The Alchemist is centered around a shepherd named Santiago, whose repetitive dreams lead him on a journey to succeeding his personal legend and finding his true love. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty revolves around Life Magazine’s negative asset manager named Walter Mitty, who frequently daydreams about an adventurous life until when an important negative goes missing, he must go on a global trek to find the photographer whose location is unknown. Although on different quests, Santiago and Walter follow the archetypal hero’s journey, moving them from dissatisfied action with their lives to finding purpose in them while showing a rebirth and renewal emphasized by symbolism. The archetypal hero’s journey requires a defined set of events in …show more content…
a narrative; departure-fulfillment-return pattern, obstacles during the fulfillment stage, and certain characters appear. It is important that the departure-fulfillment-return pattern to be used because the hero is renewed and reborn after fulfilling the reason why he departed. In The Alchemist, Santiago’s journey begins once he leaves his native land Andalusia to find his treasure and complete his personal legend. “When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it,” (Coelho, 64), Santiago succeeds his personal legend by deciding of what to make of his life, therefore his return is to his true love who chose to wait for him after they met while on his journey. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter’s journey begins when he travels to Iceland to find the photographer whose negative he has misplaced. Walter’s voyage is complete when he tracks down the photographer and the photographer tells him the negative was in the pocket of the wallet he had sent him as a gift. Furthermore, Walter returned as a hero when he took the negative to Life Magazine as he picked up his last paycheck. Now, obstacles must occur during the fulfillment stage of the hero’s journey. In The Alchemist, the obstacles included are - the fear of not achieving your personal legend, the fear of true love, fear of failure, and the guilt of success. Santiago must strike the fear of not achieving his personal legend when the King of Salem explains to Santiago what a personal legend is, “ It’s what you’ve always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows their personal legend. “ (Coelho, 23) The king also says that once you know what your personal legend is, you are not afraid and there are mysterious forces that try to get in your way and make you believe it’s impossible to succeed. Santiago then overcomes the fear of true love when he must decide whether or not to put his quest on hold for his true love, Fatima.
“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his personal legend.” (Coelho, 124) This is a turning point in the story because Santiago is willing to give up everything he has worked for in order to stay with Fatima. The Alchemist explains that love comes with pursuing personal legends and it won’t stand in the way. Next, Santiago must face the fear of failure. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” (Coelho, 141). There may be tough times and tests along the way but he must remain focused on his dream. Finally, the last obstacle Santiago goes through is the guilt of success. Once Santiago arrives at the pyramids and begins to dig for his treasure, two men approached him and beat him up. Once they were finished, one of the men told him that he shouldn’t believe in dreams. “You'll learn that a man shouldn't be so stupid. Two years ago, right here on this spot, I had a recurrent dream, too. I dreamed that I should travel the fields of Spain and look for a ruined church where shepherds and their sheep slept. In my dream, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins …show more content…
of the sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore I would find a hidden treasure. But I'm not so stupid as to cross an entire dessert just because of a recurrent dream." (Coelho, 163) After they depart, Santiago realizes that the treasure has been waiting for him back in Andalusia this whole time. In the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the obstacles Walter must conquer are - the fear of love and the fear of taking risks. “I just live by the ABC’s: Adventurous, Brave, Creative” says Walter, to Cheryl, as he daydreams about saving her. He is afraid of not being good enough for her so he opts to daydream about a better version of himself. “Go, crack the case. Listen to your wallet,” says Cheryl to Walter as she pushes him to listen to the quote that’s engraved into his wallet, which was a gift by the off-the-grid photographer, “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life”. Walter is afraid of taking the risk of spending his life savings to find the photographer he has no address for. In the hero’s journey, certain characters should appear; the hero, mentor, and allies. In The Alchemist, Santiago is the hero. Santiago’s mentor is Melchizedek, the King of Salem, who persuades him to embark on his journey and go on his personal legend by giving him two stones that will help him. His allies include the crystal merchant and