The main character of both “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho and “Sonnet 29” by William Shakespeare start off upset and try to find peace in something they think will make them happy like becoming rich to get the merchant's daughter or becoming a famous actor. Later in their journey they figure out that their true happiness was within them, such as Santiago seeing and completing everything he wanted to do and becoming happy with what he already had or finding happiness in a friend, mate, or God and happy with himself and what he has. The theme is that happiness most of the time is something someone already have but look past. Someone could have their true happiness beside them but over look it because at the time they think something else is going to make them happier. In “The Alchemist” the writer uses imagery and informal diction as their writing style. They give lots of details when they describe either a person in the story, the directions that the boy was given, his scenery, or even his dreams. It gives you a lot of stuff that someone could put together …show more content…
“The Alchemist” foreshadows through the whole book because he has already taken the journey and is telling you about what happened. The rocks or stones that Santiago was given represent his ways in life and the answers to all of his questions.”The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times” (Coelho), this quote from The Alchemist represents the literary device personification because life can not keep a secret from you really and life can not fall and get back up. In “Sonnet 29” the author uses similes the whole time because in the entire poem he is comparing himself to the guy he wants to be and comparing himself to what he is not. “Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,”(line 6) in this quote he he keeps saying like him because the author is trying to be like him and is depressed every time he compares himself to
Metaphors: These allow the author to compare to subjects while still maintaining the flow of a formal tone such as that of an academic essay. This also allows the author to use a broader vocabulary which keeps their overall writing at a higher level because the author does not have to use the word “like” which is preached as lower level diction which is used in a simile.
What is true happiness? I have chosen four texts which relate to my topic of how money can’t buy happiness. Macbeth and The Great Gatsby show how being the most powerful and wealthiest person can’t make you happy. Macbeth is set in in Scotland during the 11th century while The Great Gatsby is set in 1925 on Long Island. These two texts have many similarities and comparisons that i will cover throughout my piece. My other two texts; Money doesn’t buy happiness, neither does poverty and The Pursuit of Happyness are set in more current time and show how money can’t buy happiness and that to be happy you don’t need to be rich and famous.
As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.
The alchemist is a well written book that accurately describes every concept about life and explains it through a story. The Alchemist is a book about a shepherd named Santiago, who discovers his personal legend and receives help from others to help achieve his Personal Legend and learns many major life lessons along the way. Santiago gets advice that when life puts him down, keep getting back up and to focus on the task at hand, which is Santiago’s own personal legend. Along the the journey, Santiago receives help from many different characters but only three characters who helped him the most throughout his quest for his Personal legend is the alchemist, the Old King and the Englishman. The best advice a reader is able to gain from this story is the advice the the Old King taught Santiago, which is” there is only one thing that makes achieving a dream impossible to achieve, the fear of failure” which means is to never be afraid of failures and to follow your own path God has laid out for you because if you are too afraid to pursue your personal legend, meaning if people are too afraid to take risks to make their own life better than it already is now, then they will not have the opportunity to accomplish their own goals. In Coelho's The Alchemist, Santiago learns the Soul of the World through experience, patience, time and help from the Old King, the Englishman and the alchemist.
The novel, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho talked about the secret to happiness and how to achieve a happy life. Coelho wrote about a young boy who wished to hear the secret to happiness from the wisest man in the world. When the boy met the man, he told the boy to look around the palace and enjoy its marvels, but he also had to hold a spoon of oil and not let the oil spill. He sent the boy away and when he came back, the oil was in the spoon, but he hadn't noticed any marvels. The wise man, who was seemingly disappointed in the boy, told the boy, “The secret to happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon,” (35). In order to be truly happy, you have to stop and enjoy the little things, but never forget about the important things in life. The secret to life is to be happy and to be happy, you have to enjoy every little aspect life has to
Happiness is defined as enjoying, showing, or characterized by pleasure; joyous; contented. Based on this definition we all search for happiness our entire lives. Two very different stories address this idea of the quest for happiness. M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is the story of a man named Gallimard who is longing for his love "Butterfly" to return to him. John Deeney describes it as him, clinging to his idea of a "Perfect Woman" to the end by costuming himself into the victimized Butterfly though his final suicide. Although Gallimard’s infatuation with Song sometimes makes him cut a rather ridiculous figure, his dead seriousness at the end evokes a certain amount of pathos and
There are many obstacles in everyday life, but none as detrimental to ones future as fear. Fear can cause people to not only avoid achieving their goals in life but it also forces them to think about it throughout every day. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist shows that those who wallow in fear will never achieve their personal legend, and those who conquer fear will achieve anything they strive for. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is a commonly analyzed and criticized piece of literature. One of these articles is Rejendra Kumar Dash’s “Alchemy of the Soul: A Comparative Study of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist”. Dash’s article is a literary criticism of the different parts of the character’s journey in The Alchemist.
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.
The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.
Happiness: a Human Disease -- An Examination of the Allegorical Theme of Existentialism in the Happy Man
The Alchemist is a novel written by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, originally written in Portuguese in 1988 and later translated to English in 1993, which follows the journey of Santiago on his quest to not only follow his Personal Legend, but also to discover a world full of changes and transformations. Looking at this story at first glance might give you the feel that it will be about a boy on a quest filled with the expected trials that test his heart, strength, and character. Elements like this are present, however, the story makes the reader think deeply about the motif dealing with following the signs the universe gives. This is due to various symbols and motifs, one having to do with omens, that Santiago and many characters
Many say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but what is often overlooked is the sheer amount of influence that words can have. However, in order to spread one’s ideas through speech with the capacity to impact the lives of individuals and the world itself, one must be skilled in doing so. At a glance, it is clear for one to see that Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist defines itself as a thought-provoking novel which explores its central theme in a comprehensive manner with the help of dialogue between its characters. In essence, Coelho's extensive use of dialogue in The Alchemist effectively expresses the novel’s fundamental theme that one’s desire to follow one’s dream is not only vital to living life to the fullest of its potential but it is also considered an individual’s destiny. The author utilizes dialogue between characters such as the alchemist, the old gypsy woman and Santiago, in order to fully convey the theme.
Attention Materials: Many times I have wondered what is true happiness. Is there such thing as true happiness? Can it even be attained if there is such a thing? Is it more of fulfilling desires, or satisfying psychological needs? Every person attempts to realize happiness in its fullest essence. It seems like today people are too busy trying to get rich. Nowadays it is believed that happiness lies in that new mansion, or a nice Ferrari. People are mistakingly assuming that wealth will bring to them a personal significance in which they will achieve happiness.
People tend to feel the most happiness in their daily lives rather than happiness over all. For instance, if someone opens the door for you, does something outrageous, tells a funny story or simply reacts kindly to you, you can experience happiness. Laughing at someones joke can cause you to feel happy even for just a moment. Another definition of happiness in our daily lives is self appreciation such as, getting that new raise, getting an A on a test or even getting into the college you want. These examples all cause happiness in different but still rather large ways. We seem to think that happiness is so difficult to come by, we focus so hard on what happiness is that we don't even realize the simple things in life that are truly making a difference. We can become significantly happy without even noticing. Although happiness seems like it’s hard to find it’s not all that difficult. What’s hard to come by is the feeling of genuine happiness ; genuine happiness is what people truly look for.