Gayoon Lee Mr. Bautista ENL1W1 Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Hardships that led Santiago to his Greatest Treasure: Character Development. The best way to develop and grow as a person is by going through hardships and learning from them. In ‘The Alchemist’, during Santiago’s journey, he faces many challenges to achieve the reward. Though at first, it seemed Santiago’s greatest treasure was the one he was seeking, Santiago’s actual greatest reward was character development. The sacrifice of love is one of many hardships that helped Santiago grow as a person. Furthermore, the fear of failure helped Santiago discover more about his potential. Lastly, the language barrier during Santiago’s travels added to his personal growth. As can be seen, the …show more content…
This gave Santiago an immense amount of courage and selflessness. This can be seen when Santiago tells The Alchemist “Men dream more about coming home than about leaving” (Coelho 111). Santiago tells this to The Alchemist at the beginning of their journey together. Santiago was still grieving about leaving Fatima at the Oasis but he knew it was the right thing to do and that if he had not left, both Santiago and Fatima would live in endless regret. Furthermore, the sacrifice of love also greets Santiago’s trust and faith in people. In the book, Fatima tells Santiago “Maktub”. If I am really a part of your dream, you will come back one day” (Coelho 90). This quote shows Fatima’s trust in Santiago to come back, which will also allow Santiago to trust that they will be able to endure the distance and the time spent away from each other because of how strong their love is. Finally, Santiago learned to be true to himself and become more spiritually aware of his surroundings. Santiago learns to let go of attachments and desires that may stop him from his dream of pursuing his personal legend. In the quote “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is more than the suffering itself”. And no heart has ever suffered