Reflection On The Alchemist

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

1993

Harper Torch

163 PP

Written in extremely simple yet effective and passionate way, THE ALCHEMIST, a third person narrative, takes u on a ride to a world of spirituality, dreams and aspirations. The title completely justifies the narration which encourages you to find the alchemist in yourself, an alchemist who can change his dreams to reality. Every time you read the book, you gear yourself to read it once more, whenever you give up on your dreams. It takes you from the young green mountains to the old dull deserts.

The story starts with a young protagonist, a shepherd named Santiago, a guy who desires to explore the world. While sleeping near a sycamore tree in the sacristy of an abandoned church, Santiago

Soon the two men enter into an area of intense tribal warfare. Warriors hold the two men captive. The alchemist hands over to the tribe all of Santiago’s money and tells the soldiers that Santiago is a powerful alchemist who will turn into wind within three days. On the third day, he communicates with the wind and the sun and coaxes them to help him create a tremendous sandstorm. He prays to the Hand That Wrote All, and at the height of the storm he disappears and reappears on the other side of the camp. The warriors let them continue their journey. The alchemist tells Santiago that he needs to return to the oasis, and that the rest of the trip is Santiago 's to make alone so that he can claim his Personal Legend.

Santiago arrives at the Egyptian pyramids. Some thieves beat Santiago and rob him. After he tells them of his dream, though, one of the thieves recounts his own dream about a buried treasure in the sacristy of an abandoned church.

The story never turns out to be slow to me except at the oasis part. Reading about gypsy woman and the King made me think once more about continuing the novel but I am glad that I didn’t leave it. These two parts though projecting blind faith, show us that believing in such things is not harmful till you act

To me, the smooth makeover of young, carefree shepherd to a logical, experienced and observative person just like his journey from the lush green Spain to the old, experienced desert, is the thing that holds you to the end. The narration, very neatly connects with the reader, about the omens and the direct relation of us to our creators. Every page makes you believe that

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

The fiction gives out positive vibes with every turning page. The only part which disappoints me was turning of Santiago to wind, which to me, was an exaggeration and could not convince me to this extremity at all.

But the amazing, incomparable suspense nailed it to the best level.

Honestly, I didn’t know how to react at the conclusion of the book. At first it seemed as if the conclusion had disappointed me, but then, after a few moments of thoughts, I realized that the book managed to solve its purpose of conveying what Paulo Coelho said :

“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” Now I think twice before cursing my destiny. There is always a bigger plan that we fail to