the Englishman. The Crystal Merchant was Santiago’s friend during his time in Tangier and is an example of someone who gave up pursuing his personal legend. The Englishman is an aspiring alchemist and because they both are committed to pursuing their own personal legend, they become friends. He teaches Santiago the importance of reading books and introduces him to alchemy. Symbolism is evident in The Alchemist and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Symbolic Imagery is used in The Alchemist; Santiago’s sheep, alchemy, and the desert. Santiago’s sheep symbolize the sort of existence lived by those who are completely blind to their Personal Legends. Santiago loves his sheep, but he also believes that his sheep do not appreciate all the wonderful lands that Santiago discovers during his travels. These sheep symbolize the characters in the book who do not pursue their Personal Legends, such as the crystal merchant. Like the sheep, the merchant was content with his material desires and social acceptance. Furthermore, he lost the ability to appreciate certain aspects of creation, and tends to miss out on many opportunities because of his limited perspectives. Alchemy, in which a base metal is transformed into a more valuable metal like gold, represents Santiago’s journey to achieve his Personal Legend. In The Alchemist, the metal must rid itself of all impurities to achieve a higher state. Similarly, Santiago must rid himself of his impurities, in order to realize his own Personal Legend and achieve a higher state. The desert symbolizes the difficulties that await anyone in pursuit of their Personal Legend, but it also serves as a teacher to Santiago during his journey to the pyramids. Santiago begins to understand his environment, and to see the signs of life. Eventually he learns to recognize all the creation in sand, and in the greatest test he
faces during the book, he finds he is able to control the desert in his effort to become the wind. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the colors help to exemplify the theme of becoming more adventurous. In the beginning of the film, Walter is seen in his simple apartment. Blue, grey and white are the colors shown in his apartment. These colors portray simplicity, similar to the life Walter lives until he goes on his journey. While Walter daydreams, the colors fade and his world becomes more colorful. Furthermore, Cheryl’s clothes are often brighter than the other workers at Life Magazine, showing Walter that he needs to have courage and speak to her so his life can be a little brighter too. Though much of the beginning of the film involves simple colors, when Walter lands in Greenland and is asking about renting a car, two cars are available- one red and one blue. If consistent in the color scheme of the movie, he would’ve chosen the blue car but he chooses to take the red car instead. This shows Walter’s transition into his new life. Though on different journeys, Walter and Santiago follow through with the Hero’s Journey archetype. They begin dissatisfied with their lives and end their journeys, reborn and renewed.
Santiago had been rewarded with the treasure earned when completing his journey, “In my dream there was a sycamore growing out the ruin of the sacristy… there were precious stones, gold masks adorned with red and white feathers.” (Coelho 170). Santiago was able to accomplish his personal legend, which he had to go through many stages in the journey that got him closer to completing his goal. In this final stage of his journey was a good thing to accomplish, because he’s gone through all of the stages that had been placed there to challenge and see if he actually wants to accomplish it, so he did not give up and gained trust in himself to keep going. This is an important part of the journey because this had taught him to not give up and trust in his heart to accomplish his personal legend, such as when others believe that it is hard to accomplish what they want to complete and do in their life.
First of all, the author shows that through persevering through adversity anyone can achieve their dreams. During the book Santiago continuously faces problems that he will have to overcome to achieve his Personal Legend. In this scenario, Santiago is in the city of Tangier when he is suddenly robbed of all of his money, by a thief who promised to take him to Egypt. However instead of thinking of himself as a victim of a thief he decides that “I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure” (34). Santiago was able to persevere through a situation that many people would not have been able to overcome and not able to continue their journey. Being able to persevere through
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
Have you ever encountered problems while trying to fulfill a goal in your life? In the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago overcomes obstacles to reach his personal legend. Throughout the book Santiago encounters many friends to help him fulfill his destiny. Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. He overcomes them with the help of his friends and his wife-to-be. These problems shape Santiago into a dignified man of many traits.
