In the fantasy fiction adventure novel, The Alchemist, written by Paul Coelho, an epic story is told about an individual named Santiago that follows his dreams and defies all odds to find a treasure that might not even exist. He is accompanied by an ally which is also an alchemist. Throughout the story, a main part was the symbolization of Santiago’s heart. His heart symbolizes the good in the world and the most pure way to get what you want.…
He had a reoccurring dream that there was a treasure at the Pyramids. After talking with Melchizedek, the King of Salem, I believe his fear was to not discover his Personal Legend of finding the treasure. “I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.” (Santiago, page 45) There were several omens along his journey that made him fearful of pursuing the treasure. When he met the alchemist at the oasis there was a tribal war happening around them making it dangerous to travel through the desert. Santiago said to the alchemist, “I have already found my treasure.…
This statement from Melchizedek the king of Salem is essentially telling Santiago that dreams are not silly or selfish and they should not be ignored or denied, dreams are meant to be fulfilled that is why they exist. He wants Santiago to realize that his persistent dream of him going to the Pyramids to find his treasure is not just a silly old dream it is his Personal Legend. Mr. Melchizedek explains Santiago that this desire to go to the Pyramids “originated in the soul of the universe.” He wants Santiago to go on this journey because he believes that it is his true meaning and mission on earth.…
| This quotation is said by Melchizedek, commonly referred to as the old man. This is the passage that introduces the ideas of one’s personal legend, and the soul of the universe. Much of The Alchemist is based off that philosophy; dreams are not just something one should push aside, each person needs to focus on accomplishing his or her own fantasy. In addition this is the overall conflict of the book, because the rest of the story is about Santiago trying to accomplish his personal legend: getting to the pyramids to find hidden treasure. He will run into trouble and there will be times when he gives up, but everything that happens along the way will get him one step closer to finding his dream. (Word Count: 125)…
Most of the beginning of American history seems like a race of conquest between the Spaniards and Europeans with Native Americans caught in the crossfire. A seemingly peaceful group of people, the Native Americans were under constant attack from the moment settlers arrived into their territory. Historians can pull from first-hand accounts and primary sources to piece together the history of this nation. One Spainard exploratory mission wrecked off the coast of Florida with about 400 men (OTP S1-6, OTP 22). After long battles and shipwrecks, the expedition was cut short and only four men survived, one an African slave and Spanish explorer named Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca. De Vaca wrote a narrative explaining his encounters with Native Americans who had never seen white or black people before. De Vaca described the Indians as “war like people…and protect themselves from their enemies as they would have if they had been raised in Italy and in continuous war” (OTP S1-6). He explains in his narrative…
The alchemy lab proposed that Alchemy is a craft. The law is that in order to create something new, it must die first. You cant be reborn without dying first. This "becoming" is how they explain alchemy. Its process can also be expressed by the traditional formulas of initiation: the suffering, death, and resurrection of the god or the neophyte, represented by the substances in the crucible or by the material of the craftsman -- the symbolic formula of transformation. Be it raw material, base metal, divine or human spirit, there must be the suffering of purification and separation. The patience that is the quality more vital to the craftsman is, in the final analysis, no other than this suffering, as it applies to the process of creation operating in and upon the artisan himself. As the alchemical substance is "punished," so is the craftsman's material: clay is pounded; flax beaten; wool teased, carded, and twisted; metal softened and struck. The substance, whether material or human, must change its character, be torn into separate elements in order to be reformed into something other -- it must "die" in order to be reborn.…
Is lying an inevitable part of life? As long as people live and have free will, it seems some people will always choose to be untruthful therefore causing havoc with their choices. The Alchemist by Ben Jonson is a play unlike others of its time period. However, even it does not escape the flaws of our world such as lying. In a time period as fragile as The Alchemist’s setting, one would think the characters would be a little more cautious than they are portrayed to be by the author. In this play nobody is safe from both emotional distress and physical misery. The physical trouble of the time was the plague. It would kill people literally within hours of infestation. Only the rich had enough wealth to protect them from this disease by running…
