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Journey towards personal growth
Introduction about personal growth
Journey towards personal growth
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Have you ever encountered problems while trying to fulfill a goal in your life? In the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago overcomes obstacles to reach his personal legend. Throughout the book Santiago encounters many friends to help him fulfill his destiny. Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. He overcomes them with the help of his friends and his wife-to-be. These problems shape Santiago into a dignified man of many traits.
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 Alchemist Paulo Coelho presents a character, Santiago, torn between following tradition and his Personal Legend. Santiago tries to live true to his Personal Legend, which is a path pursued by those who strive to fulfill their purpose in life. Yet throughout the novel tradition, a motif, presents itself as a roadblock holding Santiago back from reaching his dreams. Coelho juxtaposes tradition against Personal Legend to illustrate its purely individual nature and the necessity of the acceptance of change to reach one’s dreams and goals.
Coelho begins by identifying the main characters as they become timely components to unraveling the plot. The first line of the book, after all is, “The boys name was Santiago” (Coelho 3). We come to find that Santiago dreamt of traveling so he gave up his pursue of becoming a priest and instead, became a sheepherder (8). Santiago is already presented as a motivated character that makes efforts to accomplish his dreams. He exists as a dynamic character, rather than static as The Alchemist later on is portrayed. The Alchemist is cha...
"The Alchemist" is a novel written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho in 1988. It tells the story of an Andalusian shepherd known as Santiago and his journey of fulfilling his "dream" which he names his "Personal Legend". Throughout his voyage, he met many different people and was forced under many different circumstances, and we are able to experience his emotional states throughout every part of his journey. He undergoes many revelations, and we could argue he becomes wiser and more aware of the spiritual value which everything in the world possesses. He ends up finding his "Personal Legend", but despite actualizing his "dream", he was a victim to the negative emotions that come with being human, and therefore we could argue that the main conflict in "The Alchemist" is within Santiago himself.
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” (Coelho 23), these are the words an old king spoke to Santiago. This phrase constantly runs through Santiago’s mind while on his search for his treasure. Santiago, the novel’s protagonist, begins as a quiet sheep herder who has a recurring dream about being transported to the pyramids in Egypt by a child. Once Santiago met the old king, he decides to pursue his dream, find his treasure, and realize his destiny. Throughout The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago embodies curiosity, determination, and a naive nature through events that occur while on his search for his treasure.
Throughout the years, certain writers were able to set off a deep sympathetic resonance within readers by their usage of archetypal patterns. One of those patterns is known as the hero's journey, which Joseph Campbell gave an understandable idea of in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. According to his book, while comparing world's mythology, he found that no matter how far cultures are from each other, they will still have the same structure of hero's journey in their legends (Voytilla vii).
He doesn’t speak the language or know how the people in Africa act; he just knows that his treasure is in Egypt. His innocence and lack of awareness causes him to trust a young Arab boy, who ends up stealing all the money Santiago had, “The boy wanted to believe that his friend had simply become separated from him by accident.” (41) As a result, this causes Santiago to feel helpless and incapable of continuing his personal legend. He sees no point in continuing his journey and decides that he wants to go back to being a shepherd in Spain. However, Santiago remembers the Old King of Salem and his advice on following one's journey. He decides that he wants to continue in order to complete his Journey and not end up like the Baker, who awaits for a chance to accomplish his own journey. For this reason, Santiago is a hero because when tough obstacles come his way, he continues in hopes of finishing his journey and returning back home to his ordinary life and to the Merchant’s
As I sat on edge of my bed, questioning all of my thoughts and caught in a storm of overthinking, “I got it!” I said, “I want to become an astrophysicist!” A tornado swept away my dream of becoming an architect and crushed my attitude towards becoming an astronaut...and I couldn’t have been happier. My whole life, nothing has been more confusing to me than my future. I pondered and pondered about what it is I wanted to do, and in doing so, I found a purpose for myself. However useful or useless life may be, I knew I could make something of it, and now the astrophysics has become a part of my identity. I spent hours studying the latest on black holes and understanding exotic particles and other space quandaries. I read 32 hours worth
First of all, the author shows that through persevering through adversity anyone can achieve their dreams. During the book Santiago continuously faces problems that he will have to overcome to achieve his Personal Legend. In this scenario, Santiago is in the city of Tangier when he is suddenly robbed of all of his money, by a thief who promised to take him to Egypt. However instead of thinking of himself as a victim of a thief he decides that “I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure” (34). Santiago was able to persevere through a situation that many people would not have been able to overcome and not able to continue their journey. Being able to persevere through
Will Santiago go after his dream? In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago has had the same dream twice. He takes it upon himself to discover what this dream means and where the treasure in the dream is located. The people and challenges he faces along the way all present him with a sacrifice. When trying to achieve his goal, Santiago sacrifices his sheep, Fatima temporarily, gold, and time.
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.
Curious, courageous, young, adventurous: these are all words to describe Santiago, the protagonist in the novel The Alchemist. In this novel, Paulo Coelho develops Santiago’s character as a young boy who goes on an adventure to find his life’s purpose. Through the hero’s journey, Paulo Coelho insists that both internal and external struggles often cannot stop people from achieving their goals, ultimately encouraging people to fulfill self discovery and understand who they truly are.
"If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear ideals of how other people should lead their lives, but none about their own.” That is one of many deep quotes that makes the reader truly think about life in The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho. The book is about a young boy named Santiago, who loves travel and adventure, but he does not have the money to do so. He was raised to be a priest, but decides that he would rather be a shepherd, so that he can travel. Santiago’s father gives him two spanish coins, and tells him that he will learn one day that no place is as beautiful as the one he lives in. It seems like Santiago’s father believes in him, but not the way Santiago wants him to.
Where is the treasure of life located? In the story of The Alchemist, a boy goes on a journey to find the answer. The boy’s name is Santiago, and he is a poor shepherd who lives in an abandoned church in Andalusia, however, his job allows him to travel all around the countryside. His parents would like for him to become a priest, but he enjoys being able to travel with his sheep. He soon meets an old king, the king of Salem, who teaches him all about finding his Personal Legend. He begins a journey to find himself and what it is that he is supposed to be in life. Throughout this essay, the ideas of how this theme fits the novel will be discussed, including specific details along Santiago’s journey which tie in with the theme of the novel. “Where is the treasure of life located?” It is located within yourself, throughout the entire journey.
There are countless heroes throughout literature. Their stories are all timeless and meaningful. The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, is home to one of these heroes with an incredible quest. Interestingly, it is quite common to see quests and journeys throughout all literature. In the Alchemist, the protagonist, Santiago, goes through many stages of being a hero such as, call to adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid, crossing the threshold, and road of trials. Santiago clearly demonstrates all these stages throughout the entire novel.
“We are born with he fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears are imposed by society”, is a quote from the author of The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is an epic journey about a man named Santiago, who sets out to find treasure as well as his Personal Legend. Santiago has to overcome multiple obstacle that stop him from living his Personal Legend throughout the novel. Society influences Santiago, the crystal merchant, Santiago’s father and the baker by societal expectations, fear of failure and the desire for success.