Sexism In The Alchemist

Hidden Behind Location and Time

While still making seventy nine cents to a man’s dollar, it is clear that the thought of women has barely improved since the beginning of time. Written thirty years ago, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, contains the idea that women were made for men, which is still thought to be true today. The way women are portrayed in this observation of a religious journey actively degrades the idea that women should be socially, economically and politically equal to men. Women were not made to be cast as supporting characters, however in The Alchemist they are only used to add slight, temporary interest or are thrown in to move the plot along. This novel focuses on the hero’s journey all while playing into the stereotype

Not to mention, the location was deep in Africa, where even to this day women are not close to being equal to men. However, the time and location should not influence the denial of sexism in his story, when he had the opportunity to make women seem stronger in the eyes of men. It may not have been his obligation to fight for equality, but he had the power and instead of standing by generations of strong, fearless women, he furthered the prejudice toward them and put the sexist thoughts of men in that region and in that time period down on paper.

While the evidence may be minimal, the amount of women in this book further shows how they were only cast as the supporting roles in The Alchemist. The women previously mentioned were all the women represented in the book. The daughter of the merchant and the desert women were the only females the reader encounters in this book. In addition to the lacking amount of women, the stories of these women are injected with discrimination and misogynist beliefs. The time period and the location were used as a cover, a way to hide how the author only used men to tell his