The Alchemist

In The Alchemist there were obviously many characteristics,one of them being hard work. In this work hard work was displayed as putting effort but also making your mind also work hard. For example Santiago showed this by helping the crystal merchant expand and make his shop popular as it was when he first opened it. Before that event he was a shepherd and of course that required a lot of work. For example, he made his internal self work hard when he embarked on the journey, and he had to thoroughly understand the meaning of his heart. He had to understand what his hearts reactions were. It was mentally telling him fear, love, understanding among other things.

The entire book was about him going on a journey and finding his treasure. This required a great amount of courage. To get to his treasure, he had to face many emotions, and it takes a great amount of courage to do that, because if we don’t pay attention to our emotions to certain things than it becomes slightly scary to find out how you react to the emotions when you are paying close attention. Also, an obvious example of courage is when Santiago becomes the wind to escape the desert warriors. Not only does he have the pressure of having his life taken away, but he also tries to do something he has never done before, under pressure.

Santiago also showed strong signs in the beginning of the book, of being independent. The explanation that Santiago gave of how he had learned how to read, he stated that “his parents had wanted him to be a priest...but ever since he had been a child, he had wanted to know the world…” (Coelho 16). This shows that Santiago liked being independent. Also, he would talk to his sheep, and he did not find it weird to do so.

The journey was definitel...

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...understand the universal language. Even though the hero did not learn how to make lead to gold he had learned the universal language before he had even realized he had. His intelligence proved that you don’t have to lock yourself in a room to study; you should instead look at you problem and try to solve it by comparing it with reality.

I truly enjoyed the book a lot. It told an interesting story and put in life lessons that would make you smile at and understand better. I found it interesting that Paulo Coelho used many characteristics to make an interesting book. After learning about the characteristics and linking them with the book, I understood the book much more. By linking the characteristics to a story, I learned that anyone can write an amazing story becauseThe Alchemist has everything that a book needed to keep the reader on the edge of his or her seats.