The Alchemist: The Hero's Journey

It was the day before Valentine’s Day, and all of the children in the second grade classroom had joyful smiles on their faces. They ran from corner to corner, grabbing supplies for the next day’s decorations. Each person carried a pizza box, awaiting the valentines yet to come, decorated with their name and hearts. Peel and stick letters scattered the floor, and kids zoomed around excited for the coming day. In the corner of the room, next to the numerous shelves full of books, there sat three young girls. Their names were Beatrice, Allie, and Audrey. Beatrice got up to go get the letters in her name, first taking a trip for the B-E-A-T, and the second for the R-I-C-E. She stuck the letters on her box in a very joyful manner, happy that she

The hero’s journey. Santiago and Beatrice’s story are similar in the way that they both follow the hero's journey. In the start of the book The Alchemist, Santiago is just going on about his normal life, caring for his sheep. (Coelho 1-5). Up until this point, Beatrice has been living her basic life she always has. This is like the exposition of a hero’s journey, because the heroes do not think that soon they will have a changing moment in their life. Her “friends” starting to yell at her is like the call to adventure, or in Santiago’s story the section when the boy loses his money to a person he thought to be his friend. (Coelho 38). Having so much pain after her friends betrayed her, Beatrice started to feel shame and began to cry. This shows the trials and tribulations. In Santiago’s journey, this is when he surrenders and sits down in the marketplace and cries. “He was so ashamed that he wanted to cry. He had never even wept in front of his own sheep. But the marketplace was empty, and he was far from home so he wept” (Coelho

When Beatrice gaines her composer and returns to the room this also relates to Santiago’s story, because in Santiago’s story he also gets a burst of confidence, similar to Beatrice’s. “But the stones had told him that the old man was still with him, and that made him feel more confident” (Coelho 41). Beatrice left her ventures and traveled into the unknown, and no longer had to endure the bullying that had gone on the past two years. “This wasn’t a strange place, it was a new one” (Coelho 41). This is the moment when Santiago is in the unknown, but is calm. Since that day, Beatrice has never sat with them again. “... he realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in a quest of his treasure” (Coelho