The Alchemist Themes

In the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, there are multiple prominent themes. The book talks of omens and treasure and many other physical things as well as ideas, such as the Soul of the World, the Language of the World, and Personal Legends. The most important and relevant theme in The Alchemist is perseverance. The main character Santiago perseveres through many obstacles that come in his path. In the beginning of the story, Santiago has a strange and interesting dream about treasure. He goes to an old woman who can interpret dreams to find out more. All she can tell him is that he needs to go to the pyramids. “And this is my interpretation: you must go to the Pyramids in Egypt. I have never heard of them, but, if it was a child who showed them to you, they exist. There you will find a treasure that will make you a rich man.” His choices at this point are to go to Egypt in search of this treasure, which may or may not exist, or he could go back home and continue to be a shepherd. He goes back to his sheep but soon after meets the King of Salem, who further convinces him to follow his dream to the treasure. He could have chosen the safe option of staying where he was good at his job and could make his father happy, but instead he persevered in order to do what he set out to do; see other parts of the world. Towards the middle of Santiago’s journey towards his personal legend, he stumbles upon a crystal shop. He suggests to the owner that there

To prove himself to the chief and his men, Santiago was to figure out how to turn himself into the wind. At first, he was very skeptical because he had no idea how to approach this problem; he is not like the Alchemist and doesn’t believe he could be. Also, he had to give them all of his money that he had saved, so he was a bit angry at the Alchemist and not at all excited that he had to prove anything to the