Compare And Contrast Gilgamesh And The Alchemist

Compare and Contrast Essay The structure of the archetypal story has been used since the beginning of civilizations. Archetypes are stories that use characters that are repeated throughout many cultures (Rice). The oldest example of an archetype is The Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic gives the layout of the different stages of an archetype. The story in comparison with Gilgamesh is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Gilgamesh is the archetypal hero in the epic and Santiago is the archetypal hero in The Alchemist. These two heroes are both archetypal heroes because they experience a birth and departure, an initiation, and a return. The birth and departure is the introduction of the archetypal story. In the beginning, the hero is introduced to his ordinary world. In Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is a king of Uruk. He is known by the people of Uruk to be a selfish and an arrogant king. In The Alchemist, Santiago is a poor shepherd in a city of Tarifa. He travels around to other villages to trade wool for other goods. Both of these characters are unlikely heroes. Gilgamesh is an unlikely hero because he is selfish and

This place is known and the Belly of the Whale. This place is also the last dangerous place in the story. In Gilgamesh, the Belly of the whale is the bottom of the ocean. At the bottom, there is the flower of immortality. This is what Gilgamesh was looking for the whole time in his adventure. In The Alchemist, the Belly of the Whale is where Santiago speaks to the sun, the wind, and the desert. Although this is not where the treasure is, speaking to these elemental beings shows his reason to be on the adventure. This reason is to show that he can pursue his Personal Legend. This place is dangerous because to speak with them, he has to climb up a steep cliff and transform himself into wind. The Belly of the Whale shows what the hero is actually looking