The Alchemist Research Paper

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The journey or the destination? The JOURNEY. or, the DESTINATION? The Alchemist, a novel by Paulo Coelho, tells the story of a young man seeking treasure, and the lessons he learns along the way. Santiago, the young man, learns of a treasure he must seek and find in order to fulfill his personal legend, encounters trials and mishaps along the way, and even finds love in an unlikely place. The Alchemist is a story that strives to teach the importance of the journey as well as the destination through the help of mentors, both human and otherwise. Not all lessons are taught verbally, passed on from one person to the next. There are some things a person must learn through experience: pain, joy, contentment, the highest of highs, and the lowest …show more content…

Throughout his journey, Santiago faces many challenges capable of undermining his whole voyage if he lets them, but before he leaves for Egypt, Melchizedek imparts on him some advice. He tells him not to forget that “ ‘everything [he] deal[s] with is only one thing and nothing else’ ” (Coelho 33). When life throws hard things at a person, they have to get up and keep going. At the end of the day, they survived and they will get up and try again in the morning. The lessons Melchizedek was trying to teach Santiago were that it’s okay to fall down, as long as you get back up, and that there would be things that he would have to deal with, but as long as he persevered and kept his dream in sight, he would be just fine. When people come across absolute truths, a statement that is true at all times and in all places, they tend to stick with people. This is true for some of the folks Santiago encounters on his way to the pyramids, the Englishman for instance was searching for his own treasure and happened upon a truth that he shares with …show more content…

It has come to his realization that fear can be a good thing, that one can never learn anything if everything is just handed to them, and if everyone only did easy things then no one would ever be good at anything. Another absolute truth that is shared with Santiago comes from the Camel Driver, in a time of uncertainty Santiago remembers his words and can find calmness with the idea that “ ‘to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day’ ” (Coelho 112). He's found peace knowing that it’s all in God's hands and that he's already accomplished so much. He is able to come to terms with death, a feat that is not accomplished by many at such a young age. When faced with trials that could easily break most people, Santiago is able to lean on the absolute truths that he picked up from teacher’s in his life. The novel comes to its conclusion in the same place it started, back at the dilapidated church with the tree growing out of it. At the beginning of the story the tree bore little to no importance, but by the end it was where Santiago would fulfill his personal legend. The thing is though, the tree didn’t change at all, Santiago

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