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Literary analysis everyday use
Two kinds of literary analysis
Two kinds of literary analysis
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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho The book I read is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is about a boy from Spain, whose name is Santiago and is a shepherd. The book tells how he gets around countries, and how he deals with his problems and how he solves them. It shows how he follows his dreams, and who helps him along the way. Santiago leaves his family to become a shepherd, before leaving his dad gives him money he has saved up, Santiago buys sheep with the money. As a shepherd Santiago travels around Spain. As he travels he is in search of food and water for his sheep. During his journeys he gave his sheep names and really connects with them. When he ran out of money, Santiago sold wool from his sheep for money. He learns that being a shepherd is not hard as long as you have food and water for the sheep. Santiago is a very intelligent boy, he knows how to read and write because he went to school. Santiago wanted to become a shepherd because he loved traveling and he never traveled while living on his farm with his parents. Another reason he didn’t like living on a farm was, because there was no change in every day life, and he liked change. That’s why his dad understood his reasoning for wanting to become a shepherd. One day he had a dream while resting under a tree in an abandon ruined church. Santiago had dreamt that same dream before so he decided to go to a dream reader. There was a town near by that he knew had a dream reader,...
In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago is a poor Shepard. He travels across Spain and the middle east selling wool from his sheep. For some time, Santiago has been having the same dream about treasure by pyramids in Egypt. While selling wool in a small town, Santiago meets a gypsy. The gypsy who lives in Tarifa and interprets dreams. She reads palms and uses black magic iconography although she keeps images of Christ present. Santiago does not initially believe the gypsy. Until the king from Salem, King Mechizedek explains what a personal legend is to Santiago and that his personal legend is to find this treasure. Melchizedek convinces Santiago to sell his flock and set off to Tangier. Santiago decides to take the kings advices Santiago to sell his flock and travel to Tangier. Santiago decides to do just that. Until, that is. he is robbed in Tarifa. He was inside a bar, but didn't know Arabic. A person who spoke Spanish like him agreed to take him across the desert. Santiago gave him all of his money and followed him through a crowded market place. An ornate sword distracted him and the thief slipped away in the crowd. Santiago then gets a job with the crystal merchant. Santiago is there for about a year. In that time, he helps make the merchant rich. After a year, he travels to the pyramids to find his treasure. Santiago leaves and meets He joins a caravan traveling to Egypt.
"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles”(Christopher Reeves) continuing to strive forward. This statement particularly adheres to Santiago, the protagonist, in the novel The Alchemist a novel written by Paulo Coelho. The primary basis of the plot line centers around Santiago, a mundane shepherd, whom obtains visions of the great pyramids of Giza venturing off in hopes of discovering a tangible treasure. The aspects of this unprecedented journey would be: his call to adventure, refusal of the call, answering of the call, supernatural aid, and finally the road of trials. With every step, Santiago follows the footsteps of every hero before him.
The Three Spanish Coins: As mentioned in the scrapbook they represent to Santiago more than material wealth, they convey to him that though his parents were against his decision of leaving priesthood for the act of mere traveling, his father somewhat understood his dreams. Had it not been for the three spanish coins he may have never possibly began his adventures as a shepard and may have never had the idea of pursuing his legend. But those are simply possibilities and the larger picture lies at the basis that he had received the approval of his father before he had decide to leave everything for a new life. On another note the coins may have been a prediction to what was to come for Santiago, just as his dad found the coins Santiago was destined to find Spanish coins in the treasure too.
Santiago guides his flock throughout the fields of Andalusia. He finds an old abandoned church and churchyard where he and his flock can spend the night. He sleeps on the stone floor using his book as a pillow. He anticipates his approach the Andalusian village where, one year prior, he met a merchant's daughter. Santiago and his flock approach the town. He has been herding this flock for two years. He often reflects about what he has learned from his sheep and what they have learned from him. He observes that the sheep depend fully on him to lead them to food and water. Not having to forage food for themselves, they have forgotten their instincts.
Curiosity drives the decisions Santiago makes to understand his personal legend. Even in the beginning of the book Santiago shows curiosity by becoming a shepherd. Santiago’s father wanted him to become a priest, but Santiago’s desire and curiosity to travel motivated him to become a shepherd since Santiago did not have much money to travel for fun. During Santiago’s travels, he has a recurring dream and curiosity led him to try and get an interpretation of his dream by meeting with the gypsy. While meeting with the gypsy, he ignores the negative reputation gypsies have in order to understand his dream due to his naive and curious nature. In addition to that, the old man offers to help Santiago if the old man receives half of his flock. Driven by curiosity, Santiago sells his sheep and gives the old man half of his flock in an effort to understand his dream and discover his personal legend. If Santiago was not curious, he would not have sold his sheep in an attempt to become closer to his treasure. When Santiago first met the alchemist, he shouted, “Where do you live?...The hand with the whip pointed to the south” (Coelho 117). Soon after this occurrence, Santiago went off in search of the alchemist’s home. Once Santiago found the alchemist, Santiago accepted the alchemist’s welcome into his house. Santiago’s curiosity led him into the alchemist’s tent with very little contemplation.
In the time he spent with the Crystal Merchant he realized that it is important to continue moving forward. He learned all that he could from his sheep, so he sold them and through the continuation of his journey he met new people and was taught new things. With his newly found understanding of the world, Santiago realizes that achieving one’s Personal Legend does not necessarily guarantee a treasure of material wealth, however, one will almost certainly acquire treasure in the form of personal
He doesn’t speak the language or know how the people in Africa act; he just knows that his treasure is in Egypt. His innocence and lack of awareness causes him to trust a young Arab boy, who ends up stealing all the money Santiago had, “The boy wanted to believe that his friend had simply become separated from him by accident.” (41) As a result, this causes Santiago to feel helpless and incapable of continuing his personal legend. He sees no point in continuing his journey and decides that he wants to go back to being a shepherd in Spain. However, Santiago remembers the Old King of Salem and his advice on following one's journey. He decides that he wants to continue in order to complete his Journey and not end up like the Baker, who awaits for a chance to accomplish his own journey. For this reason, Santiago is a hero because when tough obstacles come his way, he continues in hopes of finishing his journey and returning back home to his ordinary life and to the Merchant’s
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...
First of all, the author shows that through persevering through adversity anyone can achieve their dreams. During the book Santiago continuously faces problems that he will have to overcome to achieve his Personal Legend. In this scenario, Santiago is in the city of Tangier when he is suddenly robbed of all of his money, by a thief who promised to take him to Egypt. However instead of thinking of himself as a victim of a thief he decides that “I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure” (34). Santiago was able to persevere through a situation that many people would not have been able to overcome and not able to continue their journey. Being able to persevere through
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
Curious, courageous, young, adventurous: these are all words to describe Santiago, the protagonist in the novel The Alchemist. In this novel, Paulo Coelho develops Santiago’s character as a young boy who goes on an adventure to find his life’s purpose. Through the hero’s journey, Paulo Coelho insists that both internal and external struggles often cannot stop people from achieving their goals, ultimately encouraging people to fulfill self discovery and understand who they truly are.
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
There are countless heroes throughout literature. Their stories are all timeless and meaningful. The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, is home to one of these heroes with an incredible quest. Interestingly, it is quite common to see quests and journeys throughout all literature. In the Alchemist, the protagonist, Santiago, goes through many stages of being a hero such as, call to adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid, crossing the threshold, and road of trials.
“ 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.
I enjoyed watching Santiago grow and learn from the experiences he gained through his journey to find treasure in Egypt. I found I couldn’t stop reading “The Alchemist” soon after I began. I had to keep reading about Santiago’s journey and his adventures.