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Essay on symbolism in literature
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There were around two hundred people that join the caravan including the Santiago and the Englishman. The Englishman says ‘there’s no such thing as coincidence’. Santiago realizes the closer one gets to realize his Personal Legends, the more that Personal Legends becomes his true reasons for beings. While crossing the deserts, he was thinking about the past and the future by learning the universal language. His mother’s referred this knowledge as hunches and also the word maktub means it is written. He realizes that he had learns more by observing his camel and the caravan, and he throw away his books. Santiago having a conversation with the camel driver at night, he told Santiago about his life before and how he became a camel driver. He learned …show more content…
that people cannot to fear the unknowns if they can achieve what they want and need. One night, the Englishman was an able to sleeps, he asked Santiago about his past before join the caravan, and he excited the part of achievement of the shop after the boy working there. The Englishman says ‘that’s the principal that governs all things’. In alchemy, it’s called the Soul of the World and its always positive force. Santiago reads the Englishman’s books and he cannot understand any of it.
He notices the book was so strange because it talked about the mercury, salt, dragon, and king. However, there was one idea that all things are the manifestation of one thing only. It also contains the most important text in the literature of an alchemy contained only a few lines, and had been recorded on the surfaces of an emerald. The book that attracts Santiago interest was the stories about the famous alchemists that dedicated their entry lives to purifying metals. The alchemist believed if a metal were heated for many years, it would free and became individual properties. Since the languages with which all things communicated, the soul of the world allowed them to understand anything on earth. They called that discovery the master work. The boy learned that the master works consist with two parts, which is the liquid portion knows as the Elixir of Life, which use to cure an illness and kept the alchemist from getting older. While the others is solid parts is called the Philosopher’s stone. It was an important thing to turn any metal into gold. Santiago became more excited to learn in alchemy when he heard about gold. Unfortunately he became lost, when he wanted to learns how to achieve the master
work. On night, Santiago returned the books that belonging to the Englishman, the Englishman asked did he learn anything from the books. He learns the world has soul and many alchemists realized their personal legends. The Englishman became disappointed when none of this made an impression on the boy. In the journey by talking with camel driver, Santiago learns to concentrated on the present and he will happy because life is the moments that he living right now.
Coelho contrasts tradition with Personal Legend to illustrate the individual nature of the pursuit to discover one’s goals and dreams. Tradition stands as a very powerful force that makes Santiago hesitate his quest to fulfill his Personal Legend. The fear of breaking tradition holds people back from living true to their dreams since, “We always observe the tradition” (Coelho 107). Tradition involves practices of older generations and the following of already trodden paths, in hopes of reaching already achieved goals. Meanwhile, the concept of ...
Santiago is a shepherd trying to pursue his personal legend. His personal legend is the recurring dream about the hidden treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. In his dream he starts playing in a field with his sheep, when a child appeared and began to play with the animals. This was strange to him because sheep are afraid of strangers, but the sheep and children play along just fine. Then a child grabbed his hands and took him to the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. He begins his journey locally trying to find answers from a gypsy and a man named
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.
The knowledge and universal understanding derivative from a journey can leave the traveller positively enlightened. In Coelho’s story, Santiago is faced with recurring dreams which lead him to ‘’traverse the unknown’’ in search of a treasure buried in Egypt, the metaphor for universal connection, and in doing so, comes to the unrelenting realisation of spiritual transcendence. After arriving at the assumed geographical location of the treasure ‘’several figures approached him’’. They demand the boy keep searching for this treasure as they are poor refugees and in need of money, but as Santiago does, he finds nothing. Then, after relentless digging through the night ‘’as the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy’’ , finally relenting with the truth, Santiago reveals his dreams to the travellers. In doing so, Santiago finds out that these men had also been faced with recurring dreams measured around the place where the boy had undergone his own, both relative to hidden treasure. However the leader was ‘’not so stupid as to cross an entire desert just because of a recurrent dream’’. It is with this fact, tha...
