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Narrative essay on overcoming difficulties
Narrative essay on overcoming difficulties
Narrative essay on overcoming difficulties
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In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho an Andalusian boy named Santiago leaves Spain to travel to Egypt in order to achieve his Personal Legend. During his journey he meets four people, a Gypsy, a King named Melchizedek, an Englishman and an Alchemist, all of whom help Santiago along his journey towards his Personal Legend. However, only the King and the Alchemist teach Santiago lessons that he can learn from and use along his journey. The King teaches Santiago two lessons, to follow omens and that it is not always about the destination but that it is also about the journey. The Alchemist teaches Santiago to listen to his heart for guidance, what the Language of the World is and what the Soul of the World is. He eventually arrives in Egypt after …show more content…
Throughout the book the author implies that through persevering through adversity, following omens, and overcoming one's fears, everyone has a chance to achieve their dreams. 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 …show more content…
In the beginning of the book, Santiago travels to visit a Gypsy who is said to be able interpret his recurring dream. As a child he had always heard stories about Gypsies capturing children, taking them to their camps and making them their slaves. These stories translated into one of his largest fears for Santiago as a child and that fear returned when he visited the Gypsy, “As a child, the boy had always been frightened to death that he would be captured by Gypsies, and this childhood fear returned when the old woman took his hand” (17). The Gypsy eventually tells Santiago that there is treasure located at the Egyptian Pyramids. Without being able to overcome his fears of Gypsies, Santiago may have never went on a journey to Egypt in order to achieve his personal legend. Another example in the book that shows Santiago overcoming his fears is while Santiago and the Alchemist are travelling towards the Pyramids. They are suddenly captured by a desert tribe at war, who mistakes them for spies. In order to save his life Santiago has to turn himself into the wind. Coelho states, “But the boy was too frightened to listen to words of wisdom. He had no idea how he was going to transform himself into the wind” (83). Two days later Santiago is standing in front of the tribal chieftains trying to turn himself into the wind. He is able to stay calm while his life is on the line and
Santiago is a shepherd trying to pursue his personal legend. His personal legend is the recurring dream about the hidden treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. In his dream he starts playing in a field with his sheep, when a child appeared and began to play with the animals. This was strange to him because sheep are afraid of strangers, but the sheep and children play along just fine. Then a child grabbed his hands and took him to the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. He begins his journey locally trying to find answers from a gypsy and a man named
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.
The caravan rolls on toward the oasis. As the Englishman attempts to observe the desert and learn its language, Santiago reads the Englishman's books and learns about alchemy.
Santiago is a heroic figure because he was always kind to others. He was always helping someone with something. For example: when Santiago was working at the Crystal shop, he helped the Crystal Merchant, improve his business. When Santiago was leaving the Crystal Shop, the merchant stated “You brought a new feeling into my Crystal Shop”(61). The Crystal Merchant is talking about how much Santiago has changed his business. Santiago has helped the merchant’s business by making a display case to put outside the store, cleaning all the crystal and adding new things, such as the tea. Santiago also helped an Englishman by helping him find the Alchemist. The Englishman wanted to speak to an alchemist. The Englishman stated “I need you to help me find out where the alchemist lives”(90). Because the Englishman requested for help, Santiago helped him. It took over half a day to find the alchemist, but fi...
During his journey to Egypt, he meets an Englishman who is studying to become an alchemist. Santiago learns a lot from the Englishman, like the secret of alchemy is written on a stone called the Emerald tablet, and the wisdom about the Soul of the World. Finally, Santiago arrives and starts digging for the treasure at the bottom of the pyramids, but suddenly two men approach and beat him. Santiago tells them about his dream, and they decide to let him live, but take all his money. And then one of men tells Santiago about his dream of treasure buried in an abandoned church in Spain where a sycamore tree grows. The book ends with Santiago digging up the treasure in the church where the story began. Santiago’s real treasure is not under the tree, but everything he learns during his journey. He learns how to connect with the Soul of the World, and how to read and communicate with the world around him. After reading this book, I realized that my goal is not a diploma and a decent job after that. I want to learn from my experiences and the people around me. Explore new things, come across new people and with all the learning from them I want to follow footstep of my mother as a successful business
The Theme of “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho is, always follow your dreams and listen to your heart. At the start of the novel Santiago does not know what he should do when he is confronted by his dream. But by the end of the novel Santiago completely trusts his heart to guide him though life. Santiago’s story shows him learning and living out the theme of the novel.
