Personal Legends: A Study in Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist'

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In the world today, a vast diversity of individuals strive towards their “Personal Legend”: the largest accomplishment of one individual’s lifetime. This phrase appeared in Paulo Coelho’s best-selling novel, The Alchemist, where he concretely defines a person’s “Personal Legend”. Throughout this novel, Santiago, a youthful shepherd, strived to follow his Personal Legend of finding treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids; he encountered numerous hindrances as well as met numerous people that guided him closer to his optimum goal. Near the beginning of the book, Coelho elaborated that “[A Personal Legend is] what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. ‘At that point in their lives, …show more content…

Coelho vividly portrayed these varying aspects from his innumerable experiences. Before becoming a writer, Coelho was an ardent activist in Brazil before transitioning his mindset towards Catholicism; additionally, this man resisted his parents’ agonizing attempts to pacify his goal to become a writer. Eventually, Coelho accomplished his own, Personal Legend: portraying the philosophy of Personal Legends starting with one meager boy, Santiago. Throughout Santiago’s fluctuating adventure in The Alchemist, he encountered numerous obstacles. Foremostly, he confronted a hindrance even before becoming a shepherd. Santiago’s father was reluctant to allow his son to travel around Spain; instead, his parents desired for their child to become a priest. Santiago’s father stated that “‘[p]eople from all over the world have passed through this village...They come in search of new things, but when they leave they are basically the same people they were when they arrived.’” (Coelho 9). The statement from Santiago’s father demonstrated how one’s desires are assumed improbable from childhood; his father explicated that trekking the arid deserts, exotic villages, and other landscapes would not

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