Preview

The Alchemist Character Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
488 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Alchemist Character Analysis
Are the main characters in The Alchemist and The Pearl immature?
In the books The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and The Pearl by John Steinbeck, the main characters are both immature, but in different ways. In The Alchemist, the main character Santiago is a relatively immature person if compared to the end. He becomes wiser during the course of his journey, learning more about the world. Before Santiago achieves his Personal Legend, he does not know as much about the world. At the start of the book, he wants to marry a girl whom he does not even know the name of, and trusts a complete stranger with his money. This is awfully thoughtless of him. However, he is not all that immature. He learns from his mistakes, and he knows to believe in his
…show more content…
In The Alchemist, Coelho uses diction and syntax to communicate the tones of pride and contentment. The author uses diction to communicate a tone of contentment by writing “If I had told you, you wouldn’t have seen the Pyramids. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”(166). This sentence makes the author appear content that Santiago has been able to travel and see the Pyramids, despite the fact that Santiago went through such adversities throughout his journey. The author uses syntax to convey a tone of pride when Santiago says “I’m coming, Fatima” (167). This sentence is short, but brave, and the author seems proud of the boy for accomplishing his Personal Legend, and gaining so much wisdom on the way. In The Pearl, Steinbeck uses imagery and diction to convey a tone of contempt and relief. He uses diction to communicate a tone of contempt when he talks about a town being “a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system…News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences”() When he calls a town “a thing”, that alone shows his scorn toward towns. His simile comparing the town to an animal

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In this quote, Wes Moore, the author, is now leading his own unit, who address him with “a coordinated ‘Yes Sergeant.’” Wes has now been at Valley Forge for three years, and Joy has noticed that he is more respectful, has better posture, and carries himself with a traditional sense of dignity and honor. Wes has internalized the moral code of military school, and thanks to the support of Captain Hill and others, now even enjoys his time there. Wes has received both academic and athletic scholarships, significantly reducing the financial load on his mother. Wes is the only sophomore on the starting squad of the Valley Forge basketball team, and colleges have already started courting him. This quote is significant because Wes Moore’s experience…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every person has been an outsider at one point or another. Many nonfiction writers such as John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, use outsiders as characters in their stories.These type of characters help the writer to convey the argument they are trying to get across to the reader. In these nonfiction novels, outsiders play a critical role in the communities that they enter.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the ideas behind Borge’s Garden of the forking paths is that God allows people to choose. They are free to make their own decisions and forge their own path, but it is one’s path which defines their character. Decisions explain one’s motivation and determination to act on those decisions which by definition means character. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling, characters as Neville, Hermione, Professor Quirrell and Harry Potter defend the idea that people’s choices define their character.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, a black man by the name of Jefferson is convicted of murder because he was tricked into joining an armed robbery. Jefferson wason trial and was sentenced to die by the chair. In his lawyer's defense, he is called Jefferson a hog, and Jefferson starts to realize he will be nothing more than a hog. Jefferson's godmother, Miss Emma, would not let Jefferson think of himself as hog. Miss Emma wanted her godson to die a man not a hog. So, Miss Emma seeks out help from a man named Grant to educate Jefferson. While in jail, Jefferson meets deputy named Paul change the perspective of everyone.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive (Dalai Lama.) Grant has a battle between love and hate. Having to go back to something that he isn’t, being treated somewhat like a slave, and making the ones around him happy. He must overcome his ego and fight for something he believes in. This is a difficult task because he isn’t completely sure what he believes, or who he is yet. His mission, to affirm that Jefferson is not a hog, but a man, and this milieu, manhood, is not only subversive but also fought over throughout the book A Lesson Before Dying.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every story has a main character that introduces change called the protagonist. In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, it is made clear that Sylvia is the protagonist. Not every story has an antagonist, a character with views that stand in opposition of the main character of the story, but in “The Lesson” Miss Moore can be clearly seen filling that position. Throughout the story both Sylvia’s and Miss Moore’s conflicting ideals passively clash on several occasions revealing their individual complexities. Miss Moore is the most complex of the two.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A new society that was created by science and technology. The novel, Brave New World, was written by Aldous Huxley. This science fiction novel was published by the publishing company HarperCollins in New York, New York. The original copyright date was in the year of 1932, but was then later copyrighted in the year of 1946 by the author Aldous Huxley. John is the main character, but he is also the antagonist in this novel. He has many qualities that makes him important. He also has people that motivate him to behave and act certain ways. However, John also creates many conflicts with other people in this dystopian society.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Explore the ways Steinbeck presents and develops relationships between Crooks and the other characters in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’…

    • 2475 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The amazing language and style of writing used by the author is shown clearly as it mirrors his characters. Steinbeck’s technique of writing is clever and simple yet compelling because the characters are working class people who don’t have access to big vocabularies but he can still show the large amounts of emotions the characters have. John Steinbeck also explains things that seem difficult with the amount of detail he describes it with, with such ease. ‘At about ten o’clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and out of the beams flies shot like rushing stars.’ This description quickly creates the image in our minds using only short, simple, everyday words. It’s also amazing in how Steinbeck’s language carries such elevated themes and emotions with simplicity.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Alchemist. A book about a boy's quest for hidden treasure, seeing new places, meeting new people. It has become a worldwide hit, selling millions of copies since it's publication in 1988. It's received many awards and has drawn scores of scholars and casual readers alike. This book has received raving reviews and stinging critics. Why the divided response to this book? People vastly argue over the meaning the author was trying to convey.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many teenagers go through lots of different relationships and sometimes they get lost during their routes to become an adult. They find it hard to realize what the right thing is and what is being the right way. In the episode My So Called Life, the main character, Angela Chase, goes through many relationships. Angela was a student who did well, and pleased her family and friends around her. However, a change happens, when she meets Rayanne, a new friend, and she starts to act differently. She tries out many things, such as ditching class, dying her hair red or going out on school nights, which she never would have done before and develops a new personality (a bad one). Throughout the story, we see a variety of character traits from Angela. Although Angela is always herself, she hasn’t yet found her true self, her personality that is hiding inside her, and developing her relationships with others.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Character Analysis

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The city of Chicago was one of the worst places to be at during the 1960’s. No one had good paying jobs. The town alone was run down on the Southside.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edward S. Aarons was an American novelist best known for writing the Assignment series of novels. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Edward Ronns and Paul Ayres and also under his real name publishing more than 80 novels of which about half were in the assignment series over nearly four decades of writing. He also penned several numerous short stories for Scarab and Detective Story Magazine. While he wrote other short stories over the years, his assignment series was his most popular work as they were published across the world and translated into nearly twenty languages. S. Aarons series of novels featured Sam Durell a CIA agent and the lead protagonist that made his first appearance in Assignment to Disaster that was published in 1955. Aaron…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Writers provide glimpses of other worlds giving readers opportunities to reflect on their own world”. To what extended do you agree.…

    • 1770 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Show me Yours” by Richard Van Camp narrates the promising and apparent upturned in life experienced by Richard, a middle-aged man who at the beginning has experienced a nadir in his life caused by addiction issues and harmful friendships. After a bad night, by mere randomness, he decides to glue a found baby picture of him to his grandparent saint’s necklace and wears it under his shirt. Abruptly, the baby picture necklace becomes a trend in his community and seems to encourage care and positivism around the participants of the furor. Richard, who starts experiencing acceptance and recognition around the locality also reunites with an old love, Shawna, with whom he spends the night and appears to bring more hope to Richard’s situation. At…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays