An Essay On The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho

Dreams depend on a person and whether they can make them happen. In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a boy named Santiago is on a journey to find his treasure with the help of many characters. Consequently, he develops into a well-rounded person. Coelho explains that if an individual persists in dreaming about a “treasure,” not only should one search for it, but also learn from the journey. Coelho shows how Santiago defeats the challenges he must face to get to his treasure and as well as meeting other characters to help him alongside with his travels.
Throughout Santiago's journey, he meets a crystal merchant who gives him a new view on his personal desire. Santiago tells him about the dreams he keeps having, and the old king dealt with Santiago.

The king said he would tell him what his treasure is for the price of six sheep. The quote, “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon,” proves that getting to Santiago’s dream will give him new lessons and opportunities to learn (Coelho 35). The old king implies that without spilling the oil from the spoon, one will be on the right path to their Personal Legend. The old king has now given Santiago his first lesson about his travel and life with the help of the story. In addition, Santiago meets new people and has enough money to buy more sheep. Before Santiago leaves to go look for his treasure in Egypt, the king gives helpful advice about life to Santiago that will help him get closer to his treasure.
Santiago is guided to the Pyramids, Santiago’s desired location, and meets an alchemist along the way, who helps him realize that getting there is not as easy as it sounds.

Like the king, the alchemist also teaches Santiago new life lessons. The alchemist explains to Santiago that in order to gain new knowledge, action must be done. The alchemist shares his point of view of life, and how it cannot be justified by reason, but rather by action, “The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created this world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom. That’s what I mean by action” (Coelho 131). This helps Santiago get a broad view of what he wants in life. The alchemist tells Santiago to listen to his heart because he never knows what he could learn from it. Without listening to his heart, Santiago would have not learned what he did from the alchemist. While following his dreams, the alchemist teaches Santiago to listen to what his heart has to say as well as explaining why the world

exists.
Life lessons can happen along the way of one’s journey without one knowing.

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

happiness.
The author uses many characters to demonstrate how dreams can come into reality, while learning about oneself throughout the journey. Santiago's mentors all taught him a valuable lesson, which he not only used on his journey, but in life.When Santiago follows his dreams in pursuing his personal legend, happiness comes to him. Santiago learns how crucial it is to recognize oneself in order to achieve and fulfill personal satisfaction.