Who Is Santiago's Journey In The Alchemist

When comparing Santiago’s journey from The Alchemist, and Odysseus journey from the Odyssey you find that they have similar goals and mindsets but also have different things they want to achieve in their epic journey.

In Coelho's The Alchemist it discusses the importance of the journey of finding your personal legend and what this shows about our lives. Santiago’s way of living by taking care of the sheep made him realize that he wanted to change his life, and achieve something way beyond his lifestyle that he was living. Santiago kept having a recurring dream about a hidden treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids. In the process of trying to find out what the hidden treasure was Santiago meets a man named King Of Salem. King Of Salem teaches Santiago about finding his personal legend and the soul of the world “And, when you want something, all the

universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ( 141 Coelho, The Alchemist) King Of Salem gave Santiago two stones called Urim and Thummim which are suppose to help him recognize the omens and make the right decisions.

As he continued with his journey after seeing the crystal merchant, he ended up joining a caravan where he met the Englishman (most of his life he spent studying alchemy books). Santiago met a girl named Fatima, and he quickly fell in love with her. Fatima gives Santiago some information about where to find the Alchemist. Santiago returned and confessed his love to Fatima and told her that he wanted to give up on his dream to stay with her. But she wanted him to continue his dream and told him, "If I am really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day." ( 96 Coelho, The Alchemist) Santiago then continued with his journey and finally met the Alchemist. Santiago continued his journey by himself and the Alchemist taught Santiago about the Soul of the World and helped him understand the Universal language. At the end of his

journey to pursue his dream he found a treasure chest with spanish gold coins in it. He realized the importance of actually pursuing your dreams and he proved that you get what you give and that everything will come around.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes through a journey that puts himself against evil and dangerous enemies which is a characteristic of an epic hero in an epic journey. An epic hero is one who “a brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand events: Beowulf, an epic hero with extraordinary strength.” (google) In the beginning of Odysseus journey he had to leave to go fight in the Trojan war. After the the start of his journey Odysseus lost a lot of men due to the raiding of food and water in The Land Of Cicones. Odysseus sent a few men to Lotus Eaters to retrieve food and water but realized that they had been gone for several hours, the men did not want to leave. Odysseus and his men stay on the island of the cyclopes. The Cyclopes who lived, named Polyphemus and was the son of Poseidon. Polyphemus eats some of Odysseus' men and comes into flames with Odysseus . Good did come out of this situation by the god of wind, Aeolian , she provided them with hospitality and gave him a bag of wind . The Laestrygonians have already smashed 11 of the ships and began to feed on the men, Odysseus and the Greeks run for the ships, but Odysseus orders the rest of the men to his ship, they sail away as fast as they can. Odysseus and his men are looking for a way back home, so they ask Tiresias. As they start to head back Odysseus feels his mom’s spirits which encourage him to continue his journey. In one of his journey stops, was the son of god, in this stop their were a bunch of cattle roaming around, if the men did not touch or taunt the cattle Odysseus and the men would saftey travel back to the homeland. If one of the men did touch the cattle all the men would die but Odysseus would live and that is exactly what happen. Odysseus stays for seven years in Calypso's Island, eventually Zeus lets him go after he asks. While Odysseus is on his way back home to Ithaca, Poseidon, who hates Odysseus created a storm that causing Odysseus’ ship to wreck and he starts to drown. When Odysseus returned home he saw that many men were trying to marry his wife Penelope but his wife was proved to be faithful the whole time he was gone “and spite of all his troubles and his toils he was fortunate, for he found a constant wife and dutiful son and father still alive to weep over him.” ( 54 Homer, The Odyssey)

When comparing Odysseus journey and Santiago's journey, you find both Odysseus and Santiago each wanting to strive to reach their goal but they both have different reasons embarking on this journey. Santiago begins his journey to find his personal legend while Odysseus goes on this journey to come back home to his love. In the end of the Alchemist, Santiago finds out that the golden treasure was the journey itself. In the Odyssey it is about Odysseus trying to find his way home to his family. Each story had a purpose and meaning that gave a eye opening read.