There seems to be an overall dilemma with todays generation in regards as to what they want to do with their lives. Other people reach their calling at a very young age or even must go through troublesome tasks in order to completely free themselves from this burden. The book the alchemist by Paulo Coelho, takes its audience into the journey a young boy takes to find his ultimate treasure and making the best of his own destiny. The story begins with a young shepherd boy from Spain named Santiago Who desires to travel the world and see amazing things, as his journey begins many omens point the boy’s destiny toward the pyramids in Egypt where he will find his personal legend. As the boy gets to Africa he is stolen of all his money forcing him …show more content…
The vendor sees that Santiago's presence had brogue blessings to his business overall and gave Santiago a raise. As Santiago gains enough money he sets his journey once again to Egypt, with the experience of being a Shepard, crystal maker, and could now speak the language in Africa. Once the boy reached the pyramids he realizes his personal legend and sets out another journey for his lover, Fatima. Tradition plays a major role in Santiago's personal life and in the life of the people he meets in his travels that influence his life. Example of what how tradition influenced Santiago's life is the form of religion, how Santiago adapts to new tradition, the way Santiago makes a living, and language. There are many instances in which religion has an effect upon Santiago's journey. The most obvious experiences are …show more content…
This is held true to the first person Santiago meets who tricks him into being his friend but ends up stealing all of his money. This event brought even more blessing to Santiago to learn The Language of the world that allows Santiago to communicate with any person or thing because of the soul of the earth, the idea that everything is essentially alive and is in existence for cause and effect. In case Santiago is able to adapt to the Arabic lifestyle and clothes. It is essential for Santiago to blend in into society because people treat him differently when known that he is from a different land. How this influenced Santiago’s life is that it was a huge setback from his personal legend, nonetheless it is as the alchemist said, “What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.” (Poelho 130)It is through Santiago’s trails in which a person can truly become wise. Another example is when the Alchemist remarks to Santiago about learning from books, “There is only one way to
The heart of a child is one free of fear. It is brave and courageous; uncontaminated by any sources of doubt. Therefore, during the tender age of childhood, one is able to form ideas that those older are unable to even entertain. It is only when one comes of age, that he faces predicaments which cause him to question whether his dream should be pursued. In such circumstances, the individual either comes to consider his dreams too impractical to achieve and chooses to submit to that uncertainty, or chooses to overcome his fears and pursue his dream. Such is apparent in various events throughout Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. In several circumstances, individuals are faced with the option of conformity as it is depicted as the result of fearing
A smart student can learn from many sources. List and discuss some of Santiago’s important “teachers,” whether they be animal, human, natural, or divine. Use at last two quotes. The alchemist was one of santiago's major teachers in the novel. the alchemist taught him the soul of the world, how to read the world, and alchemy. santiago also “learned things from the sheep, and I’ve learned things from crystal, he thought. I can learn something from the desert too. It seems old and wise”. (76) the sheep had also taught him that there was a universal language that everyone understood“...the sheep had taught him something even more important: that there was a universal language in the world that everyone understood...It was the language of enthusiasm,
The first two obstacles that Santiago faces are that his father tells him he can not do something that he wants to do and that he wants to pursue his personal legend, but he does not want to hurt those that he loves. For example, Santiago’s father said, “The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so they can afford to travel. Amongst us the only ones who can travel are shepherds.” Everyone is told by their parents and friends that everything we want to do is impossible. Since Santiago did not have money to spend to travel his only choice was then to become a shepherd to fulfill his desire. T...
