Santiago is a young and adventurous shepherd. He has a prophetic dream every time he lays supine under a sycamore tree near the ruins of a church. With the help from the gypsy woman and Melchizedek, Santiago is able to interpret and fully understand the subliminal message from the recurring dream. The dream reflects his Personal Legend, which is to seek treasure at the Egyptian pyramids. Since Santiago is in need of money, and his flock is too cumbersome to bring along, Santiago must make a tough decision to sell his possessions, and sets off to Tangier. When Santiago arrives in Tangier,. Santiago is robbed by a young man, and loses all the money from selling his flock. His only remaining possessions are the two stones from Melchizedek. Santiago …show more content…
Despite the financial success, Santiago does not become avaricious. He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert to continue pursuing his goal. During the trip, he meets an educated Englishman. The Englishman influentially introduces Santiago to the epistemology of alchemy. After reading the Englishman’s books, Santiago learns to whittle down the complex concept of alchemy. He is able to list some common principles in alchemy such as Soul of the World, Elixir of Life, Emerald Tablet and Master Work. The halcyon days are soon interrupted by increasingly violent tribal wars taking place in the desert. The caravan must stop at Al-Fayoum. Santiago quickly falls in love with Fatima, a beautiful girl with refulgent blue eyes living in the oasis. Santiago has a vision of armies riding through the peaceful oasis. He courageously warns the local chieftains that the approaching armies will extirpate their tribes. Some chieftains are froward, and threaten to kill Santiago if his vision is wrong. Despite being doubtful, the chieftains dispatch the message to all the inhabitants. As a result, the oasis successfully prepares and defends itself against the
Next, Santiago has a vision that will help the tribesmen. Finally, Santiago talks to the forces of nature leaving two people smiling. To begin, King Melchizedek tries to become better, and in return Santiago becomes better. For example, when Santiago was talking to Melchizedek in
Santiago's epiphany leads to him pushing forward and finishing his journey of achieving his ultimate treasure of hope and
The first obstacle Santiago ran into was when Santiago arrived at Tangier and went to a bar. After a while a man approached Santiago
Santiago’s last step to completing his personal legend was walking through the desert, to find his treasure and completing it. Thus, showing the symbols and meanings behind these little puzzle pieces in the journey and being rewarded with love and treasure helping to support my thesis, through seeing and understanding symbols behind the world people can learn about their own personal legend and live life to the
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.
He digs for his treasure and finds it. As a master of both worlds Santiago decides to return to Africa with his treasure to find
Santiago's temptation is when he has the choice whether or not to stay with Fatima and abandon his Personal Legend. After leaving Fatima he has a difficult time coping with the separation, even if Fatima is a woman of the desert, who knows he will return. The Alchemist offers him a sole piece of advice, “love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend.” (120) Santiago’s heart is aching for the loving arms of Fatima. He realizes that he needs to focus on what he needs, pursuing his Personal Legend and not what he desires to be with Fatima.
The Alchemist is a famous book written by Paulo Coelho. It’s about a shepherd named Santiago who travels from his homeland Spain to the Pyramids in Egypt. He does this to find a treasure he was told about. Along his hard journey, he meets some people along the way like a gypsy woman and a king in disguise who all direct him towards his quest. He doesn’t let the obstacles stop him toward his goal and eventually he finds his treasure.
"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it." (43). Santiago is discovering that in order to pursue his personal legend that he will need to expand his knowledge about the world. Finally, Santiago’s knowledge evolves and as a result he Santiago grows into a wise man. To conclude, the boy understands the value of the advice from the old king.
During his journey, Santiago receives knowledge that he treasures and uses on his behalf when he hopes to achieve his personal legend. During his time with the Crystal merchant Santiago learned the five sacred obligations of all Muslims, and he learned that the Pyramids were not nearly as close as he thought when he arrived in Africa. During his time with the Alchemist he learned how to find life in the desert, and how to
She tells him to go to Egypt and if he finds treasure she wants one tenth of it. On his journey he meets Melchizedek, an old man who claims he is the King of Salem. He increases Santiago’s belief in his quest by telling him it’s his “Personal Legend.” Melchizedek
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.
Now he plans to travel to Al-Fayoum to meet an alchemist that can turn any metal into gold. The Englishman and Santiago meet as they both plan to travel in the caravan. Santiago reveals Urim and Thummim (the magic eight ball stones from the previous section) and the Englishman tell him that he the same ones. The Englishman reveals that the stones are the items
He thought it’s waste of time and money. Later in the novel, the man who beats Santiago does not believe his own dream, but when he describes his dream to Santiago, Santiago recognizes it as an omen telling him where to find the treasure (Coelho 167). Thus, it’s the person loss as he ignored dream. The importance of actual, sleeping dreams parallels the importance of personal, symbolic dreams as embodied by Personal Legends. Thus, dreams require backbreaking work and determination to sacrifice anything to make it come true.
Santiago, a young 18-year-old man who continually has dreams of riches hidden among Egypt's pyramids. Intrigued by the dream, he becomes a shepherd to travel to the pyramids and find his personal legend. Paulo utilizes minor characters to make the novel a meaningful and interesting text. A minor character who plays a significant role in shaping the story is Melchizedek.