Comparing The Alchemist And The Outsiders

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“In life, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything.” - Unknown. To make any difference in your life, you need to take risks. In the books The Alchemist and The Outsiders, characters carry out many risks throughout the course of the book. The Alchemist, a fantasy book written by Paulo Coelho, tells the story of a young Spanish man named Santiago who travels on a personal quest to find treasure that he saw in his dream. He travels on a long journey throughout North Africa to get his Egyptian pyramid treasure, meeting new faces and new ideals along the way. A realistic fiction book by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, is a novel about a teen named Ponyboy and his struggles living in the poor side of 1960’s Tulsa. The story shows how him and …show more content…

In The Alchemist, Santiago, on his quest, arrives in Africa for the first time and meets a man who says he wants to help Santiago around the new land. “The boy wanted to believe that his friend had simply become separated from him by accident” (Coelho 41). Santiago took the risk of befriending a stranger who said he wanted to help him. Unfortunately for Santiago, his “friend” left him stranded in the strange land. This small risk ultimately led to Santiago being stranded in Morocco with no way back home. If we go back to The Outsiders, Johnny and Ponyboy were scared of being accused of murdering the Soc, so they took the risk of trying to hide in an abandoned church until the investigation ended. “‘There's an old abandoned church on top of Jay Mountain. There's a pump in back so don't worry about water. Buy a week's supply of food as soon as you get there.’” (Hinton 61). They risked being found by authorities or being unsafe in their new environment, but they decided to hide in the church because it was safer than staying in Tulsa. This led to a change in their environment, from Tulsa to the church on Jay Mountain. When the characters of The Alchemist and The Outsiders took these risks, they didn’t expect to be in a new environment. However, they got there by carrying out risks. Environment is a big change for a character, but not as important as a change in mortality, another result of a

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