Fear Of Losing In John Steinbeck's The Crystal Merchant

Everyone is in control of their actions. One must be held accountable for . Sometimes though, fear can infiltrate one’s mind and block their ability to make rational decisions. In John Connolly’s “The Book of Lost Things”, it is evident that fear plays a large role in how David, Beauty and Beast find love and how the King and wicked Queen in Snow-white rule their kingdoms. Some overcome their fears while others allow it to consume them and cloud their judgement.

The crystal merchant had few customers, but once the crystal was cleaned, a larger crowd was attracted to his storefront. Santiago would receive a much needed meal, as well as a job offer. Freshly cleaned crystal attracted many customers, which caused the crystal merchant to offer Santiago a full-time position, with pay. Like an alchemist, Santiago went from being in poverty, to being successful. Santiago also turned a negative into a positive for the crystal merchant. The crystal merchant’s shop did not appear inviting to potential customers, but Santiago rectified it, which in turn, caused the shop to receive more customers and generate a greater profit. Santiago is a metaphorical alchemist. He turns the worst into the best, just as an alchemist turns base metals into gold.

a very common fear every salve of the time inhibited. By illustrating the tragic life of a young

The reader will also discern the scores of parallels able to be drawn between Santiago and Jesus Christ, making Santiago a literary ‘Christ-figure’. Both were somewhat outcast, in Santiago’s case because he was not a native Columbian. This makes it easier for the town to allow Santiago’s death, and make him the scapegoat. The town’s unwillingness to save Santiago is similar to the Jews choosing to have Jesus killed rather than a murderer. In both cases, those who had the chance to save the innocent man felt terrible afterwards. Jesus had foretold his own death, and although Santiago was blissfully unaware of his demise until it befell him, the narrator states ‘never was there a death more foretold.’ In dying for the sake of Angela Vicario’s honour, Santiago is sacrificed for the sins of others, which was also Jesus’ purpose in dying. In addition, the seven fatal wounds Santiago suffers probably represent the Seven Deadly sins.

She took her husband and the all the things he provided for her for granted. Mathidle was not satisfied with just a new dress, she had to have jewels to go with it. “’It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all.’” She also did not care how much money the dress and the jewelry would cost. To her, all that mattered was if she looked good enough to fit in with the wealthy. She was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the perfect necklace from her wealthy friend. “All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of

     Santiago needed money and food, so he asked a man who owned a crystal shop, if he could clean all his crystal pieces for some food and money. The man liked the Santiago’s work, so gave him some food, and told him he could work for him if he wanted to. Santiago took the job, and ended up working

The Narrator explains that people can’t always do things they would like to do. In the novel, Santiago runs into dilemmas, but improvised to still continue his

Santiago’s dream sequence mentioned at the beginning of the novella is one of the most significant symbols in the novella. He dreams that “he was going

Santiago changes in many ways. He changes from worrying about the future, to not worrying. He learns that

People who are driven by greed end up focusing on what they do not have instead of being grateful for what they do have. This is relevant in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant because Mathilde Loisel ends up losing everything she owns just because she lets greed drive her decisions and get the best of her. When receiving an invitation to an extravagant ball, she declines because she says she does not have anything nice to wear. In the beginning of the short story she says, “There is nothing more humiliating than looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.(Maupassant).” The reader sees how she puts value in possessions and what others think of her. After finding a dress and then borrowing a necklace that she thought

Every single person in this world fears something, and there is magnificent amount of different types of fear that people know of. Each type of fear has a different name. For example, fear of change is called metathesiophobia, and fear of darkness is called Achluophobia. Fear can be not only a phobia but in a novel it can be represented as theme. One of the examples of a novel that has a lot of fear in it is The Chrysalids by John Wyndham which took place in the future, years after a nuclear holocaust has devastated large areas of the world. In that novel Wyndham explores many themes throughout the text, the main one being fear. The existence of fear in this novel is a critical factor in the unfolding of the plot. Most of the problems that occurred in John Wyndham’s tale happen because of fear. Overall, this is shown through everyone’s fear of being different, fear helped to develop Petra’s character, and by everyone thinking that if a baby was born as a blasphemy, the women is always the one who is responsible for that, but never the man.

Soon after, Santiago is forced to work for a crystal merchant in the hopes of replacing his lost money and continuing on his quest. He works for the merchant for eleven months and during this time, continues to think less and less of his Personal Legend. He becomes skilled in this practice and begins to work towards instead, replacing his flock of sheep and returning to his past lifestyle. During this time, Santiago perceived reaching the pyramids as an impossible feat claiming “Egypt was now just a distant dream for him” and that, like a mirage, it would always be just out of his reach (56). In this way, Coelho shows that Santiago’s morale is lessening. The more that he stays at the crystal shop, the more he sees his treasure as a mirage instead of a physical object.

But he is too afraid to go. The crystal merchant thinks that if he goes to Mecca there will be no more importance for him to go on living. But he is wrong because it is still important for him to continue living because his destiny is not over until God calls him home to be with him.The Merchant should live each day to the fullest until God calls him home. The Merchant also should not think that every day is like the other because they are all different because you should live every day to the fullest because you do not know when your life on this Earth will be over.You should also not live in the future or the past; you should live for the day that it is. If you live in the present you will be happy in life, if you do not you will be

Crystal merchant: Owns a crystal shop in the city of Tangier. He has lived there thirty good years in selling and buying crystal pieces. It is this shop, where Santiago works before continuing his journey.

People grow both mentally and physically in their lifetimes; however, the unique ways in which people grow and develop create the wonder of diverse human life. Paulo Coelho contradicts this idea in his novel The Alchemist when he states, “And my heart and soul is your heart and soul” (IX). This underlines Coelho’s whole idea all of humanity’s stories are the same. Coelho shares this idea as he attempts to describe what he believes this shared story is through a boy named Santiago. However, while the humanity and Santiago may share the same goals, the way that Santiago achieves them is unrealistic compared to most of society. Santiago begins innocent and unknowledgeable of the world, and goes out on a mission to find his Personal Legend.