Pride In The Alchemist

435 Words1 Page

Paulo Coelho writes his book “The Alchemist’ about a young shepherd boy, named Santiago, taking us on a very interesting adventure, growing up and finding his one true calling in life. The journey he takes rapidly turns into his mission to pursue his Personal Legend and to understand the world as a whole, the Soul of the World. Santiago learns that everyone is put on earth to pursue their own Personal Legend. Each and everyone of us has our own calling in life, no matter how big or small it might be. Coelho describes it as “God’s blessing” and the “path that God chose for you here on earth.” The theme of personal legend is shown through the characters Santiago, the crystal merchant of Tangier , and the Englishman who desired to find the alchemist. Paulo Coelho shows the theme of personal legend through Santiago by saying he loves to travel. Santiago became a shepherd because of his love to travel . Santiago's dream has been to travel since he was little. Santiago had dreamed of traveling forever, so making it all the way to the pyramids of Egypt would be an adventure. He traveled there in hopes of finding his treasure, not stopping until he made it there. …show more content…

Santiago is seeking his Personal Legend, whereas the crystal merchant is not. He dreamed of Mecca his whole life, however, he felt if he left for Mecca he would no longer have anything else to dream of. Even after Santiago's changes to the crystal business have brought in enough money to make Mecca a possibility, the crystal merchant does not seek Mecca. He has abandoned his Personal Legend. By contrast, Santiago earns enough to return to the life that is most comfortable to him, the life of a shepherd, yet he chooses to postpone this in his journey to reach the

Open Document