positively enlightened. In Coelho’s story, Santiago is faced with recurring dreams which lead him to ‘’traverse the unknown’’ in search of a treasure buried in Egypt, the metaphor for universal connection, and in doing so, comes to the unrelenting realisation of spiritual transcendence. After arriving at the assumed geographical location of the treasure ‘’several figures approached him’’. They demand the boy keep searching for this treasure as they are poor refugees and in need of money, but as Santiago does, he finds nothing. Then, after relentless digging through the night ‘’as the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy’’ , finally relenting with the truth, Santiago reveals his dreams to the travellers. In doing so, Santiago finds out that these men had also been faced with recurring dreams measured around the place where the boy had undergone his own, both relative to hidden treasure. However the leader was ‘’not so stupid as to cross an entire desert just because of a recurrent dream’’. It is with this fact, tha...
In The Alchemist Paulo Coelho presents a character, Santiago, torn between following tradition and his Personal Legend. Santiago tries to live true to his Personal Legend, which is a path pursued by those who strive to fulfill their purpose in life. Yet throughout the novel tradition, a motif, presents itself as a roadblock holding Santiago back from reaching his dreams. Coelho juxtaposes tradition against Personal Legend to illustrate its purely individual nature and the necessity of the acceptance of change to reach one’s dreams and goals.
(Coelho 26) For example, Santiago’s first true test was to decide to leave behind his flock of sheep on the rolling hillside and follow his heart for adventure and head to Egypt in search of unknown treasure. Deep within himself, Santiago is questioning life and the meaning of it. But, it is only through a series of trials, adversities, and successes, that he comes to find his “Personal Legend”. (Coelho 26) Throughout the entire process Santiago does not lose sight of his objective, he maintained his focus on reaching the end of his goal. The qualities that Santiago personified of fate, commitment, love, and listening to the omens are what Paulo Coelho is teaching his readers to examine regarding their own “Personal
Santiago thinks about his discussion with the old man. He is annoyed that the old man was right about his being on the verge of giving up just as he finds his destiny. Wandering around the city, he approaches a ticket seller, but he does not buy a ticket to Africa, where he knows the Egyptian pyramids are. He knows that he could buy a ticket with the money he could make from selling only one of his sheep. As he stands at the ticket window, he decides to go back to shepherding his flock. He muses that neither the old gypsy woman nor the old man understand what it means to have a flock of sheep depend on them.
"The Alchemist" is a novel written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho in 1988. It tells the story of an Andalusian shepherd known as Santiago and his journey of fulfilling his "dream" which he names his "Personal Legend". Throughout his voyage, he met many different people and was forced under many different circumstances, and we are able to experience his emotional states throughout every part of his journey. He undergoes many revelations, and we could argue he becomes wiser and more aware of the spiritual value which everything in the world possesses. He ends up finding his "Personal Legend", but despite actualizing his "dream", he was a victim to the negative emotions that come with being human, and therefore we could argue that the main conflict in "The Alchemist" is within Santiago himself.
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” (Coelho 23), these are the words an old king spoke to Santiago. This phrase constantly runs through Santiago’s mind while on his search for his treasure. Santiago, the novel’s protagonist, begins as a quiet sheep herder who has a recurring dream about being transported to the pyramids in Egypt by a child. Once Santiago met the old king, he decides to pursue his dream, find his treasure, and realize his destiny. Throughout The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago embodies curiosity, determination, and a naive nature through events that occur while on his search for his treasure.
Prologue: A massive virtual reality world called the OASIS is created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow. When James Halliday dies, it is revealed that he hid an easter egg in the game that would give the person who found it control over the OASIS. To find the easter egg, one must find the copper, jade and crystal key and the corresponding gates and also know lots about 80s pop culture.
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.
Santiago is a shepherd trying to pursue his personal legend. His personal legend is the recurring dream about the hidden treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. In his dream he starts playing in a field with his sheep, when a child appeared and began to play with the animals. This was strange to him because sheep are afraid of strangers, but the sheep and children play along just fine. Then a child grabbed his hands and took him to the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. He begins his journey locally trying to find answers from a gypsy and a man named
In the book the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago’s call to adventure was to travel the world , experience life, and find his hidden treasure. This meant he would stop at nothing until he achieved so. This troublesome stage is a period where santiago is tested to grab his dream before it leaves without him.“I’m not going to charge anything now, but I want one tenth of the treasure if you find it.”This stage was very confusing for Santiago because he didn’t know why or how foreign people knew about his personal legend. Santiago chooses to pursue his legend due to a fortune-seer’s knowledge. This significance of this stage so prominently prone to santiago’s view from the inside, he finally chose to go because he knows that everything happens
"If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear ideals of how other people should lead their lives, but none about their own.” That is one of many deep quotes that makes the reader truly think about life in The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho. The book is about a young boy named Santiago, who loves travel and adventure, but he does not have the money to do so. He was raised to be a priest, but decides that he would rather be a shepherd, so that he can travel. Santiago’s father gives him two spanish coins, and tells him that he will learn one day that no place is as beautiful as the one he lives in. It seems like Santiago’s father believes in him, but not the way Santiago wants him to.
There were around two hundred people that join the caravan including the Santiago and the Englishman. The Englishman says ‘there’s no such thing as coincidence’. Santiago realizes the closer one gets to realize his Personal Legends, the more that Personal Legends becomes his true reasons for beings. While crossing the deserts, he was thinking about the past and the future by learning the universal language. His mother’s referred this knowledge as hunches and also the word maktub means it is written. He realizes that he had learns more by observing his camel and the caravan, and he throw away his books. Santiago having a conversation with the camel driver at night, he told Santiago about his life before and how he became a camel driver. He learned
Santiago, a young shepherd form Spain, repeatedly had a dream about a child leading him to The Pyramids in Egypt. He was confused about these experiences until he met The Gypsy Woman, who enlightens him about personal legends, how everyone has one destined and how some follow the path to the finale and some give up or ignore realizing theirs. Santiago, being a brave
Santiago is a heroic figure because he was always kind to others. He was always helping someone with something. For example: when Santiago was working at the Crystal shop, he helped the Crystal Merchant, improve his business. When Santiago was leaving the Crystal Shop, the merchant stated “You brought a new feeling into my Crystal Shop”(61). The Crystal Merchant is talking about how much Santiago has changed his business. Santiago has helped the merchant’s business by making a display case to put outside the store, cleaning all the crystal and adding new things, such as the tea. Santiago also helped an Englishman by helping him find the Alchemist. The Englishman wanted to speak to an alchemist. The Englishman stated “I need you to help me find out where the alchemist lives”(90). Because the Englishman requested for help, Santiago helped him. It took over half a day to find the alchemist, but fi...
Along the way, he meets many individuals who guide him along his quest, such as the King of Salem, an Englishman, and an alchemist. These individuals emphasize recurring ideas throughout the novel such as achieving a Personal Legend, or talk of the Soul of the World. They have similar philosophies and ways to live life, so they are able to tell Santiago similar messages to why they believe certain things.