Santiago is a young boy who fits into the flawed hero archetype. His story tells of his journey to find his Personal Legend and the many new people and experiences he encounters. Santiago is flawed in the way that he does not have enough confidence in himself to complete the task set out in front of him. He is constantly putting himself off track and avoiding what he has to do. In the beginning of his journey, he faces a setback and his money gets stolen. While finding a solution and a job, he gets distracted loses sight of his dreams. A couple months into the job, he thinks, “...Egypt was now just as distant a dream as was Mecca for the merchant…” (Coelho 58) and he glorifies his new plan to “disembark at Tarifa as a winner” (Coelho 58) with his improved flock of sheep. However, he continues his journey two years later, despite his break in confidence. When Santiago reaches the Oasis during his journey across the desert, he gets sidetracked once more by a woman. This woman’s name is Fatima. The second time they meet Santiago speaks without thinking and says, “‘I came to tell you just one thing...I want you to be my wife. I love you.’” (Coelho 98). This alone demonstrates his rash actions of an inexperienced hero who causes his dreams to be postponed. However, Santiago is also a successful hero despite his flaws. He still continues his journey, no matter what, and eventually reaches his goal. Even through
Santiago thinks about his discussion with the old man. He is annoyed that the old man was right about his being on the verge of giving up just as he finds his destiny. Wandering around the city, he approaches a ticket seller, but he does not buy a ticket to Africa, where he knows the Egyptian pyramids are. He knows that he could buy a ticket with the money he could make from selling only one of his sheep. As he stands at the ticket window, he decides to go back to shepherding his flock. He muses that neither the old gypsy woman nor the old man understand what it means to have a flock of sheep depend on them.
"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 and the Englishman have many common interests, as mentioned before. One of many is they both go after their personal legend. A personal legend is what you were put on the earth to do; a dream of some sort. Santiago and the Englishman both realize their personal legends and follow omens to get to them, which then sends them on an adventure across the desert. Another similarity shared between the two characters is the enjoyment and longing to learning. Both characters are often found throughout the book, eagerly learning from their adventures. For example, riding in the caravan,
Santiago, a young shepherd form Spain, repeatedly had a dream about a child leading him to The Pyramids in Egypt. He was confused about these experiences until he met The Gypsy Woman, who enlightens him about personal legends, how everyone has one destined and how some follow the path to the finale and some give up or ignore realizing theirs. Santiago, being a brave
An identity is more than just a name. Sometimes an identity is the first thing and possible the only thing a person notices about one or the other. A person's identity can represent their culture, their race and sometimes, even possible their family background. My identity is what represents me. For those who does not know me personally but knows my name, knows my identity. This identity is what people will recognize me as for now and possible for ever.
Santiago’s early behavior of transcendentalism are evident when he nullifies and rejects his parents’ longing for him to become priest, and instead decides to remain a shepherd of Andalusia and learn the indecipherable language of the world. When Santiago’s father tries to persuade Santiago that travelling with a herd of sheep does not impact and change a person, Santiago replies, “But I’d like to see the castles in the towns where they live,”… “Well, I’d like to see their lands, and see how they live” (Coelho 9). Santiago’s early rejections of becoming a priest and perusing his life as a shepherd clearly demonstrates that Santiago’s comprehension and understanding of life does not include the following a decided future, but exploring and discovering the world with own eyes. Furthermore, when Santiago decides to define his Personal Legend by voyaging to the Pyramids of Giza, he is faced and challenged with many hardships that will require critical thinking and extremely important verdicts. When, for example, held hostage by Moorish chieftains and given the daunting task to disintegrate the Moorish military camp by transforming into the wind, Santiago communicates with nature’s elements, “I learned the alchemist’s secrets in my travels. I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the same hand, and we have the same soul” (Coelho 146). Eventually, Santiago learns that all aspects of biotic and abiotic existence are controlled by a creator, and maintained by the Soul of the World. Manifestly, Santiago’s adventures revolutionized him into a prudent, wise man and reflect the
...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.
In the story, Santiago learns early on in his journey what can happen if one were to not follow their dreams. He meets a crystal merchant for whom he works for a while. Later on it is revealed that the crystal merchant has to travel to the city of Mecca in order to meet the five obligations of the Muslim faith. The crystal merchant refuses to travel to Mecca out of fear of having a bland life henceforth.The crystal merchant explains to Santiago his reasoning for not wanting to travel to Mecca because he wants someone to help him end this problem he has
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.
...he treasure becomes more real because the entering the desert and traveling for days on show Santiago's commitment to his Personal Legend. The desert is a place that depicts the numerous obstacles one faces on thier way to their fulil thier Personal Legend. The desert is where Santiago comes across people who impact his life and help him reach the trasure but it is also the place where he has to overcome many hardships to procede with his journey.