Heart, Mind and Fear in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Fear is an emotion that negatively influences people to shy away from their plans. Throughout the novel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, many characters are overcome with fear and more specifically, the fear of loss and fear of the future. Coelho repeatedly shows that by conquering these fears, people are freed from the bounds of fear and therefore willing to take action on their dreams.

To begin with, the fear of losing beloved things or people presents people with dilemmas that influence the continuation of their journey and they can only bypass these dilemmas by getting rid of the fear altogether. To begin, Santiago’s fear of losing everything he already earned makes him second guess his plans and therefore discourages him to continue his journey. Santiago expresses his doubts by stating that his “‘heart is a traitor…it does [not] want [him] to go on.’ ‘That makes sense,’ the alchemist answered. ‘Naturally it [is] afraid that, in pursuing [a] dream, [a person] might lose everything [they] [have] won’” (Coelho 145). Throughout the novel, Santiago learns to always listen to his heart, but in this situation if he did, it would result in abandoning his journey. The alchemist encourages Santiago to move on from this fear by stating that it is normal to feel scared, but not normal to give up on a dream because of a feeling. Santiago’s best solution in this situation is to conquer his fear of loss altogether and erase the doubts in his mind for a smoother journey. Next, the fear of losing life in the midst of the journey makes Santiago wonder if it is appropriate to risk his life to pursue a dream. Santiago learns how to handle this situation as “the camel driver had [once] said, to die tomorrow [is] no worse than dying on any other ...

... middle of paper ...

... is only there to attempt to take him off track as the fear of suffering is worse than the action itself, which never happens when one pursues their dreams anyways. Therefore, the fear of the suffering in the future should be conquered as it is nothing but a burden to one’s life. Thus, the fear of the future must be conquered because people do not know if what they are afraid of will actually happen.

In conclusion, Coelho shows that people are more willing to take action on their dreams if they conquer their fears. The two most important fears that should be conquered are the fear of loss of beloved things or people, and the fear of what the future holds. In the end, fear is really just an obstacle in life; it controls people and makes them believe things that are not necessarily true and the only way to get rid of these thoughts is to get rid of the fear itself.