How Does Paulo Coelho Present Santiago In The Alchemist

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Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is about a young shepherd named Santiago who has a dream about finding treasure in the Ancient Pyramids of Egypt. He’s told by an old gypsy that he must go and follow his dream. On the way he meets an old king who offers him knowledge and wisdom so that he can be on his way to follow his Personal Legend. The boy also meets a crystal merchant who provided him with a job so that he can continue his journey. When Santiago saved up enough money, he took a caravan across a desert to get to the pyramids where he met the leader of the caravan and a real alchemist. The alchemist taught him new ways of viewing life. Santiago’s call to adventure was his dream of the child telling him that there was treasure waiting for him …show more content…

His temptation was the girl he fell in love with, Fatima. Santiago was a wealthy man with a decent life already, and he could have stayed home in the desert instead of leaving for his personal legend. “I also love Fatima. She is a treasure greater than anything I have won.”(115) He decided to go anyways because love wouldn’t be true love if Fatima didn’t let him go. His challenge was adapting to the people around him and picking up fast. For example, nobody really communicated in a straightforward way. “The boy noted that there was a sense of fear in the air, even though no one said anything”(77) He responds to these challenges by doing the best he could understanding things …show more content…

His rebirth was when he ends up laughing in their face because they have just revealed to him, without knowing, the location of the buried treasure. “They seemed to laugh at him and he laughed back, his heart bursting with joy. Because now he knew where the treasure was.”(163) Santiago keeps quiet and when they let him go, he makes his way back to the place that the robber had described, which happened to be back home where he and his sheep used to pass everyday. This piece is significant because by following his personal legend, the world basically rewarded him for actually caring about his personal legend, and not just the treasure. So the boy is now different from before he went on his adventure because he now understands why everything that happened, happened. And why he was supposed to meet everyone he met along the way. “You old sorcerer,” the boy shouted up to the sky. “You knew the whole story. You even left a bit of gold at the monastery so I could get back to this church….”(166) Everything that was not understood by the boy about life, he now understood. This shows that everyone has a personal legend, but not everyone gets to live if because they simply don’t want or they are more interested in the end resulting in

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