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The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho

540 Words3 Pages

Everyone is on their own path in finding and or completing their personal legend. In the book “The Alchemist” written by Paulo Coelho, the author introduced us to a boy named Santiago who is on his own journey finding treasure. In his journey we witness Santiago in the beginning not believing in his legend and only wanting to be a shepherd and traveling around the world. Along his way Santiago kept meeting older people who spoke wise words to him from their own personal experiences.The old king was one of the wise people who had spoken to him before and the one who he remembered and influenced him the most to chase his legend. The only thing in between Santiago and his legend was a desert in which he didn’t know if it was going to be his friend. …show more content…

Each journey has a unique path that we could only notice when we don’t focus on the things that have and haven’t happened. Coelho uses the protagonist Santiago as a young man who’s just started his journey and is placed with the alchemist who was already about to finish his journey so Santiago could absorb some of his wisdom. For example the alchemist told Santiago in the beginning of his journey “Don’t think about what you've left behind…Everything is written in the soul of the world and there it will stay forever.”( Coelho 127). This was Coelho’s way of expressing to the reader how you can’t worry about your past and present when you are on your journey as what's meant for you will stay being yours.The alchemist also went on to tell Santiago “And then there were the others, who were interested only in gold. They never found the secret. They forgot the lead, copper and iron have their own personal legends to fulfill. And anyone who interferes with the personal legend of another thing never will discover his own.``( Coelho 142) Coelho used this to show and tell his audience that in order to achieve your legend you can’t just focus on one thing. You have to be focused on the moment and how you can become a better version of yourself. It’s not just all about achieving one thing, it's about leaving the desert as a better person and taking all the little things that might not seem as valuable as the big

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The Alchemist says that Santiago will “spend the rest of [his] days knowing that [he] didn’t pursue [his] Personal legend, and that now it’s too late” (120). In this line, the Alchemist encourages Santiago to continue to pursue his Personal Legend, instead of giving it up for what he has now. This also informs Santiago that time is limited. If he chooses to abandon his Personal Legend, he will spend the rest of his days like the crystal merchant, pondering what it would be like to fulfill his Personal Legend. The Alchemist explains that the process of pursuing his Personal Legend is more important than any dream that he wants to fulfill.

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When Santiago was with the Alchemist in regard to his personal legend, he told him that he was at the end of his journey, and that Santiago just needed to learn one more thing. However, just because he was in the desert, he would learn it through his journey and not as an Alchemist in a laboratory. The Alchemist was with Santiago for a big amount of time during his path, and helped him to overcome every circumstance telling him that, “Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey” (129). Meaning that Santiago is searching for his personal legend, and that to be found, Santigo has to put his effort into it. During all that process Santiago had found love and learned thanks to his mentor, the Alchemist, and his

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The path of self-discovery begins when Santiago tells his father he wants to travel the world. This happens on page 9 of The Alchemist. Santiago explained to his father that “…I’d like to see the castles in the towns where they live,” and “Well, I’d like to see their land, and see how they live.” The next day, Santiago’s father gave him three ancient Spanish gold coins and a pouch. Santiago discovers that he wants to travel, and he did not want to become a priest.

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When the alchemist presented Santiago with the choice to stay at the oasis, or leave and achieve his personal legend, Santiago struggled to find the correct answer. The alchemist let Santiago know that if he stayed in the oasis, for the first year his marriage would be great and so would his marriage. Over time Santiago and Fatima would drift apart, and he would loose his job. But on the other hand, if he decided to voyage into the desert in seek of finding his personal legend he worried that he might loose Fatima. He thought, "...

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The Importance of Perseverance At many times in people’s lives, they consider giving up. This is also true for Santiago, the protagonist in Paulo Coelho's fantasy novel The Alchemist. Santiago is on a journey to find a hidden treasure he saw in a dream. Along this journey he continues to contemplate whether he should just give up, or continue his adventure.

