Santiago’s life lesson in The Alchemist Throughout the novel it is proven that one has to lose something precious in order to gain something priceless. This central idea is shown many times throughout The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho with the literary element characterization. Throughout the book, Santiago has to accept and embrace change. He faces problems where it would be easiest for him to walk away, however he makes the decision to work through them. One time this was shown was when Santiago was told by the King of Salem to complete his personal journey but first he would have to leave his life as a shepherd behind. Instances like these caused Santiago to be torn on what was the right thing to do. However, each time he managed to keep his …show more content…
At this point Santiago knew that he had met the love of his life and Fatima felt the same. However deep down he knew that meeting her was not supposed to be the last thing he did. He knew that he still had to complete his Personal legend. Fatima explains to him that she is a part of his Personal Legend as the omens led him to her; however, she is not the only part. She explains to him that she is proud to be a desert woman and will wait for him to return after he completes his personal legend. No matter how long he takes, her love will never change for him. Santiago then turns to the alchemist for his recommendation and he reassures him that, “Love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit it's because it wasn't true love” (Coelho 126). Santiago, reassured that his love for Fatima is true love, makes the tough decision to continue on with his journey. He says goodbye to Fatima and continues on through the desert. Along the way he would run into trouble yet would walk away unharmed. Eventually he found out that his real treasure is where his heart is. He goes back to the Sycamore tree where he once was with his sheep, discovers his treasure and returns to Fatima. There was a chance that he would be killed and she would never see him again however as he got to know the desert, things worked in his favor until he found his treasure and achieved his personal legend. This shows characterization because Santiago was met with possibly the hardest decision of his life. This time his life was on the line if he continued his journey and the safe option would have been for him to just stay with Fatima. However, he accepted that that was not his destiny and continued on with his journey with Fatimas