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The Themes Of Symbols In Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist

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Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist tells the story of Santiago a Shepard whose life changes once he finds out about a treasure from his frequent dreams and meets a strange man who helps him to start his personal legend. On Santiago’s journey he starts to see the hidden meanings behind daily life creating the thesis that through seeing and understanding symbols behind the world people can learn about their own personal legend and live life to the fullest. Santiago’s life starts out all about his sheep, he chose to be a shepherd, so he could travel and meet new people. Santiago’s job is to take care of the sheep, but the sheep have more meaning in the story. The sheep represent how he is comfortable in his life and how he is questioning his frequent dream, to sacrifice his comfortable life to find this treasure or to continue without taking the risk. “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.” (30) Santiago must realize that it is he that is holding him back and to take the risk. Once Santiago found out about the term personal legend he will take the risk. “There was nothing to hold him back except himself. The sheep, the merchant’s daughter, and the …show more content…

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

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