The Alchemist Summary

Santiago starts his journey relying on his good luck, but when he arrives in Tangier, he is stolen from. The alchemist tells him

To begin his long journey, Santiago meets a wise old king name King Melchizedek. He is in a local market when the king walks up and asks Santiago what he is reading. The king continues to say that the book he is reading is important but irritating because it describes the characters inability to choose their own Personal Legend. When Santiago asks where this mysterious stranger is from, King Melchizedek replies with “I am from many places, but I was born in Salem as I am the king there” (Coelho 64). Accepting his statement as true, Santiago continues the conversation allowing them to eventually talk about his dream of the Pyramids. The king wants to help Santiago, but for a price of six sheep. Before leaving with Santiago’s sheep he shares, “’The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon’” (Coelho 32). His message to Santiago reminds him that by following his dream he will witness beautiful sights and people, but that he should always remember the purpose of his travels. Leaving it at that, the king pointed Santiago in the direction to follow his dream.

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 book I read is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is about a boy from Spain, whose name is Santiago and is a shepherd. The book tells how he gets around countries, and how he deals with his problems and how he solves them. It shows how he follows his dreams, and who helps him along the way.

        In the same way, Santiago faces numerous obstacles along his journey as well. On his journey when Santiago arrives in tangier, he meets a boy who is his age who speaks Spanish and offered to help him get to the pyramids. When they were about to leave the bar owner grabs Santiago and tells him something. “The boy push the owner aside and pulls Santiago outside with him” and tells him that “the owner wanted Santiago’s money” (Coelho, 37). But the owner of the bar was

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.

He was having the same dream for a few weeks, and he knew that the dream had some type of meaning. He dreamt of finding his treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. Santiago knew that he needed to find his treasure, but he also knew that he would have to leave a lot of things behind if he went on this journey. Santiago finally made the decision to go on this mission. During his journey, Santiago learned a lot more about what was affecting his life and the things he needed to do in order to find his treasure.

In the story, Santiago lives under a tree by a church that has been abandoned with his sheep. Santiago has a dream in which a child tells him to seek treasure by in the Egyptian Pyramids. Next night, he had the same reoccurring dream, so he decided to visit a gypsy to interpret his dream. The Gypsy then told him to him to go to Egypt to find the treasure and give her one-tenth of it and she will not charge him for the dream reading session. After that, Santiago sits down and starts to read his book when a weird man named Melchizedek, claimed to be the King of Salem talks to Santiago and tells him about the treasure in the pyramids.

The meeting with the crystal merchant and the subsequent journey through the desert exemplify these challenges. Santiago's resilience and openness to learning are reflected in his realization: "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. " The mentorship of the Alchemist reinforces Santiago's growth, emphasizing the interconnectedness of the universe and his ability to shape his destiny.

Young boy Santiago is a shepherd because he knows what he wants. In “The Alchemist” Santiago changes in many ways and learns many things from the start to the end of the book. Santiago is going to a village as a shepherd and in the meantime, he is staying in an abandoned church. When he is sleeping he keeps having a reoccurring dream, so he explains it to a gypsy woman. The woman says that he will find a treasure in the pyramids in Egypt. Later, he meets an old man that tells him that to he has to listen to omens to find his treasure. He also gives Santiago stones that will tell him what to do. Santiago sells his sheep to find his hidden treasure, however, when he is going he gets robbed, and he has to work at a glass shop to get money again. When he gets enough money to cross the desert and go to the pyramids, he meets a caravan about to cross the desert. On their way to the other side of the desert, they figure out that war is going on in the middle of the desert, so they have to stop for a long time until the war is over. Since Santiago

Throughout the book, Coelho addresses the attractive quality and the sense of security that wealth and acceptable social status bring. Nevertheless, he also illustrates that one must reject the lure of riches and reputation in order to attain one’s highest potential. At first, Santiago ignores his dream to travel to Egypt because of his strong desire to earn back the money that he has lost due to the robbery. As such, Santiago becomes employed at a crystal shop and works “incessantly, thinking only of putting aside enough money so that he could return to Spain with pride” (62). Instead of saving his money for a trip across the Sahara desert to pursue his dream, at this time, Santiago wishes to return to Spain to become a shepherd once again. Here, Santiago is tempted to permanently settle down and live among people. Furthermore, Santiago also encounters a group of tribesmen and becomes a prisoner along with the alchemist. When the alchemist gives up all of Santiago’s gold, Santiago gets upset and says “You gave them everything I had! Everything I’ve saved in my entire life!” (141). Santiago is frustrated because he has saved up enough to live a life luxurious back home. Although Santiago’s sacrifice of wealth is unwillingly done by another individual, it allows him to continue his path of becoming his Personal Legend as it spares his life. By sacrificing his earthly desire and obsession with fortune, Santiago’s

When Santiago arrives in Tangier he is robbed by a thief and is forced to find work from the locals. He meets a crystal merchant and gets hired to work for him. Santiago convinces the merchant to take some risks in his business. This advice pays off and Santiago becomes a rich man in just a year. Santiago stars to gain confidence in his decisions and decides to use his earning to pursue his personal legend. Santiago soon joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert and meets an Englishman who is studying to become an Alchemist. On the trip Santiago and the Englishman don’t converse much but Santiago still ends up learning a lot

Soon after, Santiago is forced to work for a crystal merchant in the hopes of replacing his lost money and continuing on his quest. He works for the merchant for eleven months and during this time, continues to think less and less of his Personal Legend. He becomes skilled in this practice and begins to work towards instead, replacing his flock of sheep and returning to his past lifestyle. During this time, Santiago perceived reaching the pyramids as an impossible feat claiming “Egypt was now just a distant dream for him” and that, like a mirage, it would always be just out of his reach (56). In this way, Coelho shows that Santiago’s morale is lessening. The more that he stays at the crystal shop, the more he sees his treasure as a mirage instead of a physical object.

Santiago finds his treasure at the place where he first dreamt of. The ending, then, can be interpreted as Santiago needs to go in a difficult situation and time to gain the knowledge or wisdom.

14) Earlier in the story, the alchemist told Santiago "when you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed." At the end of the story, how does this simple lesson change Santiago’s life? How does it lead him back to the treasure he was looking for?