In the literary book, “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coleho it talks about how a young boy named Santiago goes on a journey to find his Personal Legend. He counters many obstacles and meets different people and visits different places. Santiago in the end is a very different person. Paulo Coleho includes the characters of the baker, the crystal merchant, Santiago, and the Englishman to show readers that one must conquer their goals or fears to find true happiness and to accomplish their desires. Paulo uses the baker in this story to show how when we hold back from pursuing our dreams then we end up in a constant place of delusion thinking we are happy. For example, on page 25 of “The Alchemist” it states, “When he was a child that man wanted to travel,
“Alchemy” is the perfect metaphor for this book because like an alchemist, Santiago attempts to find his Personal Legend or for an alchemist, trying to change simple metal to gold. Santiago also had many setbacks, like an alchemist failing to make gold. Like alchemists, he continues his trip until he realizes his Personal Legend, or like an alchemist finally making gold. “But the alchemists were strange people, who only thought only about themselves, and almost always refused to help him,” (66, The Alchemist). Santiago, like an alchemist, was estranged from the culture, and were forced to become accustomed to their situation. Santiago kept trying, much like alchemist, until eventually they either grasp their Personal Legend or find a way to make gold. When Santiago met the alchemist, he learned to be open-minded and to problem solve, he also taught Santiago how to connect with the
Santiago faced a lot of difficulties in order to achieve his. When Santiago first got to egypt, he trusted the wrong person. A boy stole all his money, which he had gotten from selling his sheep. Santiago meets a crystal merchant when he had lost all his money. The merchant helps Santiago by allowing him to work for him. With Santiago’s help and ideas the Merchant started doing better than before. Santiago had a dream to travel to Egypt and find the treasure that he had dreamed of. The merchant also had a dream, however, the merchant was satisfied with what he already had and didn’t want more. Santiago had gone through a lot of situations and almost gave up on his dreams when he got robbed. He had no money to complete his
The alchemist begins with Santiago, a humble shepherd who is nearly content with his life, but he longs for more. He is a curious and open-minded boy, which leads him on his journey to pursue his Personal Legend. Throughout the story, it shows us how Santiago goes through an entire transformation that demonstrates his inner growth and understanding of his Personal Legend. One key moment in Santiago's character development was his first step in pursuing his personal legend. Towards the beginning of the story Santiago gets approached by Melchizedek, and has a deep conversation about Santiago's personal journey.
When Santiago saved up enough money, he took a caravan across a desert to get to the pyramids where he met the leader of the caravan and a real alchemist. The alchemist taught him new ways of viewing life. Santiago’s call to adventure was his dream of the child telling him that there was treasure waiting for him
The desert is a barren place with sand dunes and the occasional oasis, and that's it. It makes someone realize how important their life is and teaches them to be grateful for what they have and not be barren like the desert. The alchemist is a very wise man, and he affects Santiago moving forward, teaching Santiago that if you improve in present time “what comes later will also be better.” (Coelho 106). Santiago realizes that if he works hard now and focuses on the better things in life at that moment in time, that all the hard work will pay off and the better things in life will become better than they were.
Through the process that he turns into wind, he not only understands the soul of the world, but also recognizes his potential. Hence, the Alchemist in the story who teaches Santiago these lessons symbolizes the people who help an individual during the journey to one’s Personal Legend. In addition, through Santiago’s journey from Andalusia to the Egyptian Pyramids, he finds his actual treasure which makes him more than a little shepherd.
The Alchemist “The Alchemist” is a novel written by Paul Coelho. This novel is about how a boy named Santiago who was once a Shepard and now is a rich man .Santiago is the protagonist of the novel. He was determined to fulfill his personal legend. There was also the alchemist, he was a two hundred year old man who understands the importance of personal legends.
Everyday, humans live their lives in fear of the world surrounding them. They awaken to the apprehension of a new day, unnerved at all the challenges that will undoubtedly present themselves. It is often thought that through the perseverance of facing these challenges, dreams are born. In The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, dreams and aspirations play an essential role in the tale of Santiago. Santiago is a shepherd who decides he wants more out of live after perceiving premonitions about a supposed hidden treasure near the Egyptian Pyramids.
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.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. The Alchemist is the story about a young man from Spain who desires to travel. His name is Santiago. He has a deep wish to be traveler, so he becomes a shepherd.