Personal Legend In Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist

The Alchemist brings up one common theme throughout the book, that all people have a Personal Legend that should be followed. A Personal Legend can be described as one's purpose that he/she is internally driven to accomplish in life. It is the personal calling of every individual. All the characters in the story had a Personal Legend they either followed or left behind. The characters that chose not to follow their Personal Legend lived with regret and the ones that did were rewarded for their hard work and determination. However, following your Personal Legend will often lead to challenges that must be faced in order to reach these rewarding end results. Throughout the story each characters had to either face the reality of their everyday

His Personal Legend is to discover how to turn lead into gold. He believes the only way to learn about alchemy is to read books, but when he finally arrives at the Oasis, all the Alchemist tells him is “go and try” (Coelho, 95). Sometimes people make others responsible for their Personal Legends. The Englishman put his Personal Legend in the hands of those who wrote books about alchemy. He seems to believe, that once he gets to a certain point, the universe will do the rest for him when really the universe is just there to help him. The King once said almost the same thing “What's the world's greatest lie? The boy asked, completely surprised. Its that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie” (Coelho, 18). Out of all those years he had read books and searched for the Alchemist to show him how to accomplish his dream, he could have been trying and experimenting with alchemy himself. The book suggests that the Englishman will one day accomplish his Personal Legend due to his meeting Santiago and the Alchemist. They were both steps on his journey to his Personal Legend. Santiago was instrumental in teaching the Englishman the universal language and without that he would have never been able to continue on his journey. Without the Alchemist he

Reality gets in the way and people like the Baker put their dreams on hold. Family and friends may convince you not to leave home or maybe they need your help and you worry about them more than yourself. Money can play a major role in pursuing your Personal Legend. Many people don't have enough money and do not know how to overcome this challenge. People don't want to give up everything they have to follow their dream because they need to feed their families and run their businesses. One may not know if it will be worth following their Personal Legend. The idea of not knowing what the future holds may prevent many people from achieving their Personal Legend. When one follows their Personal Legend they may lose their money, old friends, their jobs, or have to face a language barrier. In today's day and age a lot of young people get trapped in a small town or their state of existence and are convinced there is no way to follow their dreams. They could lose everything trying to better their lives. Pursuing a Personal Legend comes with many risks and challenges. These challenges and risks are inevitable if one wants to accomplish their Personal