Fate In The Alchemist

“You can always turn a bad kisser into a good one,” Laura Prepon. Santiago, the main character of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist leads a modest and ordinary life as a shepherd. Santiago travelled constantly, exploring the Andalusian terrain. In his travels, Santiago met a woman who interpreted his dreams, and told him his treasure would lie in Egypt at the pyramids. However, Santiago believed that the dream interpreter was a phony, and he continued to herd his sheep. Soon after, he exchanged words with the King of Salem, and Santiago was once again told to venture to Egypt in order to find his treasure. After careful consideration, Santiago sells his precious sheep and begins his journey. An alchemist, somebody who turns lead

He gets robbed a couple times, he is delayed by a tribal war taking place in the desert, and he gets captured in said tribal war. After the first time he gets robbed, Santiago has to work at a small crystal shop. This delays his voyage but he ends up making a sum of money for himself and the owner of the shop with his ideas on how to sell the glasses. When he finally starts to get to Egypt he is stopped in a desert oasis due to a war going on in the desert, this delays him again from getting to his treasure, but there is where he meets Fatima, his true love, and is also named counselor of the oasis after he saves it from an attack. Almost to his destination, Santiago and the Alchemist both get captured by one side of the war.

The word “treasure” illustrates how finding your true self can be as awarding as finding shiny gold or crystal clear diamonds, Except that his “treasure” is harder to find and is way more complicated. The Alchemist then says to Santiago to "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity. " This quote from the passage is very important because it amplifies how one’s search for his dreams is always profitable.

Despite heroes being their own individual characters, they are all represented by a common theme. For example, in the book, The Alchemist the hero, Santiago, takes a journey from his beginnings in Spain to reaching his own Personal Legend, despite his many obstacles. Santiago relates to the big idea in this novel, by overcoming the many hardships, journeys, and sacrifices he endured to reach his destiny. Therefore, the universal theme of “Achieving one’s destiny, creates great sacrifices,” is shown in the novel, through the many hardships heroes endure, the sacrifices they make, and the journey they take to reach their destiny.

At the beginning of the novel, Santiago is launched on a quest for his “treasure” through his encounter with an old man named Melchizedek. In the story he says, “that he only appears at critical moments when a person might be giving up on pursuing their Personal Legend.” Melchizedek tells Santiago that all people know what their Personal Legend is when they’re young, but the more they age, the more they forget because they are blinded and blocked by fear and anxiety. Another person who helps Santiago in realizing the theme is The Englishman, whom is a British man who has come to North Africa in search of the alchemist. He has studied the art of alchemy from books, but he wishes to complete the Master Work because he feels that he’ll be able to learn these things from the alchemist.

His place to go is the pyramids in Egypt and the stated reason was to claim his treasure. Along the way, Santiago faced many challenges and trials en route, a foreigner stealing his money, getting a job at the crystal merchant’s, crossing the desert, the war in the desert, losing his money to the tribe leader, and then losing his money again when he reached the pyramids. Santiago only found out the real reason he traveled to the pyramids when he finally reached there. The treasure was where his heart was all along, back home, and the reason he came to Egypt was because had he not then Santiago “wouldn’t have seen the Pyramids,” (Coelho, 170) and admired their beauty as the Alchemist had wanted. Foster wrote that “the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge” and this is

While they were there, Santiago falls in love with a girl named Fatima. Next day, when he was going for a walk, he spots the violent tribe and warns the city. The city was successful in bringing the attack to a halt. The Alchemist laters hears the news of Santiago’s warning of the attack and then invites Santiago to a trip over the desert to the pyramids. The Alchemist teaches many lessons to Santiago and also learns the importance of chasing your dreams and not giving up.

As seen when Santiago gives up his flock and his true love Fatima, wanting to begin his journey in seek of the treasure. Not to mention the motifs, dreams represent the desires of Santiago wanting to pursue his goal of wanting to find the hidden treasure. As well as the theme, as he feels constantly feared “suffering is worse than the suffering itself” Santiago is anxious and not confident in himself. As a result, he remains believing in fate and god as he continues on his journey.

Santiago starts out as a normal young man that has the same reoccurring dream when he sleeps under a sycamore tree that grows out of an abandoned church where a young boy tells Santiago to find the treasure at the Pyramids in Egypt. Santiago, not trusting his instinct of what the dream means, goes to a Gypsy dream interpreter

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, is a fictional story about a shepherd boy named Santiago and his journey to find his personal legend. Throughout the story, he goes through many obstacles and omens to just find the treasure to his personal legend, which was back at his starting point. The story ended with Santiago back at the church, finding the treasure and saying that he was going to come back to Fatima, a girl he met at an oasis. The story should’ve ended with Santiago going back to find Fatima and something about the crystal merchant because she is part of his personal legend and he had an effect on Santiago, the story’s ending was abrupt and overall, it was not a well-written ending.

Several women successfully were able to hide their identity in camp for multiple reasons. First, soldiers rarely changed their clothes in camp; they would wear the same outfit for weeks at a time. Secondly, if any private matters needed to be taken care of, they were done out of doors, away from the campsites, which would have afforded the women privacy. Another reason is the uniforms the soldiers wore were bulky and consisted of many layers. The bulk and layers of these clothes along with the bounding of the women’s chests, were able to cover their bodies.

Paulo Coelho employs stylistic techniques such as the structure of the novel, narrative perspective and characterisation in order to effectively convey the intended didactic themes. Written in third person omniscient, The Alchemist objectively observes Santiago’s journey and his interaction with numerous characters along the way. The characters Santiago encounters are utilised to portray certain messages and thus,

This discourages him to the point where he almost lost hope and no longer wanted to pursue his trip to Egypt. For example, on page 16, Coelho writes, “so the boy was disappointed, he decided that he would never again believe in his dreams. He remembered that he had a number of things to take care of.” Second, Santiago meets his true love, Fatima, and fears that if he continues his journey to the pyramids, he can no longer be with her. For example, Santiago explains to the alchemist, “I want to stay at the oasis.

After returning to Brazil, he found success working as a songwriter before he was imprisoned by the Brazilian dictatorship. Afterwards, he finally pursued his calling to become a writer and after many failed attempts, he finally found success and became one of the bestselling and influential authors of the world. In The Alchemist, a young shepherd named Santiago from Spain has a recurring dream that informs him of a hidden treasure at Egyptian pyramids. He then meets the an old man, the King of Salem, who tells him to follow this dream since it was his Personal Legend.

A journey is a composition of music. Different instruments come together to play different strings of notes that harmoniously combine to create a symphony. Santiago, the main protagonist from The Alchemist, experiences many symphonies on his road to realize his Personal Legend. His experiences guided him to his goal and when he had finally achieved it, the story came to a close. The ending of the novel was obvious and satisfying. Paulo Coelho left his audience with a satiating end to a long story. The ending of the story fitted perfectly with the book because it enhanced the idea of the Soul of the World, the cycles of life, and overall these ideas all came with realizing his Personal Legend.