Santiago Changes In The Alchemist

The Alchemist Fear is a bigger obstacle than the obstacle itself. Fear is the most difficult circumstance to overcome, some can beat it though many don’t. Fear is the most influential obstacle that is faced amidst any task, from moving to a new city, to following your dreams. In “The Alchemist”, Santiago proves this and also overcomes his fear of defeat and of losing everything. In the end, he is much wiser, smart, and happier person for overcoming his worries and fulfilling his personal legend.

Santiago is having trouble parting with the life he has built for himself as a shepherd. The old king thought it most appropriate to tell a parable in order to ease Santiago in his decision to follow his Personal Legend. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drop of oil on the spoon.”(Coelho 35). What the king was try to tell Santiago was that you can travel the world without parting with what you have built for yourself. This was able to give Santiago some piece with his decision to sell his sheep and set out on something new.

During his journey, Santiago faces the obstacle of overcoming his fear of defeat. This challenge of his fear of defeat is what is significant to Santiago’s growth. As Santiago arrives in Morocco, he was robbed by a stranger and left with nothing in a strange place. Yet, over time Santiago found a job with a Crystal merchant and, “…he had been working incessantly, thinking only

Throughout the book, Coelho addresses the attractive quality and the sense of security that wealth and acceptable social status bring. Nevertheless, he also illustrates that one must reject the lure of riches and reputation in order to attain one’s highest potential. At first, Santiago ignores his dream to travel to Egypt because of his strong desire to earn back the money that he has lost due to the robbery. As such, Santiago becomes employed at a crystal shop and works “incessantly, thinking only of putting aside enough money so that he could return to Spain with pride” (62). Instead of saving his money for a trip across the Sahara desert to pursue his dream, at this time, Santiago wishes to return to Spain to become a shepherd once again. Here, Santiago is tempted to permanently settle down and live among people. Furthermore, Santiago also encounters a group of tribesmen and becomes a prisoner along with the alchemist. When the alchemist gives up all of Santiago’s gold, Santiago gets upset and says “You gave them everything I had! Everything I’ve saved in my entire life!” (141). Santiago is frustrated because he has saved up enough to live a life luxurious back home. Although Santiago’s sacrifice of wealth is unwillingly done by another individual, it allows him to continue his path of becoming his Personal Legend as it spares his life. By sacrificing his earthly desire and obsession with fortune, Santiago’s

     After teaching the boy a lot about the journey he will go through, the king gave him omens to follow. Santiago sells his sheep, and travels to a town on his way to Egypt. He finds a man that could take him past the desert to Egypt. So the boy gives him the money that he got for the sheep. When the man shows Santiago the town for a little Santiago loses him in a crowd of hundreds shopping in the markets, and loses all his money. The boy learns not to trust anyone, and is told that there are many thieves in that town.

He was having the same dream for a few weeks, and he knew that the dream had some type of meaning. He dreamt of finding his treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. Santiago knew that he needed to find his treasure, but he also knew that he would have to leave a lot of things behind if he went on this journey. Santiago finally made the decision to go on this mission. During his journey, Santiago learned a lot more about what was affecting his life and the things he needed to do in order to find his treasure.

To begin his long journey, Santiago meets a wise old king name King Melchizedek. He is in a local market when the king walks up and asks Santiago what he is reading. The king continues to say that the book he is reading is important but irritating because it describes the characters inability to choose their own Personal Legend. When Santiago asks where this mysterious stranger is from, King Melchizedek replies with “I am from many places, but I was born in Salem as I am the king there” (Coelho 64). Accepting his statement as true, Santiago continues the conversation allowing them to eventually talk about his dream of the Pyramids. The king wants to help Santiago, but for a price of six sheep. Before leaving with Santiago’s sheep he shares, “’The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon’” (Coelho 32). His message to Santiago reminds him that by following his dream he will witness beautiful sights and people, but that he should always remember the purpose of his travels. Leaving it at that, the king pointed Santiago in the direction to follow his dream.

In conclusion, the book the Alchemist illustrates the hardships and decisions we all must go through in life. It emphasizes that listening to your heart and going on your Personal Journey can be a hard and relentless road to embark on. However, the lessons learned and experiences gains can lead you to immeasurable rewards and

Santiago’s growth was inspiring to me. He has learned a great deal from action. He learns quite a lot about the land and his sheep by being a shepherd and paying attention to the world around him. His grandfather had mentioned to him a while back of an omen. “By traveling, watching and paying attention, the world will speak to Santiago to help him find is Personal Legend.” Through action, Santiago learns how easy it is to search for one’s Personal Legend. Everyone has their own way of learning things. For example when Santiago decides to try reading the Englishman’s book and he would try and read the signs of the desert. The boy does not learn a thing from the book and the Englishman learns nothing from watching the caravan. Just as Santiago

He gets robbed a couple times, he is delayed by a tribal war taking place in the desert, and he gets captured in said tribal war. After the first time he gets robbed, Santiago has to work at a small crystal shop. This delays his voyage but he ends up making a sum of money for himself and the owner of the shop with his ideas on how to sell the glasses. When he finally starts to get to Egypt he is stopped in a desert oasis due to a war going on in the desert, this delays him again from getting to his treasure, but there is where he meets Fatima, his true love, and is also named counselor of the oasis after he saves it from an attack. Almost to his destination, Santiago and the Alchemist both get captured by one side of the war.

When Santiago first meets the Englishman he explains to Santiago that he is looking for a very powerful alchemist. Santiago too is in search for something, treasure. As they travel together and talk more to each other they share their knowledge of the world, and the Language of said world. Both the Englishman and Santiago complete a little bit of their Personal Legends through this encounter, but their legends are much more akin than the two realize.

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.

        In the same way, Santiago faces numerous obstacles along his journey as well. On his journey when Santiago arrives in tangier, he meets a boy who is his age who speaks Spanish and offered to help him get to the pyramids. When they were about to leave the bar owner grabs Santiago and tells him something. “The boy push the owner aside and pulls Santiago outside with him” and tells him that “the owner wanted Santiago’s money” (Coelho, 37). But the owner of the bar was

The book tells a story of a shepherd boy, who owns a herd of sheep. His name is Santiago. In his sleep, he has dreamt a dream at two occasions that he needs to go to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasures.

Santiago is a shepherd; we first meet him while he sleeps in a church with a sycamore tree where a sacristy once was. Santiago goes to a town to sell his sheep's wool to a merchant.Santiago waits outside on a step before the merchant sees him. Santiago then meets a girl whom he tells his tales to and falls in love with the girl. The girl is the merchant's daughter. Santiago then leaves the town and continues on his journey. After a time skip, it is a day before Santiago must go back to that town. He has the same troubling dream he had once and remembers there’s a woman who interprets dreams and decides to go and see her. Santiago meets this woman and is nervous, Santiago tells her about his dream. The dream where a child is playing with Santiago's sheep, which Santiago does not like. However, the sheep are not afraid of the child. The boy grabs Santiago’s hand, and they are teleported to the Egyptian pyramids. The boy says that there is a great treasure here, and just as the child is about to say the exact location, Santiago wakes up.