The Alchemist Quotes

Would you ever listen to an old man on the street telling you to go to a place you’ve never been to follow your dreams? You don’t know how or where you’re going, but you're going on an adventure of a lifetime. Well Santiago did, all he had was fate and himself. Paulo Coelho’s book “The Alchemist” displays the theme to follow dreams to wherever they may take you.
The characters Santiago meet in the book influence his decisions.King Melchizedek, Fatima, and The Alchemist are the ones who make Santiago’s dream possible. At first the King seems like a peasant but underneath the raggedy clothes was a breastplate of gold. He is the man that starts Santiago’s journey to his own Personal Legend. “To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only real obligation.” (25). From that quote you could see that he is telling him to go for it, pursue your own personal legend. Santiago’s next encounter is with Fatima. Fatima is a women of the desert. After Santiago told her about his personal legend she knew that it was sign, they were meant to be. All she could really do was help him continue to his goal. "I'm a desert woman, and I'm proud of that. I want my husband to wander as free as the wind that shapes the dunes.” (99). She is allowing him to be free and go on pursuit of his dreams. The

Alchemist is basically a mentor, as he said, “I only invoked what you already knew.”(155). He teaches many lessons and conveys them interesting ways. He gives Santiago steps to move on in his personal legend. “That’s what the alchemist do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.” (151). The alchemist led Santiago to his treasure.
The setting affects the lessons being learned by the time period and also the society at the time. It is very coincidental that my symbol and setting go hand in hand. The setting first takes place in Andalusia Spain, then to Morocco and Egypt in Africa. The variations of transportation (camel, boat, and caravan) tell me that this could be set a couple centuries back. Also the language as well. The king’s outfit would consider him to be a homeless man which is the equivalent of a peasant. The desert is part of the setting and is my symbol for the story. The desert symbolizes obstacles that come between yourself and your dreams. "The caravan and the desert speak the same language, and it's for that reason that the desert allows the crossing.”(80-81). Santiago became a part of the desert. “The desert will give you an understanding of the world in fact, : anything on the face of the earth will do that.” (129). Santiago and the desert were one. The desert sensed his fear, knew when he was in trouble and of most of all listen to his heart. “Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart,” (160).
The third person omniscient point of view gave us wide perspective of all the characters.

The narrator knows everything giving us the reader a deeper understanding into what is actually happening. We could see into the Alchemist’s head and see what he was doing and why. Or the different emotions that each character expresses. In events such as when they met up with the chieftains. The leader wanted to see Santiago turn into wing while his other comrades wanted to kill him and the Alchemist was ready and knew that he could do it. If it was narrated by the Santago we would only see his interpretations of the situation. We could experience Santiago’s Personal Legend Journey to follow our

own.
Everyone has their own Personal Legend and Santiago fulfilled his. His journey was long and he didn’t know where he was going but he followed the signs and the omens, he was like the wind free and flowing. Meeting the King, Fatima, and the Alchemist encouraged and led him closer and closer to his treasure. The Pyramids in Egypt and the farm in Spain show the passion that Santiago had to go on that voyage from here to there, traveling through the desert using his heart . The point of view showed us that following your dreams isn’t only something that other can share your experience on you own pursuit of happiness to your dreams.Santiago followed his dreams and now it’s you time to follow yours.