Hidden Themes In The Alchemist

Life is unpredictable. One moment one might be content living a bland and uneventful life but the next moment one might find themselves traveling through the desert looking for treasure. However, this journey will involve more than just finding the treasure as one will also find themselves. This is what happened to Santiago in the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The novel follows a shepherd boy named Santiago who in the beginning of the novel is content with his life. He knows the sheep, he understands them, speaks their language, and is “accustomed to their schedule.” While camping out by an abandoned church Santiago has a recurring dream about a child who takes him to the pyramids and tells him that she will help him find the treasure.

But right before the child shows him the treasure, Santiago is awoken. He goes to a gypsy woman who tells him to go to the pyramids and find his treasure. He then sells his sheep and travels to Tangier, where upon arriving he is robbed. He then finds a job at a crystal merchants shop where he earns enough money to continue his journey. He travels to the oasis with an English man who is also trying to fulfill his personal Legend. At the oasis Santiago meets an alchemist who guides him to the treasure. They are then captured by soldiers and are let go when Santiago performs a miracle and communicates with “the hand that wrote all.” Once Santiago reaches the Pyramids he is robbed once again. One of the robbers relates a dream that leads Santiago back to Spain where he finds his treasure. Throughout Santiago’s journey, there are many recurring themes. There are many themes but the most important ones include the pursuit of one’s Personal Legend, alchemy, and numerology.
A prominent theme in the novel is the idea that everyone has a “Personal Legend” and it is up to that person to decide whether they acknowledge and try to fulfill it or to acknowledge it and do nothing about it. The novel begins with Santiago beginning his journey to fulfill his Personal Legend through the helpful push of Melchizedek as well as the gypsy woman. Melchizedek is the “king of Salem” and he appears in different forms to encourage an individual whenever they are close to giving up on their journey to fulfilling their Personal Legend. The old king tells Santiago that people are aware of their Personal Legend, or their destiny, at a very young age when life is “clear and everything is possible.” He then goes on to explain how when people are young they are “not afraid to dream” and realize what it is they want. But as people grow they begin to fear and this keeps them from fulfilling their destiny. Often times love gets in the way of destiny. However, if one stays on track and continues to pursue the legend, life always comes out being better than if they had stayed with their content life. The journey to the Personal Legend brings more than just a treasure for Santiago as he learns many things from the different people that he met. One’s Personal Legend is a path that has already been made by God, and the decision of whether to take that path is an important one that the individual must make.
Alchemy is another important theme, as well as part of the novel’s title. For Santiago alchemy serves as a symbol for lessons about the world as well as life. Alchemy is about turning a simple metal into something valuable like gold. This is what Santiago has done to his life. Santiago starts of as a simple metal, like lead, but through realizing and fulfilling his Personal Legend he has transformed into gold. However, in order for lead to turn into gold, its impurities must be extinguished from it. Santiago had to rid himself of his life as a shepherd, his parents acceptance, and Fatima for the time being in order to become gold. Santiago must follow his instincts as well as the omens given to him by the Soul of the World, he must also learn to understand the language of the world. The alchemist chose to guide Santiago because he understand that in order to understand the world one must study nature and the world. The secrets can not be found in books as it just complicates it. The secrets of alchemy are written on the Emerald Tablet. This tablet has the instructions for the Philosopher’s stone as well as the Elixir of Life. These are two important things that alchemist strive to produce. Alchemy was once a thing for was “so simple that they could be written on the surface of an emerald.” People took advantage of the simplicity so now the Stone and the Elixir appear to be much more difficult to create, but it is actually not. People became obsessed with producing it and they compiled loads of information about them, making it seem quite complicated. Complexity often masks the truth, which is simple and pure. The alchemist highlights that “if what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil.” When something is so simple and pure it can not spoil as it does not rely on anything else, much like Santiago’s and Fatima’s love.
Numerology is a hidden theme in the novel.

The numbers two, three, and four make many appearances in the book and they connect significantly. Before going on his journey to fulfill his Personal Legend Santiago had spent “two years” with his sheep. By this time he had grown content with his life, “become accustomed to their schedule” and believed that this is what he was meant to do, this was his destiny. In these two years he also became accustomed to the Andalusian terrain. The boy in Melchizedek's story waited “two hours” before talking to the wise man, and he carried a spoon with “two drops of oil.” Santiago was also given two stones, Urim and Thummim. These two stones represent yes and no answers to objective questions. The number two is a number of conflict as well as opposition that allows for positives and negatives to exist. The number two appears many times in the novel, but not as many times as the number three. The number three first appears when Santiago wishes that the merchant would “keep him waiting for three days” so that he could continue talking to his daughter. In religious terms three days refers to waiting for divine intervention, such as when Jonah spent three days in the whale, and Jesus being dead for three days. There are many other references to the number three such as when Santiago is given “three ancient Spanish coins” by his father in order to buy some sheep. If Santiago told the baker about what the old king had said then the baker “would spend three days thinking about giving it all up.” There are three characters that speak and interact with each other in the caravan: Santiago, the caravan leader, and the Englishman. Santiago travels with the alchemist for three days and are then taken prisoner by “three armed tribesmen.” Santiago was given three days to “transform himself into the wind” and the alchemist left Santiago when they were “three hours from the Pyramids.” Four is also an important number. Santiago has four handicaps that

keep him from fulfilling his personal legend: his fear of disappointing people, his fear of getting something that he does not deserve, believing that he can’t achieve his Personal Legend, and fear of failure. Throughout his journey, Santiago discovers how to speak the universal language and communicate with the four elements: earth, sun, water, and wind. The alchemist divides the gold that he transformed from metal into four parts. One of these parts where for the monk, one for himself, one for Santiago for the time being, and the other for Santiago if he comes to need it, which he does.
The novel is much like a self-help book because it shows how important it is that we follow our dreams and desires. It follows the life of Santiago who follows his dream of finding his treasure. In order to find his treasure he must leave his current life that he is content with, learn to understand the Soul of the World and recognize that the universe wants him to be happy and will aid in his pursuit to happiness. This pursuit is accompanied by the recurring themes of his Personal Legend, alchemy, as well as numerology. On his way to fulfill his personal legend he runs into many obstacles and is often discouraged on continuing but the end result that comes in the form of a physical treasure and as well as a spiritual reward, becomes worth it.