Santiago The Alchemist

How contrasting views affected Santiago reaching his personal legend
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.
Santiago’s journey is influenced by the Crystal Merchant because the Merchant not only gives Santiago the skills, knowledge and money to keep going, but also inspires Santiago to continue on with his journey. The Crystal Merchant supplies Santiago with

both money and indispensable skills, like Crystal salesmanship and Arabic, by hiring him. After working in his shop for many months, Santiago saved up enough money to either go home, and buy a very large flock of sheep, or to the pyramids, and find the treasure from his dreams, the author voices the shepherd's thoughts by saying, “ he could become a Crystal Merchant again…” showing that the Crystal Merchant taught Santiago the skills needed to get home if his plans failed, thus making the decision to go to the pyramids less risky (Coelho 64-65). After leaving the bar, Santiago, “remembered that one of the Crystal Merchants suppliers transported his Crystal by means of caravans that crossed the desert,” This illustrates that Santiago would not have been able to continue on with his journey without the knowledge gained from the Crystal Merchant ( 64-65). Santiago is also inspired to follow his dreams after the Crystal Merchant told the boy why he had not followed his own dreams. When explaining why he had not followed his personal legend, the Merchant told Santiago, “ I’m afraid that if my dream is realised, I'll have no reason to go on living” Showing that he is not completely happy, but is also more content than if he had no dream to look forward to (Coelho 55). By contrast, when Santiago realised that he was “two hours closer” to his personal legend, he, “felt tremendously happy” showing that he, unlike the Crystal Merchant, truly wished to achieve his personal legend, and realised that he needed to in order to be happy (Coelho 64-654).To conclude, Santiago was able to continue on only because of the Crystal Merchant’s advice, charity, and training.
The Englishman not only teaches Santiago about the soul of the world but also causes Santiago to figure out that everybody learns in their own way.

When the Englishman lent Santiago his books, it teaches the boy how to read the language of the world which allowed him to spot omens later. While returning the books to the Englishman, Santiago explains that he learned, “ The world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things,” which allows Santiago to spot omens, like seeing the army in the eagle’s dive, later on in his journey (Coelho 83). Santiago also learns that people learn in different ways in order to follow their personal legend. While travelling through the desert, Santiago warns the Englishman, “ you should pay more attention to the Caravan... We make a lot of detours, but we’re always heading for the same destination,” and he replies, “ Books are like caravans in that respect,” showing that both could learn from each other, which allowed him to further his

dreams(78).
Coelho conveys that everyone pursues their dreams, either in reality or in imagination, through the Crystal Merchant and Englishman. Coelho uses the epilogue to leave the reader with a final message about personal legends. He uses Santiago to show the relief and happiness one gets from finally achieving it, but he also uses Fatima to showcase how one’s life still must continue after you are done with the thing you worked so hard for