Through the Desert/Soul?? “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. Santiago shows a naive mannerism through situations …show more content…
that occur on his journey. While first acknowledging his recurring dream, Santiago went to a gypsy to help him interpret his dream. In his childhood, Santiago feared gypsies and believed gypsies tricked people. Although he has negative feelings toward the gypsy, Santiago sets his feelings aside and takes a chance. After telling his dream to the gypsy, the gypsy tricks Santiago into thinking the interpretation is difficult and she deserves a tenth of his findings and Santiago promises. Santiago knows gypsies are tricky, but ignores his thoughts and believes her anyways. After Santiago’s encounter with the gypsy, he meets the old man who is the King of Salem, the man offers to help the boy and gives him two stones, Urim and Thummim. After receiving Urim and Thummim, Santiago meets a young man who offers to guide him to the pyramids. Santiago believed that the young man protected him in a dangerous situation while in the bar and enlisted his trust within the young man. However, the young man fooled Santiago into giving him all his money and ran away with Santiago’s money in a crowded marketplace. In this situation, Santiago is unaware of the dangers in searching for his treasure, he quickly gave his trust to a man he met for the first time and it backfired. Santiago shows his naive nature again when he falls in love at first sight. Coelho easily captures Santiago’s feeling towards Fatima, “At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still...It was love” (Coelho 97). Most people say love at first sight is not real love, and Santiago even recalls his parents and grandparents stating that he must “really know a person before becoming committed” (Coelho 97). Santiago dismisses his memory by thinking that his parents and grandparents never understood the universal language like he does. When Santiago fell in love with Fatima, he did not know her name, no less have a conversation with her. The next day, Santiago confesses his love to Fatima and asks her to be his wife. Once again, Santiago shows his naive character by trusting someone without even knowing them. Santiago’s desire to pursue his recurring dream is greatly influenced by curiosity.
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. …show more content…
Curiosity also led Santiago to return to the alchemist’s tent the next night in hope of having help finding his treasure. Furthermore, Santiago’s curiosity led him to do things he may not normally have done, such as traveling to the pyramids to find his treasure. A major trait that helped Santiago to reach his treasure is determination.
Without determination, Santiago would probably have stopped searching very early on. When Santiago began working for the crystal merchant, he showed determination. Although at the time he did not have getting to the pyramids in mind, he was determined to make enough money to buy more sheep. Santiago worked very hard and devoted himself to his work. He helped the crystal merchant innovate new ideas to improve business. Business rapidly improved and Santiago’s determination paid off while working for the crystal merchant. Santiago’s determination was not only shown through his work for the crystal merchant but also his desire to find the treasure. After Santiago travelled with the alchemist, he saw a scarab beetle which was an omen to him because they are a symbol of God. While digging, tribal war refugees found Santiago and began beating him up but through determination, he warded them off by creating the illusion he is crazy. Once they left, he realized exactly where his treasure is. Santiago was still determined to find his treasure and went all the way back to the church and sycamore tree were. “Half an hour later, his shovel hit something solid. An hour later, he had before him a chest of Spanish gold coins” (Coelho 176). Santiago’s constant perseverance and determination led him to the treasure through all the hardships he faced along the
way.
Suffering and sacrifice is never easy, but it is necessary for Santiago go through both in order to make his dreams come true. In The Alchemist, Santiago has to sacrifice his sheep so he can travel in search of the Pyramids. Santiago is hesitant to give up his sheep because he is afraid of leaving behind something he knows so well. “He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have” (Coelho 30). He is
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 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 the beginning of the book, Santiago travels to visit a Gypsy who is said to be able interpret his recurring dream. As a child he had always heard stories about Gypsies capturing children, taking them to their camps and making them their slaves. These stories translated into one of his largest fears for Santiago as a child and that fear returned when he visited the Gypsy, “As a child, the boy had always been frightened to death that he would be captured by Gypsies, and this childhood fear returned when the old woman took his hand” (17). The Gypsy eventually tells Santiago that there is treasure located at the Egyptian Pyramids. Without being able to overcome his fears of Gypsies, Santiago may have never went on a journey to Egypt in order to achieve his personal legend. Another example in the book that shows Santiago overcoming his fears is while Santiago and the Alchemist are travelling towards the Pyramids. They are suddenly captured by a desert tribe at war, who mistakes them for spies. In order to save his life Santiago has to turn himself into the wind. Coelho states, “But the boy was too frightened to listen to words of wisdom. He had no idea how he was going to transform himself into the wind” (83). Two days later Santiago is standing in front of the tribal chieftains trying to turn himself into the wind. He is able to stay calm while his life is on the line and
Coelho begins by identifying the main characters as they become timely components to unraveling the plot. The first line of the book, after all is, “The boys name was Santiago” (Coelho 3). We come to find that Santiago dreamt of traveling so he gave up his pursue of becoming a priest and instead, became a sheepherder (8). Santiago is already presented as a motivated character that makes efforts to accomplish his dreams. He exists as a dynamic character, rather than static as The Alchemist later on is portrayed. The Alchemist is cha...
"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.
Santiago changed in mighty different ways throughout the quest and although made it clear that nothing could stop him from conquering his personal legend, the real reason for him to pursue the quest has to be for him to gain life lessons, qualities like patience, bravery and maturity and as an additional bonus, the treasure. Finally, the argument can be concluded with the statement that The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho can qualify as a quest because as quoted in the novel “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve
"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.
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. Santiago clearly demonstrates all these stages throughout the entire novel.
During his time working there, the merchant showed Santiago another reason why it is so important for one to pursue their Personal Legend (if you do not understand already, personal legends are basically destinies). By this point in the novel, Santiago’s Personal Legend has already been revealed: to go to Egypt’s pyramids where he will find a great treasure. Up until this point, Santiago already understands that achieving your Personal Legends is a pretty dope idea. I mean who does not want treasure right? The crystal merchant is shown as a prime example of someone who failed to pursue his own Personal Legend. Being a very religious man, he believed his Personal Legend was to follow the five obligations of Muslim law. The fifth obligation is for every Muslim to visit the holy city of Mecca, a...
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...
The Theme of “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho is, always follow your dreams and listen to your heart. At the start of the novel Santiago does not know what he should do when he is confronted by his dream. But by the end of the novel Santiago completely trusts his heart to guide him though life. Santiago’s story shows him learning and living out the theme of the novel.
In The Alchemist, Coelho begins Santiago’s journey with an overview of Santiago’s life as he lives the “joys of carefree wandering[s]” as a shepherd. (Coelho 7) Zusak, however, starts his book out with these words: “Here is a small fact. You are going to die.” (Zusak 3) This observation at the very beginning of the book gives the book gravity and starts to set the atmosphere for the rest of the story. The development of the atmosphere is furthered when Liesel’s brother dies and his funeral is held. Santiago’s shepherd life is a stark comparison to Liesel’s bleak situation. When Liesel grieves over her dead brother, Santiago is feeling the uncertainties of love. Their journeys are initiated with a choice and each of these choices will each have many consequences and rewards. Santiago’s choice is to go hunting for treasure. Liesel’s choice is to steal her first book.
In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho continuously shows how Santiago conquers fear and is greatly rewarded for it. In order to get his treasure and achieve his personal legend he must first travel through the well-known dangers of the desert. It is an extremely expensive trip that many do...