Opening chapter/first few pages:
The book begins with a prologue that says that an alchemist has picked up a book about Narcissus, saying that he knelt by a lake everyday until one day he died. The goddess of the forest then appeared and asked the lake why it was crying. The lake responded that when Narcissus knelt down instead of seeing Narcissus’s beauty, the lake could only see his own beauty. The beginning of the book introduces Santiago, a young shepherd, who finds himself in an abandoned church with his flock of sheep. The author illustrates Santiago’s sleeping quarters which consists of a book as a pillow and a jacket which he uses as a blanket. Santiago is shown to have a recurring dream but he always wakes up before the dream can
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The readers will know a little bit about the alchemist before the story actually begins. They will also see that there can be more to the story about the Narcissus. The effect that the opening pages of Chapter 1 create a mysterious mood that has readers pondering about Santiago’s current position. The pages can illustrate that Santiago is poor yet satisfied with his lifestyle and that he can only sleep in buildings that he finds vacant. Readers can also conclude of his infatuation of traveling as he is never in the same place. The mysterious aura that follows Santiago also makes the readers want to know more how the story plays out with this lonely shepherd boy. The author probably started the book with the short story about Narcissus because he wanted to give a preview of the message in the book, that you shouldn’t be so narrow minded as Narcissus just fell down into the lake and never noticed that it was using him to look at the reflection of itself in his eyes. Throughout the story the main character learned to notice omens and to do that he must be open minded. So the purpose of starting off with the story about Narcissus is to let people keep that idea in mind, while the purpose of the part with Santiago is to set up the setting of the whole