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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Book Analysis)
Main theme of the alchemist by paulo coelho
Main theme of the alchemist by paulo coelho
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Recommended: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Book Analysis)
Coelho’s primary statement about human diversity in The Alchemist is that humans and their languages are not actually diverse and that the human race shares a Universal Language, but not all of them know the Language of the World . The protagonist, Santiago, finds several different examples of the Universal Language throughout the book. Such as, when he goes to the market and sees two men talking and “one of them spoke Arabic, and the other spoke Spanish. And they had understood each other perfectly well,” (Coelho 46). Another example of the Universal Language is when the boy figures out what it is, “there was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things
For this summary I watched a video called Voices of the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity. The video starts off with how people believe that there are about 6, 000 languages. David Crystal talks about how with all these different languages half of them are endangered of becoming extinct. Each different language offers a different point of view of the world and culture. He said that if different languages are lost then “we lose the meaning what is it to be human.”
People often do not realize their differences, but the differences in people are what set them apart from all others. In Paul Coelho’s “The Alchemist” two characters do such actions. The main character, Santiago, and the arguably secondary character, the Englishman, do such aforementioned actions. The two characters meet in a caravan that is traveling across the Saharan Desert. Although they do have some pretty interesting similarities, their differences are what intrigue the reader more.
For at least three decades race, gender and biopower have all been linked together. The three terms used, are frameworks installed by governments to manage the population by categorizing, regulating and controlling its subjects. Race, gender and biopower are intertwined to illuminate the treatment of the minority for centuries. The mistreatment, discrimination and suffering experienced by the minorities throughout history is evident in the texts provided.
Archetypes are pivotal in the structure of any story. Without archetypes, individuality is not expressed. The story will fail to have a characteristical context if not knowing the individual classification of personality for each character. It is as if reading an open book with blank pages. Using The Oddessy, by Homer. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho I will prove that without archetypes, stories will be bland and difficult to finish. There will be a shortfall of captivation, engagement of the readers, interest in the plot, and unknowing of what will happen next.
...In conclusion, we can say that after applying Joseph Campbell's theory of The Monomyth on The Alchemist; it is noticeable that despite The Alchemist being a postmodernism wok of literature, the author Coelho used all major patterns of the hero's journey of ancient myth in his novel and this developed Santiago's journey from an ordinary one into an archetypal one.
In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho an Andalusian boy named Santiago leaves Spain to travel to Egypt in order to achieve his Personal Legend. During his journey he meets four people, a Gypsy, a King named Melchizedek, an Englishman and an Alchemist, all of whom help Santiago along his journey towards his Personal Legend. However, only the King and the Alchemist teach Santiago lessons that he can learn from and use along his journey. The King teaches Santiago two lessons, to follow omens and that it is not always about the destination but that it is also about the journey. The Alchemist teaches Santiago to listen to his heart for guidance, what the Language of the World is and what the Soul of the World is. He eventually arrives in Egypt after
Throughout history race has been a pivotal part in decision making. Since the first interaction of populations from different geographical regions, with physical differences, the assumption has been that these differences were fundamental. These physical differences, based mainly on the color of skin, have been classified as race. Over time physicians have tried to pinpoint certain characteristics that are more prominent in one race than another, in order to prove race and that there are subspecies of humans. One of the first examples of this is Johann Blumenbach work “On the Natural Variety of Mankind”. In his work Blumenbach introduced five categories of race; caucasian. mongolian, malayan ethiopian, and american. These classifications revolved around not only skin color, but also physical morphology. Blumenbach supported this by using a collection of physical evidence, like the structure of the cranium, to support his thesis. This marked a shift in thinking of race in terms of geography to physical appearance. Published in 1775, Blumenbach’s dissertation started the scientific approach to finding
“The gravest mistake a student makes when taking on a writing assignment is making the assumption that the audience is the teacher.” (Terlaje) However, instead of making the same mistake students often make, Paulo Coelho did not target one specific audience or “teacher” when he wrote The Alchemist. Through the art of story-telling, Coelho took the universal truth stating that everyone should live out their personal legends, and turned it into the eminent novel that is The Alchemist. Coelho wrote in “the language of the world;” captivating his audience with his wise words about the human life experience. Through the novel’s structure as a parable, the allusions and parallels found in the novel, and the use of archetypes as symbols, Coelho has written a novel that can still be valued by a wide array of people around the world.
