The Alchemist And Gifted Hands Essay

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.

In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago began a quest across the Sahara Desert in search of a hidden treasure at the Egyptian pyramids. Santiago is obviously our quester: a young boy, determined and enthusiastic about learning everything that he can. His destination is also clear: the Egyptian pyramids. Santiago must travel across the Sahara Desert from Andalusia to Egypt, spanning approximately four thousand miles. The stated reason for traveling to Egypt was to obtain a hidden treasure mentioned in Santiago’s recurrent dream about a child showing him a hidden treasure at the Egyptian pyramids. On the way there, Santiago met and overcame many difficulties. He was swindled by a thief and lost all of his money; involved himself in violent tribal wars; was apprehended by Arab soldiers; received brutal beatings. In the last part of his journey, Santiago learned from his attackers that the treasure was located at his home, where it all began, in Andalusia. The real reason that Santiago

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,

“You can always turn a bad kisser into a good one,” Laura Prepon. Santiago, the main character of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist leads a modest and ordinary life as a shepherd. Santiago travelled constantly, exploring the Andalusian terrain. In his travels, Santiago met a woman who interpreted his dreams, and told him his treasure would lie in Egypt at the pyramids. However, Santiago believed that the dream interpreter was a phony, and he continued to herd his sheep. Soon after, he exchanged words with the King of Salem, and Santiago was once again told to venture to Egypt in order to find his treasure. After careful consideration, Santiago sells his precious sheep and begins his journey. An alchemist, somebody who turns lead

No matter how different two people are from each other, they will always have something in common: they both have a dream that they want to follow. In Paulo Coelho’s novel, The Alchemist, this dream is known as a personal legend. The protagonist, Santiago, is a shepherd in Spain who has two dreams about finding treasure in Egypt. He realizes that finding this treasure is his personal legend, so he decides to pursue it. While on the journey to find his treasure, Santiago learns to never quit and to speak the Universal Language.

Have you ever encountered problems while trying to fulfill a goal in your life? In the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago overcomes obstacles to reach his personal legend. Throughout the book Santiago encounters many friends to help him fulfill his destiny. Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. He overcomes them with the help of his friends and his wife-to-be. These problems shape Santiago into a dignified man of many traits.

Young boy Santiago is a shepherd because he knows what he wants. In “The Alchemist” Santiago changes in many ways and learns many things from the start to the end of the book. Santiago is going to a village as a shepherd and in the meantime, he is staying in an abandoned church. When he is sleeping he keeps having a reoccurring dream, so he explains it to a gypsy woman. The woman says that he will find a treasure in the pyramids in Egypt. Later, he meets an old man that tells him that to he has to listen to omens to find his treasure. He also gives Santiago stones that will tell him what to do. Santiago sells his sheep to find his hidden treasure, however, when he is going he gets robbed, and he has to work at a glass shop to get money again. When he gets enough money to cross the desert and go to the pyramids, he meets a caravan about to cross the desert. On their way to the other side of the desert, they figure out that war is going on in the middle of the desert, so they have to stop for a long time until the war is over. Since Santiago

The book I read is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is about a boy from Spain, whose name is Santiago and is a shepherd. The book tells how he gets around countries, and how he deals with his problems and how he solves them. It shows how he follows his dreams, and who helps him along the way.

As one would make it through The Alchemist or The Stranger they would start to notice a clear separation of what each of these books portray. On one side you have The Alchemist which represents more of a positive outlook on life and following your dreams. On the other you have The Stranger which depicts more of a negative connotation on life. Although these two accounts seem far from each other, they present themes throughout the text that show up in both novels. A theme commonly noticed in both books is “love” and its effects on each books main character. Another is “the meaning of life”, which explains why we are here on this earth. The last is the idea of “destiny/fate”, which

The Alchemist is a journey of exploration and self-discovery as we follow the main character, Santiago, a young shepherd who lives in Spain, on a journey to fulfill his personal legend. The novel shows us wisdoms and gentle reminders of how to change our lives from what they may be today into the life we have always dreamed of.

The Alchemist, a novel written by Paulo Coelho teaches us about the importance of self-discovery and exploration by taking us through the journey of a young Andalusian shepherd, Santiago. Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 24th 1947, to Pedro Quiema Coelho de Souza, an engineer, and his wife, Lygia, a homemaker. Paulo early on had dreamed of an artistic career and then after his surroundings in Jesuit school, he discovered his true vocation was to be a writer (Coelho 195). Upon telling his mom, she told him that his father was an engineer, a reasonable and logical man and had a clear view of the world. At the age of 16, Paulo’s opposition against following a traditional path led to his parents committing him into a mental institution (Paulo Coelho). To satisfy his parents, he enrolled in law school. However, it led him to mental illness and failing his career. After many years, he gave a shot at his dream profession and started to write. Paulo wrote The Pilgrimage: Diary of Magus which described his experiences and his discovery that the extraordinary occurs in the lives of ordinary people. He was the recipient of numerous international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. The Pilgrimage was published in 1987 and The Alchemist was published in 1988, a year after. Both novels appeared on the best sellers list but The Alchemist continued to sell more copies than any other book in Brazilian literary history. The Alchemist,

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

In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago is a young Andalusian shepherd who is told he must go to Egypt by a gypsy after he keeps having the same dream about a child telling him to go to the Pyramids and find the treasure. This is the start of his journey of self discovery. The first person to tell him about his Personal Legend, which is what keeps him going

Some may refer to The Alchemist as a best-selling novel written by Paulo Coelho which explains the ideas of having a dream, or Personal Legend, and going through obstacles to conquer it. The book starts off like any other, introducing and describing the main characters, in this case Santiago is the first to share the interest of peers reading the story. He is said to be a small town shepherd boy who will do anything for his flock of sheep. In the opening scene of the story, Santiago takes his flock to an abandoned church and lies down under a sycamore tree hoping to get some rest. He is soon woken up from a disturbing dream which foreshadows further into the story of his own Personal Legend. Later in the book, Santiago is faced with multiple tests to be successful in finding his treasure. “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure” (Coelho 15). Paulo continues to add characters in the book that help Santiago throughout his journey.

Alchemist is already explained in the story as it is the ability to purify your soul, listen to your heart and speak the language of the world. The title is, then, to show us, the readers, that anyone can achieve his/her dream by possessing the characteristics of alchemist as exactly as the shepherd boy, Santiago.