3. The climax of this novel is when Santiago is struggling to turn himself into the wind, and depending in the result of this action, Santiago will be able to save his and the Alchemist live from dead. The chief of the tribesman would kill…
Santiago realizes he must return to Spain after the leader of the Arab refugees who beat him tells him his recurring dream about a ruined church with a sycamore tree growing out of its sacristy. He knows the church, because that is where he had his dream about the pyramids. He returns there and finds a conquistador’s buried treasure under the sycamore tree and determines to take it and go back to the oasis and marry Fatima.…
Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist tells the story of Santiago, a young shepherd living in an abandoned church in a small Andalusian town, who is stripped of his comfortable and safe lifestyle after an encounter with Melchizedek, an Islamic king who tells him of his “Personal Legend” (21). Melchizedek points Santiago in the direction of his treasure only after taking one-tenth of his money, giving him two stones, and a lesson on reading omens. Throughout his journey, Santiago meets new friends, has everything stolen from him three times, and travels the vast and unknown Sahara Desert all while achieving personal growth and an understanding of his life’s meaning. His journey leads him to an Oasis where he meets the alchemist, a man who will lead him on to the pyramids of Egypt. When Santiago finally completes his journey and arrives at the pyramids, he is beaten by soldiers and ironically told where the treasure is truly hidden: buried beneath a tree at an abandoned church, the exact spot where he had started.…
In The Alchemist, the seer asks the camel driver why he wants to know his future, and the camel driver responds, “because I am a man…And men always live their lives based on the future.” (Coelho 107) Upon the camel driver’s answer, the seer refuses to cast the twigs, insisting that the future cannot be told, only guessed at. He goes on to tell the camel driver that the “secret is here in the present.” (Coelho 108) This is fitting with one of the many themes of The Alchemist, that one shouldn't anticipate the future more than they live in the present. This theme appears later in the novel when the alchemist tells Santiago, “fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” (Coelho 137) It is a theme that is offered several times over the course of the book, each time it helped Santiago on his journey. This suggests that the author intends for us to accept this theme as a truth.…
Often, in life, things that we think are missing, are 'under our noses' all along. If we lose something and stress about it half the time it's in our pockets, and we're worrying over nothing. It is the same thing in the Alchemist. In this text, a young shepherd, Santiago, searches for his personal legend (purpose in life). He sells his sheep and travels to Egypt in search of treasure he dreamed was under the pyramids. On the way, he learns about himself, and falls in love. When he reaches the pyramids, he digs and digs to find the treasure he had buried there. A man approaches him, and asks him why he was digging, and Santiago tells him about the dream. The man scoffs at him, and tells him about a dream he had, that treasure was hidden under a tree by a church. Santiago remembers the tree from the man's description and comes to the realization that the treasure he was searching for, was in the place he had left, to search for it. So while it appeared that Santiago had to go all over the world to find his treasure, in reality, it was right beside him all along. This also made it appear as though his search for treasure and his personal legend was futile. But in reality, it was quite the opposite. Santiago had to travel to learn about himself and learn about the 'soul of the world'. And only by doing this could he fully discover his personal…
The theme of the phenomenal novel “The Alchemist” written by Paulo Coelho revolves around dreams, symbols, and adventure. It tells of a young shepherd named Santiago who travels around Andalusia and once dreams of a treasure hidden in the pyramids of Egypt. It is a book full of wisdom and life lessons used to achieved one’s dreams and fulfill self-happiness.…
The four obstacles are presented to us in the early pages of the introduction. The first obstacle: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. The second obstacle: love. The third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. Finally the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream of which we fought for all our lives.…
Santiago visits gypsy for explaination of his dream and comes to know that hidden treasure is waiting for him in Egypt near the pyramids. Gypsy gets assurance from him for tenth of treasure for dream explaination. He try to ignore that but gets motivated by Melchizedek King Salem in the Plaza. He determines that he will go ahead and look for his treasure. He gives six of his sheeps to King for directions. King gifts him two precious stones Urim and Thummim which will help Santiago when he is unable to read the omens.…