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Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist tells the story of Santiago a Shepard whose life changes once he finds out about a treasure from his frequent dreams and meets a strange man who helps him to start his personal legend. On Santiago’s journey he starts to see the hidden meanings behind daily life creating the thesis that through seeing and understanding symbols behind the world people can learn about their own personal legend and live life to the fullest. Santiago’s life starts out all about his sheep, he chose to be a shepherd, so he could travel and meet new people. Santiago’s job is to take care of the sheep, but the sheep have more meaning in the story. The sheep represent how he is comfortable in his life and how he is questioning his frequent dream, to sacrifice his comfortable life to find this treasure or to continue without taking the risk.

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He is robbed at the beginning of his journey and must work hard to earn back the money he lost. Then, he is able to travel into the desert, facing more peril along the way. This is where he meets the Alchemist, who tells him, “You must not let up, even after coming so far” (113). The wise man teaches him things unknown to most people. With his instruction, Santiago survives his travels in the desert, even while faced with war and threats of death.

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The main character in ‘The Alchemist,” Santiago is a boy who was set off to follow his “personal legend” as said in the novel. A personal legend is a person 's goal to attain a dream also known as a destiny. Throughout the novel Santiago, the boy was in search of his destiny through a long journey to make his dreams of seeing the world come true. The sole purpose to navigate through his journey from dreams to reality was to achieve his destiny, in order for it to occur he had to change his routine and began to follow a course that changed throughout his journey to something greater than expected. In many novels characters change their course in order to attain a dream.

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Have you ever wondered if there was a greater purpose for you in the world, or have you ever felt as if what you were doing, isn’t what you were meant to? In Paulo Coelho’s enchanting novel about adventure, dreams, symbols, and signs, The Alchemist’s protagonist, Santiago, asks these questions, and might just find the answer for them. The novel starts off where a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago has a recurring dream and decides to follow it and to figure out what it means, his father’s advice being to “Travel the world until you see that our castle is the greatest, and our women the most beautiful.” Santiago’s dream tells him that he is to go from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian deserts in order to find a treasure buried in the Pyramids.

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Sometimes, we come across significant events in our lives that challenge our morals, making us forget our intended goal. In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago values the present and what it is that it can hold. He often says he likes to live a transient lifestyle and left a past life to live out his dream. In the beginning, Santiago often listens to his sheep, herding them and living in the moment.

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In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the idea of discovering your dream, or personal legend, and reaching it are talked about. It is said that if you don't fulfil your personal legend, that you have not lived your life to the fullest. The main character, Santiago, discovers his person legend through an interpreted dream. He goes on a journey to fulfil his life and dream. Along the way he faces many obstacles and meets many people.

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In the adventure fiction, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, the theme is to not give up, the protagonist Santiago goes on a journey to find his personal legend and the treasure; in order to do that, Santiago needs to find the alchemist; an alchemist is a person who studies alchemy; while in search of the alchemist, Santiago meets the king of Salen; this man gives Santiago two stones Urim and Thummin, which means good omens; Santiago takes these omens as a good sign to continue his journey searching for his personal legend, he goes to Tangier, but after a thief steals all of his money, he has to work at a shop as a crystal merchant, After many months of working in the shop, Santiago joins a caravan traveling to Egypt; Santiago discovers the

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Ultimately Santiago has developed his identity through the soul of the world and alchemy and has achieved his personal legend

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During the whole story Santiago is trying to find his personal legend, he is trying to find his purpose in life. Therefore in the Alchemist, the most important thing is personal legend. Everything is based off Santiago’s personal legend, if he wouldn’t of became a shepherd the book wouldn’t be all about him following his personal legend and trying to figure out what his was. Santiago has to figure out a bunch of new things that lend his to his personal

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In the book The Alchemist, it is said that to lead a satisfying life you must first complete your personal legend. Before Santiago met Melchizedek (King of Salem) he did not know what a personal legend was. Melchizedek said it is what you have always wanted to accomplish (Coelho 23). Throughout the book, Santiago was pursuing his personal legend and overcoming many obstacles like losing all of his money, working as a crystal merchant, crossing the desert and turning himself into the

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