In the beginning of the book, Santiago travels to visit a Gypsy who is said to be able interpret his recurring dream. As a child he had always heard stories about Gypsies capturing children, taking them to their camps and making them their slaves. These stories translated into one of his largest fears for Santiago as a child and that fear returned when he visited the Gypsy, “As a child, the boy had always been frightened to death that he would be captured by Gypsies, and this childhood fear returned when the old woman took his hand” (17). The Gypsy eventually tells Santiago that there is treasure located at the Egyptian Pyramids. Without being able to overcome his fears of Gypsies, Santiago may have never went on a journey to Egypt in order to achieve his personal legend. Another example in the book that shows Santiago overcoming his fears is while Santiago and the Alchemist are travelling towards the Pyramids. They are suddenly captured by a desert tribe at war, who mistakes them for spies. In order to save his life Santiago has to turn himself into the wind. Coelho states, “But the boy was too frightened to listen to words of wisdom. He had no idea how he was going to transform himself into the wind” (83). Two days later Santiago is standing in front of the tribal chieftains trying to turn himself into the wind. He is able to stay calm while his life is on the line and
Santiago was different because he believed in God, and prayed to him for help throughout the story. While he was at sea, he often prayed that he would get the fish or that he would live to see the fish brought to the village. Santiago did not fear death and the reader senses that Santiago believes that if he dies, he will go to heaven. The story is also filled with many biblical references and the whole book has a religious theme. Hemingway does not usually have his code heroes be religious, and most of them feel that they only have this time on earth and they had better make the best out of it.
In the novel The Alchemist, the author, Paulo Coelho, develops Santiago’s journey by creating adversity for Santiago to overcome in order to find himself. The Alchemist is about a young shepherd named Santiago who has a reoccurring dream about finding treasure. During his adventure he meets a king who helps guide him in his journey to find his personal legend. During his travels Santiago encountered numerous struggles. Before he could even become a shepherd and start traveling he had to convince his father to “let him be a shepherd” (11).
He decided to stay right there and wait for his return… The sun began its departure, as well. The boy watched it through its trajectory for some time, until it was hiding behind the white houses surrounding the plaza. In addition, he couldn't fall back and living by being a shepherd as he had nothing, not even money to return and start everything over” (Coelho 38). Sometimes we can use hardships to prevent future harm, and never be painful. Another theme in Coelho’s novel was persistance. In his long journey he was discovering how to turn himself into the wind. As long as he was trying to turn himself into the wind, he was showing persistence and never gave up. “ Somewhere you are holding the person I love,’ the boy said. ‘So, when I look over your sands, I’m also looking at her. I want to return to her, so I need your help so I can turn myself into the wind,’” (Coelho 144). Furthermore, Santiago showed persistence by asking the desert, the wind, the sun, and then the creator himself for help, just to get to his Personal Legend, and taught them all about
Santiago is a young boy who fits into the flawed hero archetype. His story tells of his journey to find his Personal Legend and the many new people and experiences he encounters. Santiago is flawed in the way that he does not have enough confidence in himself to complete the task set out in front of him. He is constantly putting himself off track and avoiding what he has to do. In the beginning of his journey, he faces a setback and his money gets stolen. While finding a solution and a job, he gets distracted loses sight of his dreams. A couple months into the job, he thinks, “...Egypt was now just as distant a dream as was Mecca for the merchant…” (Coelho 58) and he glorifies his new plan to “disembark at Tarifa as a winner” (Coelho 58) with his improved flock of sheep. However, he continues his journey two years later, despite his break in confidence. When Santiago reaches the Oasis during his journey across the desert, he gets sidetracked once more by a woman. This woman’s name is Fatima. The second time they meet Santiago speaks without thinking and says, “‘I came to tell you just one thing...I want you to be my wife. I love you.’” (Coelho 98). This alone demonstrates his rash actions of an inexperienced hero who causes his dreams to be postponed. However, Santiago is also a successful hero despite his flaws. He still continues his journey, no matter what, and eventually reaches his goal. Even through
In the book the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago’s call to adventure was to travel the world , experience life, and find his hidden treasure. This meant he would stop at nothing until he achieved so. This troublesome stage is a period where santiago is tested to grab his dream before it leaves without him.“I’m not going to charge anything now, but I want one tenth of the treasure if you find it.”This stage was very confusing for Santiago because he didn’t know why or how foreign people knew about his personal legend. Santiago chooses to pursue his legend due to a fortune-seer’s knowledge. This significance of this stage so prominently prone to santiago’s view from the inside, he finally chose to go because he knows that everything happens
