Comparing The Alchemist And The Hundred Foot Journey

“The moral of this story is that no matter how much we try, no matter how much we want it…some stories just don’t have a happy ending.”(Picoult). In “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer, it is obvious that his and Chris McCandless’ story are very similar. He can relate to Chris and almost looks up to him and it’s quite easy to see that. By looking at the author's own journey compared to McCandless’, their similarities, and their shared experiences, it’s easy to see that they both had similar journeys, and they both experienced a transcendental awakening but one journey ended in triumph while the other ended in tragedy.

A hero is often thought as someone who saves lives and does admirable acts. This is not always the case as we see in The Count of Monte Cristo, where Edmond Dantes is wrongly accused of a crime and sent to imprisonment for life. He is stripped of his freedom and all he owns and rises to the top with only a goal in mind that he keeps dear to his heart. In The Alchemist, Santiago seeks to find treasure and on his journey, he finds his true love. This is very similar to The Odyssey when Odysseus is on the desperate search for treasure and finds that what he really wants is his wife and his home life. As the reader travels with these heroes through their personal journeys, the reader can start to notice

When we hold, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, and Life of Pi, by Yann Martel together, their big ideas argue messages that are different, but end up complimenting each other because they both have different points between religion and both believe in some sort of “God” in their life. In both books the protagonist set of for a journey of self adventure and each character learns new valuable lessons and results in having self confidence and discovering their true adventurous and powerful self.

The Hero’s Journey is a pattern created by the American mythologist Joseph Campbell and is a path that every hero must take in order for them to pursue their personal legend as Paulo Coelho describes in The Alchemist, a hero can be a human, animal or a magical creature. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “archetype as the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies” (“archetype”). During this path, the hero will encounter different obstacles that will prevent him/her from achieving their destiny.Coco is a movie that talks about a Mexican tradition that celebrates dead called Dia de Los Muertos. Throughout the movie, we see families coming together, so they can honor and remember the family

The journey, the hero, the triumph, and the defeat are all elements that some of literatures greatest works have encaptured, such as: the Ramayana, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Mahabharata. Each of these texts depicts a hero or protagonist that is unique to their culture and although each of these heroes embark on a different journey with different purposes and goals in mind, they all display a variety of features that people of then and now can relate to. It becomes transparent that each of the journeys these heroes undertake are a lot like that of the lives of people today.

“The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments, but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.” -Ella Maillart. To many, journey’s are life changing experiences. People venture out into the world to learn and discover new things. In the epic, The Odyssey by Homer, is about a hero named Odysseus that goes on a 20 year journey. For ten years he was in the Trojan War and the ten after that we was trying to get back home. He got into lots of obstacles trying to get home. The character Odysseus in The Odyssey changes by having a desire to gain glory but in the end of the story he is more humble. Another story that shows change throughout a story is “The Cruelest Journey” by Kira Salak. This story about a girl going on a 600 mile kayak journey on the Niger River. People told her it was impossible to do the whole 600 miles and especially for a girl to do it, but she proved them wrong. In the beginning of the of the story she was very strong minded about the trip but at the towards the end of the story she starts to notice how everything that’s around her changes everyday.

The archetype of the journey is seen in Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain, most clearly through experience Inman has wandering back to Cold Mountain. The journey archetype sends the hero in search of some truth to restore order and harmony to the land. The journey often includes the series of trials and tribulations the hero faces along the way. Usually the hero descends into a real or psychological hell and is forced to discover the blackest truths. Once the hero is at his lowest level, he must accept personal responsibility to return to the world of the living. Inman’s trip fits this description very well in some ways and not in others. It could be said that Inman’s search for truth is his desire to be back home. He has been

Small or big, everything we do in life is part of our journey. Reg Harris’ “The Hero’s Journey” describes the voyage one takes throughout life to grow and change as a person. He breaks the journey down into eight steps leading to the return. It starts out as a goal that isn’t always easy to reach, one goes through hardship and personal doubts only to succeed and become a better person. An example of this journey can be found in the movie, Troy through the character Achilles. Achilles is a strong fearless warrior in the movie, Troy who goes through “The Hero’s Journey” and ends up with a change of heart.

2. Compare Odysseus to either Santiago from The Alchemist or Kira Selak from The Cruelest Journey. How are they similar and how are they different?

Overall, through these stories one understands how the journey is meant to matter more than the destination.

As a high school student, it seems as though everything of significance lies in the future. My generation is old enough to be aware of the flaws, sufferings and inequalities of our world, but we are also still young enough to naively believe that overnight we can rid the world of its problems. While I look towards the future, I wish one thing for myself, my family and my generation: happiness. I have long imagined living in a utopian world. But as I look to the future, I have begun to question whether it is even possible to implement change on such a massive scale without sacrificing the ideals of the individuals. Last year when studying Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, I was intrigued by how an attempt to free the human race from the burden

The journeys people take and the hardships they face can cause them to grow as a person. The struggles faced and how people choose to overcome them can show the most about a person’s strength and determination. In the story “The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog” Long Arrow goes on a long journey to find the elk dog. Nobody has ever returned and yet he is not afraid. John, the main character in “By the Waters of Babylon,” takes a trip to the place of the god in search of knowledge and wisdom. Jerry’s journey in “Through the Tunnel” causes him to grow up and mature. In these stories Long Arrow, John, and Jerry learn the importance of the journeys they take to become better people.

Journey means to travel, to start at one point and move on to another. It was clearly demonstrated in “The Children of Cambodia,” an essay by Roger Rosenblatt. It takes place in 1983 where he interviewed Cambodia children after the reign of Pol Pot. Pol Pot was the leader of Cambodia during the 1970s and he led 1.5 million Cambodians into death of starvation, execution, or being overworked. In another topic of journey, “The Third Bank of the River,” written by J.G. Rosa, is about a father who abandons his family by traveling away on a canoe for years without reason. Finally, “Cathedral” is a story written by Ray Carver in which a judgmental man lets his wife’s blind friend spend the night at their house and things turn out unexpectedly. The main resolution these three pieces of writing have in common is that at least one character undergoes a journey. In deeper detail, journey can be from realizing things about life or oneself, aging from adolescence into adulthood, or moving on. These three stories portray journey in different ways.

Whether it was a journey across thousands of miles of land in, Santiago’s case, or whether it be a journey that stayed within one city, in Christopher’s case, both characters discovered things about themselves that they had never known or never would have known if it wasn’t without the journey. Through Santiago’s journey he was able to learn the powers of hard work and fulfilling his Personal Legend. Christopher was able to find new senses of self confidence and independence through his journey. Both novels, The Alchemist and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, could be summed up as journeys of self discovery for the

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, first published in Portuguese in 1988 and then translated into English in 1993, follows the travels of a lone shepherd boy, simply named Santiago, in search of his treasure, which is revealed to him through his recurring dreams, and with the help of a gypsy woman, his dream is deciphered and he is given a destination. Along the way, he meets King Melchizedek of Salem, the Englishman, the Alchemist, and many other characters, each of whom play a role in helping him in reaching his Personal Legend. The tale itself is also filled with many fantastical and magical elements that have been integrated into the characters’ reality in believable ways, qualifying The Alchemist to belong under magic realism, despite the fact