The Monomyth In The Alchemist, By Paulo Coelho

He kept looking for his family and believed he could find them. When Uncle died, Salva was still determined to reach the refugee camp, and when he did he was still determined to find his family. Without Uncle, the group’s attitude changed, and they grumbled about him being too young and small, and nobody shared food with him, so he had to beg for scraps, which were given grudgingly. Under all of his sadness, Salva felt stronger and kept going. Third, in America, he was determined to help the people of South Sudan - “Salva worked for hours and days, which grew into weeks and months”, (pg 108).

The decision was difficult as both options don’t provide him a steady choice. As being a shepherd does not promise him to be with the merchant daughter and for finding a treasure he need to give up his well settled life. But at the end he chose to find treasure as it allows him to purse his personal legend or dram of travelling throughout the world. He always considers his choice before taking a decision this can be seen through this conversation of Santiago with himself, “Here, I am between my flock and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have.

Antonio has several dreams throughout the novel, which portray many of his fears and perceptions of his family and religion. These images control and haunt Antonio. Through the first sequence of Antonio’s dreams he recollects the scenery of his own birth. “This one will be a Luna, the old man said, he will be a farmer and keep our customs and traditions. Perhaps God will bless our family and make the baby a priest” (Pg.5).

If the merchant had never taught Santiago the lesson he would have returned to his home land of Tangier and purchased a new herd of sheep, instead Santiago had carried the message he received from the merchant throughout his entire journey. “He was going to miss the place and all the good things he had learned” (63). There were times when Santiago would want to return to the familiarity of his sheep, but he knew what would be ahead of him would be vastly more important. He knew that he would never get another opportunity to travel to the pyramids that held his treasure.

In Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Santiago's sheep are big part of him that shows how much he wanted to achieve his personal legend by giving them up. This in turn shows the theme of achieving one’s goals by giving up the only things he owned just to go on a journey that he saw in his dreams. He had thoughts on his decision, but realized that it was too late to turn back. His decision of giving up his sheep shows how much he was willing to give up to gain something, or anything at all. Santiago has been having dreams or dream the he keeps seeing.

The novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is about a young boy named Santiago who is trying to pursue his personal legend. Along the way he meets many people, sees many omens and faces many challenges. He has to discover the language of the world to be able to find his treasure, but little does he know the treasure is no ordinary thing. Sure, there was a chest of gold coins but he also gained knowledge of the soul of the world. Paulo Coleho uses characters including the crystal merchant, the gypsy woman, Fatima, and the Englishman to explore the theme that someone has to realize and pursue their personal legend to be truly happy.

“And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed!” (Dr.Seuss). The success of one of the most famous children’s book authors stems from quotes like these found in his books.

The story “The Lottery,” contains subtle instances of foreshadowing. The first example is the stones the children gather and place into piles. Secondly, Mr. Summers questions if the son of Mr. Watson will take over the drawing for his family this year due to Mr. Watson’s absence. Although both events differ, they foreshadow the same conclusion, i.e the fate of the lottery winner.

“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho tells the story of a young man named Santiago who is given the opportunity to find his ‘Personal Legend,’ and is given help to notice the omens around him by using two stones. When Santiago has this recurring dream about the pyramids, he decides to go see a fortune teller. After meeting with her and feeling very skeptical, he meets an old king who tells him the exact same thing the fortune teller had told him and gives Santiago the two stones to help him find his treasure. “He ran his fingers slowly over the stones, sensing their temperatures and feeling their surfaces. They were his treasure.

Along with his crew, he brought along 6 African men who had previously been brought to Europe by other explorers. During the voyage to Africa, it is believed that Bartolomeu had turned twenty-eight degrees south to avoid treacherous storms that he had learned about from his prior knowledge. His decision was extremely risky and many of his crew did not agree with it. Therefore, Dias held a small council to decide whether or not they should do it. The people wanting to go forward out numbered the people who wanted to go back His crew members were scared because the food was becoming scarce, but they still trusted their captain.

Throughout Tobias Wolff’s memoir This Boys Life, the character Jack is continuously lying to himself about his identity. His characteristic of escaping reality through his imagination is a reoccurring theme in A Boy’s Life. The lies commence in the letters which he sends to his pen pal, Alice. In these letters he describes himself as “the owner of a palomino horse named Smiley who shared [his] encounters with mountain lions, rattlesnakes, and packs of coyotes on [his] father’s ranch, the Lazy B. When [he] wasn’t busy on the ranch, [he] raised German shepherds and played for several athletic teams” (Wolff 13).

“To realize one’s personal legend is a person’s only obligation and when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” Many people know what their personal legend is and some have achieved it. But in the story the Alchemist written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago achieves his personal legend, his goal in life with some help from three major characters who teach him many important things. During his journey, Santiago learns more about his surroundings and things that also helped him grow. The first character who helped Santiago in his journey was the King of Salem known as Melchizedek.