To begin with, the fear of losing beloved things or people presents people with dilemmas that influence the continuation of their journey and they can only bypass these dilemmas by getting rid of the fear altogether. To begin, Santiago’s fear of losing everything he already earned makes him second guess his plans and therefore discourages him to continue his journey. Santiago expresses his doubts by stating that his “‘heart is a traitor…it does [not] want [him] to go on.’ ‘That makes sense,’ the alchemist answered. ‘Naturally it [is] afraid that, in pursuing [a] dream, [a person] might lose everything [they] [have] won’” (Coelho 145). Throughout the novel, Santiago learns to always listen to his heart, but in this situation if he did, it would result in abandoning his journey. The alchemist encourages Santiago to move on from this fear by stating that it is normal to feel scared, but not normal to give up on a dream because of a feeling. Santiago’s best solution in this situation is to conquer his fear of loss altogether and erase the doubts in his mind for a smoother journey. Next, the fear of losing life in the midst of the journey makes Santiago wonder if it is appropriate to risk his life to pursue a dream. Santiago learns how to handle this situation as “the camel driver had [once] said, to die tomorrow [is] no worse than dying on any other ...
The fear of failure has been implemented into child-hood, as it is the most influential time in a persons life. Santiago’s society taught people from young ages, that your dreams are impossible to achieve. This thinking habit imposed by society would influence the child’s life by letting them grow up not believing in themselves or their abilities. This thinking habit was passed down to Santiago by his own father, who tried to talk him out of the one thing he truely wanted to do in life; travel. “ ‘People from all over the world have passed through this village, son,’ said his father. ‘They come in search of new things, but when they leave they are basically the same people they were when they arrived.’ ” (pg 9) Your family should support your dreams, but because society imprints false ideologies into people, Santiago’s father convinces him to give up on his dreams. Even though Santiago’s father wanted “to travel the world” (pg 9-10) too, he didn’t have the courage to do so which influenced his life by “having had to bury it, over dozens of years,”. Santiago was young and impressionable at the time, and so when his very own father doubted his ability to be able to achieve his dreams, Santiago too grew up to doubt himself. This then influenced Santiago to try to bury his own life callings when faced with his Personal Legend. He used excused, “But there’s a tribal war”, (pg 115) “I
When the story begins, we find Santiago as a young shepherd whose life is spent fulfilling his passion of traveling by herding his sheep through the fields and towns of Spain. He wakes one night in the middle of a re-occurring dream of discovering a buried treasure at the Pyramids of Egypt. After Santiago has his dream, he is soon visited by Melchizedek, the mysterious King of Salem, who tells him that soon after someone realizes their personal legend, all of the universe conspires in helping them achieve it, but only for a little while. After embarking upon his trip to Egypt, all of his money is stolen, leaving him with nothing. He must now struggle against not losing sight of his dream and his destiny.
In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho continuously shows how Santiago conquers fear and is greatly rewarded for it. In order to get his treasure and achieve his personal legend he must first travel through the well-known dangers of the desert. It is an extremely expensive trip that many do...
“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
“The Alchemist” a novel written by Paulo Coelho, is about a boy named Santiago. A shepherd who yearns to travel to search for his a treasure he dreamt of that is extravagant as any ever found. Along the way to his journey Santiago learns from people and becomes wiser. Teaching us things that a few books teach us which is to listen to our hearts and become wiser from the things we come across above all to follow your dreams. Santiago begins his hero’s journey to pursue his dreams and go to an unknown world.
As Santiago continues his journey, he begins to have more things to lose, such as the love of his life or the fortune he gains. So naturally, he finds it hard to continue because he fears that he could potentially lose it all. The man helping him finish his journey, the Alchemist, gives him this piece of advice:
Santiago had a transformation, at first he had no interest but then as he went on through his journey he began to find a significance on why to continue. He had a fear , he feared change but he went on and discovered that it was a positive change he’s going through. He now wants to find the treasure in the pyramids. In his rebirth he found motivation to continue on journey and accomplish his dream.
No one wants to have to deal with a big problem for a little outcome, but even little things like that can certainly help shape a person. If Santiago were not as ambitious as he is and did not have the support that he got from Melchizedek, he could have easily given up many times like a majority of people would do, and he would be missing so much.