Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage: A Unique Search for the Meaningful

In “The Alchemist” Paulo Coelho asserts, “The closer one gets to realizing his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being.” Throughout Santiago's allegorical journey he focuses on the centrality of fulfilling his personal legend by undertaking difficult tasks that will question his tenacity to preserve in the face of adversity. For instance, in order to embark on his quest to the treasure he must relinquish all of his sheep to travel a great distance to reach the pyramids in Egypt. As a result, once Santiago sacrifices materialistic possessions the window of opportunity broadens by casting a series of small serendipities that reveal the purpose behind his creation. Through his encounters with Melchizedek he unveils that Santiago’s youthful dreams will later be discarded as he ages if he does not actualize his current propelling desires to travel to the pyramids. Later on, as one becomes older their personal legend will delude them from their young wholehearted hopes of bringing their life’s work into completion. Thus, the soul of the world is comprised of the common people who had the sheer everyman heroism to realize their written destiny which feds the universe with happiness from having achieved the plan that originated from the creator himself. Additionally, Melchizedek serves as an emblem when a

Faithful is just a guy who, like Christian, escapes his past life and pursues a life that is down the straight and narrow path of Christianity. A Righteous man, ridiculed, tortured, and finally burnt at the stake for his faith, Faithful lives up to his name and is the martyr of The Pilgrim's Progress—the one who suffers and dies for what he believes in. Before Christian meets Faithful on the road from the Palace Beautiful, Christian seems to be the only real pilgrim on the journey to the Celestial City. The others pilgrims he has met on his journey (Formalist and Hypocrisy, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, Mr. Pliable) have either abandoned the journey for its extreme struggles or for being shown the hollowness of their faith. But Faithful is different unlike his friends he did not have a hollow faith so when he faced the trials and tribulations he did not deal with them because of his strong faith in the Lord.

1)Why does Coelho open with the modified myth of Narcissus? How does the new version differ from the original one? How does it change the myth’s meaning? What might the author be suggesting about how we perceive ourselves and the world?

Throughout the book “The Alchemist”, Santiago faces many trials on his journey to Egypt to find the treasure. He is able to follow all the steps of the Hero’s Journey, starting with the call to adventure and finishing with the status quo. Santiago may have started his journey in Spain and made his way to Egypt but key points through this book include the status quo, threshold, and the abyss.

Richard Van Camp's, The Lesser Blessed, contains elements that classify the novel with both Indigenous and Modern genres. Featuring both genres in a text can lead to contradicting themes that form a binary. This binary has the potential to limit the extent readers can connect to the story, suggesting the presence of a barrier. Barriers hinder the readers' lack of understanding or relatability to either Indigenous or Modern works of literature. This paper will serve to analyze how Richard Van Camp deconstructs the binary by having the sides work together rather than against one another. Furthermore, this paper will discuss how by breaking down the binary, Richard Van Camp is allowing his novel to be accessible to all readers.

Paulo Coelho uses allusions throughout The Alchemist to relate the story to biblical figures. What is currently occurring in The alchemist is, that a strange man named Melchizedek is asking Santiago to give him one tenth of his heard and he will tell him how he has to get to the pyramids. Melchizedek told Santiago many ideals of following your dream in life, and he guided him and explained to him why it is always so important to follow your dream in life. Santiago gives him the sheep and Melchizedek tells him how to get to the treasure and then the book reads “Melchizedek… He would never again see the boy, just as he had never seen Abraham again after having charged him his one-tenth fee…That was his work” (Coelho 21). This alludes to the biblical story the biblical figure Melchizedek. Melchizedek was the King of Salem, and it is said that when Abraham was returning after a battle Melchizedek met him, blessed him, and brought him bread and wine. In return,

When someone has the right motivation, anyone can overcome adversity. In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a boy named Santiago is on a journey to find his personal legend with the help of many characters. Consequently, he develops into a well-rounded person from the obstacles he overcomes. Coelho explains that if an individual persists in dreaming about a “treasure,” not only should one search for it, but also learn from the journey. This comes into act when Santiago is constantly in search for his desire. The author shows how Santiago defeats the challenges he must face in order to get to his treasure. As well as meeting other characters to help him alongside with his travels.

The “Hero’s Journey” as founded by Joseph Campbell, can be detected in numerous works of literature including Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and even in lives of the authors themselves. Ultimately, everyone’s lives are hero’s journeys, including Hemingway himself. Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” is a way to categorize similar concepts in literature to help classify parts of the story. There are six main phases of the “Hero’s Journey”: the call to action, the answering of the call, the threshold guardians, the crossing of the threshold, the dragon battle and the master of two worlds. The call to action is the invitation the protagonist receives from someone or something to venture into the unknown. The protagonist likely

Thesis-In this essay I will take the time to review two stories both of the fiction nature. I will discuss the conflicts of both stories as well as the plot structure. I will talk about the characters and give my point of view. Both stories are very thought provoking which should make this very interesting to compare and contrast.

“People are capable at anytime in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” In the novel The Alchemist, Santiago goes on a journey to find and fulfill his “Personal Legend”. Santiago displays admirable traits throughout the book. Throughout the novel, Santiago faces obstacles that he could have never imagined happening to him but he pushes through them with determination and persistence. This most beneficial trait allows him to find the best way to handle situations and overcome his problems.

The chapter titled “Every Trip is a Quest” peaked my curiosity, the meaning behind the chapter name led me to a realization which had not occurred in my head before. Foster gives an interesting take on the daily like tasks and issues that we go through every day. He gives a very short, but descriptive made up event, in which a guy named Kip faces his own hardships and accomplishes his true mission. These sample paragraphs were my favorites, in this order

Every journey is similar, yet distinguished. While each has its own unique makeup, they all end in a common fashion—a change in character. The protagonists of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey illustrate this notion clearly, as their adventures include both constant and distinct traits from one another.

The author of The Pilgrim's Progress is well described by Coleridge's remark: "His piety was baffled by his genius; and Bunyan the dreamer overcame the Bunyan of the conventicle." This remark points out the difficulty that Bunyan faces when he attempts to write a religious piece of work in the style of allegory. The Pilgrim's Progress is "pious" because it is a piece written in dedication to God. It contains important religious teachings -- what a good Christian should do and what he should not do. What Coleridge means by Bunyan's "genius" is basically the story itself. The story is so well written that people become so interested in the story and forget the whole spiritual truth behind and this worry Bunyan.

     A disillusioned youth roams the country without truly establishing himself in one of the many cities he falls in love with. In doing so, he manages with the thought or presence of his best friend. What is he searching for? While journeying on the road, Sal Paradise is not searching for a home, a job, or a wife. Instead, he longs for a mental utopia offered by Dean Moriarty. This object of his brotherly love grew up in the streets of America. Through the hardships of continuously being shuffled from city to city, Dean has encompassed what is and what is not important in life. While driving back to Testament in the '49 Hudson, Dean propositions Sal through an appeal to emotion. In passing

John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African essayist, novelist , linguist, literary critic and translator. He has also won the Noble prize in the Literature category. The following lecture ‘The Novel in Africa’ was given by him in the University of California in Doreen B.Townsend Center for the Humanities.