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Themes of the novel alchemist
Themes of the novel alchemist
Themes of the novel alchemist
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The alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho and it is a book that has inspired many readers. This novel is about an Andulasian shepard, Santiago, that goes along a journey traveling to find his treasure. Furthermore, along the way he discovers new things such as the importance of listening to his heart and discovering his own Personal Legend. However, Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. The boy had two dreams about a child telling him about a hidden treasure near the pyramids of Egypt, so he decides to go to a Gypsy woman to interpret his dream. The woman tells the boy to go to the Egyptian Pyramids where he will find treasure; in addition, she tells him to give her one tenth of the treasure, for she will not charge him for the consultation. However, the Gypsy …show more content…
Eventually, his thoughts change after encountering with Melchiczedek, the king of Salem. Melchiczedek explains to the boy about Personal Legends and how Santiago can find it; furthermore, he also tells him about understanding the Soul of the World. Thus, the boy was now willing to travel a long distance and find his Personal Legend, treasure. He then sells one tenth of his sheep to the king and uses the money to head to Africa. After a while, he meets a newcomer in Tangier that later becomes a friend; however, Santiago is shortly robbed by him. It influences him because that was his way to go to Africa. Eventually, the boy then stays at a glass shop about a year to afford money to cross the Sahara. Finally he leaves the glass shop and joins a caravan and ends up in an oasis. At the oasis, he has a vision of an invading army with the birds in the sky. That is another influence to the theme because the leader of the oasis gave him three days, and if no enemies show up, Santiago was going to be condoned to death. The leader got ready during those days; unfortunately, they killed some enemies before the three days ended.
Santiago the confines of fear. He tells Santiago he will have to learn to turn himself into the wind, “[his]
In The Alchemist Paulo Coelho presents a character, Santiago, torn between following tradition and his Personal Legend. Santiago tries to live true to his Personal Legend, which is a path pursued by those who strive to fulfill their purpose in life. Yet throughout the novel tradition, a motif, presents itself as a roadblock holding Santiago back from reaching his dreams. Coelho juxtaposes tradition against Personal Legend to illustrate its purely individual nature and the necessity of the acceptance of change to reach one’s dreams and goals.
He first struggles internally when he wants to understand the dream he is having repeatedly. During the call to adventure in the hero’s journey, Santiago heads to an old gypsy in order to understand the dream he has. However, after listening to the interpretation, Santiago decided to “never again believe in dreams” because the gypsy only told him things he had already known (Coelho 17). This internal struggle, which sets the stage for the rest of Santiago’s struggles, had restrained Santiago for some time because he wasn’t able to pursue his personal legend if he didn’t believe in it, However, he later overcomes this struggle and continues on his path to achieving his personal legend. Santiago struggles internally later when he meets with the chief of a camp in the desert who tells him that he wants to see him turn into the wind. The alchemist, a man Santiago met to help him achieve his personal legend, told the chief that Santiago will be able to turn himself into the wind to show his powers, and if he can’t, “[they’ll] humbly offer [them] [their] lives” (Coelho 145). Santiago has never turned himself into the wind, so he has to dig deeply within in order to find the
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
are characters that can be defined by their traits as certain archetypes. All novels and films contain archetypes that allow their audience to understand and relate more to
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.
"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.
Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is a story about a young shepherd who goes on a journey to the Great pyramids in Egypt in search of treasure to fulfil his personal legend. The boy meets people along the way who either help or hinder his ability to achieve his dreams. Through the contrasting views of The Crystal Merchant and the Englishman Santiago learns that many people pursue their personal legends only in their minds and that they all influenced Santiago’s personal legend; as a result of the characters’ outlook on life, Coelho conveys that everyone pursues their dreams either in life, or in their imagination, or through books.
“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.
...In conclusion, we can say that after applying Joseph Campbell's theory of The Monomyth on The Alchemist; it is noticeable that despite The Alchemist being a postmodernism wok of literature, the author Coelho used all major patterns of the hero's journey of ancient myth in his novel and this developed Santiago's journey from an ordinary one into an archetypal one.
At the start of the novel, Santiago is summoned to embark on his adventure several times. He states that he continually has a dream that is quite strange and unfamiliar. In these dreams he meets a boy who tells him, “if you come here, you will find a hidden treasure”(13). The story later reveals that this dream is in fact a hint of his upcoming journey to find a hidden treasure. The second call is when Santiago strikes a conversation with a fortune teller. He asks the fortune teller to interpret his strange recurring dream. The fortune teller reveals to him that a grand treasure is waiting for him in the Egyptian Pyramids. While these news are not new for Santiago, this ultimately lead him one step closer to answering his call. The next and final call, is when Santiago met the King of Salem. The king gives Santiago the final push by explaining to him all about personal legends. The king gives him a sense of reassurance by telling him that, “in order to find the treasure, [Santiago] will have to follow the omens”(29). All of these examples tie in with Santiago beginning his hero journey.
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 conflict in the novel that most intrigued me was between Santiago and himself. Throughout the novel he almost gave up hope of ever finding his treasure. When he was robbed in the market place...
There are many obstacles in everyday life, but none as detrimental to ones future as fear. Fear can cause people to not only avoid achieving their goals in life but it also forces them to think about it throughout every day. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist shows that those who wallow in fear will never achieve their personal legend, and those who conquer fear will achieve anything they strive for. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is a commonly analyzed and criticized piece of literature. One of these articles is Rejendra Kumar Dash’s “Alchemy of the Soul: A Comparative Study of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist”. Dash’s article is a literary criticism of the different parts of the character’s journey in The Alchemist. He talks about, in his article, how the theme in The Alchemist is found through analyzing the different parts of Santiago’s journey and what those parts mean. Another one of these articles is Lily Hasanah’s “Decision Making in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist”. Hasanah’s article is a literary criticism of the main character in The Alchemist, Santiago. She searches for the theme in The Alchemist through analyzing the decisions, and the outcomes of those decisions, made by Santiago. Paulo Coelho provides access to his theme, for the most part, though the actions and adventures of the main character, Santiago. Although this is the method of delivery he had in mind, Dash and Hasanah view the delivery of his theme differently.