I really enjoyed listening to Sarah Salguera’s talk about cultural diversity. She made various points throughout her talk, that greatly intrigued me. One being how we should not be blind to color. It is important that we recognize the differences among people and embrace them. We need to teach our children that it is ok to be different. We all have different cultural backgrounds that bring unique aspects to the table. It as also important to ask the question “what if?”. What if a person of a different cultural background did not feel included? If a person felt this way, they may not embrace the cultural they are in, or share their cultural differences.
Racism is often considered a thing of the past, with its manifestation rarely being acknowledged in the United States today. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a documentary that addresses the legacy of racism through its significance in the past, and its presence in society today. To understand racism, it is vital to understand the concept of race. Race is a social invention, not a biological truth. This can be observed through the varying classifications of race in different cultures and time periods. For instance, in the United States, race has long been distinguished by skin color. In nineteenth century China, however, race was determined by the amount of body hair an individual had. Someone with a large amount of facial hair, for example,
In today’s society, managers must be able to recognize a complex and fundamental religious social structure in the workplace. Often at times, our beliefs, ethics, and practices are formulated by our religious system. Even though many people are becoming less religious now than in the early 1900s, identifying and understanding different people’s belief systems can enhance creativity, diversity, and productivity in a multicultural world. Both private and public organizations should explore the cultural consciousness and historical significance of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, and Shinto faiths to interlink business firms and people alike and different. In this paper, I will examine the ways in which the most
Diversity is a value that shows respect for the differences and similarities of age, sex, culture, ethnicity, beliefs and much more. Having a diverse organization, helps notice the value in other people and also how to teach respect to people that might not know how. The world is filled with different cultures and people that might believe in different things as you, but that doesn’t mean you need to treat them any different. It is imperative for people to grasp diversity because it’ll help people how to engage with others in a respectful yet a hospitable way.
Coelho was raised in a Catholic family as a child, he left the faith as a young adult, and he returned to Catholicism later in life (Frye). In spite of this, the spirituality of The Alchemist is very different from that of Catholicism. Coelho included elements of both Islam and Catholicism in the novel and combined those ideas with divination and alchemy. Throughout the narrative, Santiago seemed to accept and embrace each of these different ideas of spirituality. Despite each of these spiritual influences, Santiago seemed to learn more in the story from the Soul of the World and the Language of the World, which are spiritual ideas based in New Age philosophy (MacInnis). Additionally, Coelho expressed the idea that all things are connected and have divine power within them, and this is basically Pantheism (MacInnis). This idea played out on page 152 of The Alchemist, where Coelho said, “The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul” (Coelho, 152). However, Coelho seems to have made an exception on page 10 that contrasts this Pantheistic philosophy. On this page, Santiago mentioned that he “couldn’t have found God in the seminary” (Coelho, 10). Even though, of course, the seminary is a part of the world, and therefore should also have the Soul of the World within it, according to Coelho’s philosophy (MacInnis).
Lucy, J. (1992) Language, Diversity and Thought: A reformulation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
...to thoroughly observe how language substantially contributes to cultural diversity. The diversity that language exudes can be present in a variety of forms. Languages employ tones, clicks, ocular signs, and other types of general sounds to indicate difference in meaning (Baronchelli et al, 2012 p.1). Cultures use disparate combinations of these communicative components to mold and refine their diverse forms of language. Scholars and researchers alike now acknowledge the fact that languages are an ever-evolving piece of the cultural experience. The foundations of language are now seen to be shaped, altered, and refined by the societies that use them. (Dale & Lupyan, 2012 p.1). This concept of constant linguistic evolution greatly contributes to the cultural diversity that language facilitates, as two language will never, at any point in time, become truly identical.