He first struggles internally when he wants to understand the dream he is having repeatedly. During the call to adventure in the hero’s journey, Santiago heads to an old gypsy in order to understand the dream he has. However, after listening to the interpretation, Santiago decided to “never again believe in dreams” because the gypsy only told him things he had already known (Coelho 17). This internal struggle, which sets the stage for the rest of Santiago’s struggles, had restrained Santiago for some time because he wasn’t able to pursue his personal legend if he didn’t believe in it, However, he later overcomes this struggle and continues on his path to achieving his personal legend. Santiago struggles internally later when he meets with the chief of a camp in the desert who tells him that he wants to see him turn into the wind. The alchemist, a man Santiago met to help him achieve his personal legend, told the chief that Santiago will be able to turn himself into the wind to show his powers, and if he can’t, “[they’ll] humbly offer [them] [their] lives” (Coelho 145). Santiago has never turned himself into the wind, so he has to dig deeply within in order to find the
"They come in search of new things, but when they leave they are basically the same people they were when they arrived. They climb the mountain to see the castle, and they wind up thinking that the past was better than what we have now. They have blond hair, or dark skin, but basically they're the same as the people who live right here." Santiago’s father is saying that no matter how much Santiago travels, or how much of the world he sees he will come back the same person. Santiago’s father is an important person in his life. Without his father believing in him Santiago might not believe in himself either. Santiago seems to know what he wants in life, but with his father practically telling him it is wrong he might not succeed. Santiago needs others believing in him or he will not have the motivation to succeed in finding the treasure. Not only does Santiago need others believing in him, but he needs to believe in himself as
Santiago had been rewarded with the treasure earned when completing his journey, “In my dream there was a sycamore growing out the ruin of the sacristy… there were precious stones, gold masks adorned with red and white feathers.” (Coelho 170). Santiago was able to accomplish his personal legend, which he had to go through many stages in the journey that got him closer to completing his goal. In this final stage of his journey was a good thing to accomplish, because he’s gone through all of the stages that had been placed there to challenge and see if he actually wants to accomplish it, so he did not give up and gained trust in himself to keep going. This is an important part of the journey because this had taught him to not give up and trust in his heart to accomplish his personal legend, such as when others believe that it is hard to accomplish what they want to complete and do in their life.
Everyday, humans live their lives in fear of the world surrounding them. They awaken to the apprehension of a new day, unnerved at all the challenges that will undoubtedly present themselves. It is often thought that through the perseverance of facing these challenges, dreams are born. In The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, dreams and aspirations play an essential role in the tale of Santiago. Santiago is a shepherd who decides he wants more out of live after perceiving premonitions about a supposed hidden treasure near the Egyptian Pyramids.
He remains hopeful, and he makes sure to stay true to himself and follow his inner omens. Back at the merchant’s shop, Santiago is willing to help him live his dream out. The merchant’s dream is to travel to Mecca one day, but when Santiago tries to help him achieve this goal, he will not budge. His only hope in life is to go to Mecca, so feels that is he goes there, he would simply lose the will to live as he has no more hope. We do however, see the survival instincts kick in of the young boy who steals Santiago’s money.
To begin with, the fear of losing beloved things or people presents people with dilemmas that influence the continuation of their journey and they can only bypass these dilemmas by getting rid of the fear altogether. To begin, Santiago’s fear of losing everything he already earned makes him second guess his plans and therefore discourages him to continue his journey. Santiago expresses his doubts by stating that his “‘heart is a traitor…it does [not] want [him] to go on.’ ‘That makes sense,’ the alchemist answered. ‘Naturally it [is] afraid that, in pursuing [a] dream, [a person] might lose everything [they] [have] won’” (Coelho 145). Throughout the novel, Santiago learns to always listen to his heart, but in this situation if he did, it would result in abandoning his journey. The alchemist encourages Santiago to move on from this fear by stating that it is normal to feel scared, but not normal to give up on a dream because of a feeling. Santiago’s best solution in this situation is to conquer his fear of loss altogether and erase the doubts in his mind for a smoother journey. Next, the fear of losing life in the midst of the journey makes Santiago wonder if it is appropriate to risk his life to pursue a dream. Santiago learns how to handle this situation as “the camel driver had [once] said, to die tomorrow [is] no worse than dying on any other ...