What Are The Lessons Santiago Learned In The Alchemist

Does an adventure always have to be successful or is learning from the obstacles and experiences along the way the true objective? The book The Alchemist is about an adventurous shepherd named Santiago who was on a journey to seek treasure and great adventure which was interpreted by a wise old king and a variety of others. Due to following his heart Santiago encounters life-changing and unpredictable situations. During his journey he learned three important lessons: from his own father to learn and make more decisions on his own,the King of Salem who educated him to always pursue his dreams and heart, leading towards his personal legend, and to attempt the preposterous challenges in the way of his personal legend in which was taught by the alchemist.

To start, one of the most important lessons Santiago learned was from his father which was to learn and make his own decisions. When Santiago was supported by his father to be a shepherd even though his parents wanted him to be a priest the narrator points out,

“The boy could see the desire in his father's gaze a desire to able himself to travel the world”(Coelho 12). As a result, When Santiago was on his journey he was making life changing decisions and learned a lot. For example, as the story progressed based off of making his own decisions Santiago learned many helpful things, for instance, when he met the thief who stole most of his possessions he trusted him to guide him to his next destination, but instead the thief took everything Santiago had and because of the experience he learned to be more resolute in making his own decisions. As expressed, Santiago’s father did a splendid job teaching him to make his own decisions by himself.
In addition, another influential lesson Santiago learned was from the King of Salem who was a supporter of him, he helped him to be able to follow his personal legend. The old king was intrigued by Santiago so the old king pointed out “use the omens to follow your personal legend”(Coelho 43). This expressed how the king wanted Santiago to be successful in his journey by advising on using omens around him. Also, the king gave him two stones which were said to help guide him through his journey by helping with identifying omens and making the right decisions. Overall, the King of Salem greatly assisted Santiago be teaching him to follow his personal legend to help guide him through his entire adventure.
By the same token, the last of the three meaningful lessons that Santiago learned was from the alchemist who taught him to believe in the unimaginable.

An alchemist is someone who transforms common earth materials like metal into more valuable materials like emeralds and Santiago met one who accompanied him on his journey. When Santiago’s life was at risk for not being able to turn into the wind the alchemist motivated him by saying ”There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure”(Coelho 80). The alchemist’s statement meant that Santiago was scared of losing everything that he had even his life if he couldn’t turn into the wind. After acknowledging what the alchemist said he managed to do the unimaginable and turned himself into the wind continuing on his journey. As can be noted, the alchemist taught Santiago a valuable lesson to attempt and overcome dreadful moments because they might not be as impossible as he

thinks.
All things considered, Santiago was taught three crucial lessons: the ability to make his own decisions from his father, follow his desired personal legend, and believe in the unthinkable from the alchemist. As can be seen, Santiago’s biggest accomplishments were learning a variety of essential lessons rather than the journey itself. Therefore, the reality is that anyone who is trying to reach a goal or achieve something needs to be taught multiple lessons in order to be a success. To sum it up, would there even be a journey without someone who is dedicated to using what was learned to help support against opposing dilemmas along the way?