The Alchemist And Walt Whitman's Journey

What is the purpose of life? Is it to be happy? To be well known? To be wealthy? Everyone is placed on earth to embark on an individual journey. Whether it is controllable or comes as a surprise, it must not be taken for granted but accepted as a gift. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, O’Brien was chosen from the draft to be deployed to the Vietnam War. He set off on this journey to fight for his country, but had to find himself along the way. In Song of Myself written by Walt Whitman, Whitman was tired of his day to day routine and set off on a tranquil journey to connect himself with the earth. Although “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Song of Myself” both demonstrate a journey of self-discovery, they differ in that one

The first two obstacles that Santiago faces are that his father tells him he can not do something that he wants to do and that he wants to pursue his personal legend, but he does not want to hurt those that he loves. For example, Santiago’s father said, “The

“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

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

How can the decisions we make affect our lives? Our decisions can choose where we’re going to land later in the future, such as if you commit crimes, later in life, you might get thrown in prison, which is your consequence. Every action has a consequence, consequences can be good and bad; People will judge you, and you will judge yourself based on your choices, your choices decide what path you go down. In the book, “A Long Walk To Water,” Salva has learned to accept that he’s alone, and that he is all that’s left of his family. “I am alone. I am ALL that’s left of my family.” He can’t find his

As the author said, sometimes the fate can be changed by choice you make. It encourages the reader that it is always possible to change and fix destinies before it is too late. One important quote that the author wrote is, “This book is meant to show us how... our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path , or a tentative step down the right one." (Moore xiv).

The foreshadowing in this novel prepares readers for decisions Santiago will make later on. This idea is evident when Santiago is explaining to the king why he is shepherd. "They wanted me to be a priest, but I decided to become a shepherd." "Because you really like to travel."" (Coelho 18). When the King completes Santiago's claim by saying that he loves to travel, an inference can be that he will make decisions that will keep him traveling. For example, he decides to keep going on his personal legend instead of staying with Fatima. Nonconformity is seen when Santiago tells the King that even though his parents want him to be a priest, he decides to become a shepherd. In using foreshadowing, Coelho also manages to implant symbolism in the same idea.

“We are our choices,” French Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once said. Everything that happens throughout life is due to a decision made by an individual. That being said, all choices made by an individual have different possible consequences. These consequences will have a cause and an effect. Wes Moore, the author of The Other Wes Moore, explores this idea throughout his entire book. Wes Moore makes a point to show us that a character’s environment, education, and life goals are what guided them to make the choice that determined their fate. In the letter to myself, I used this quote, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place; it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” (Rocky Balboa). This quote relates to Jean Paul Sarte’s quote because it tells us that we are our choices, and the choices we make are what will determine whether or not you will have successes or failures in life. The quote by Rocky Balboa relates to another quote from Wes Moore, “I sat back, allowing Wes's words to sink in. Then I

“Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.” - Oliver Goldsmith

Many people live their lives believing that their lives are driven by fate; that their hopes and dreams ultimately have no impact on how their lives will turn out. This, however, does not hold true when one considers the paths taken by those who follow their own dreams and desires. When one examines the lives of people and characters who follow their dreams, one can realize that life is not guided by fate, but by the desires of one’s heart.

When speaking of the journey one is speaking of an act in which the mind or the body are going through a vigor of change and an instance of importance. The journey, whether literal or figurative, is a thing that could impact life, reason, and even passion for what one holds dear. Such as a woman realizing that medicine is their calling or a man having a roller coaster of emotions during their daily viewing of their favorite television show, a journey can be anything and at any level of life, but always an instance of importance.

The only life Santiago knew was being a shepherd, but one day he made a decision that he wanted to know more. He wanted to get out of Spain and see the rest of the world, and from there the rest of the story develops. The same goes for all of us, in that the rest of our stories are based on the decisions we make today – we decide to be better, we decide to be happy, we decide to be successful. It all starts with that decision.

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,

Life is full of decision making, and many obstacles that will come in your way to try and stop your path and prevent you from achieving what you must achieve. In the poems “A Laughing Heart,” by Charles Bukowski, and “The Journey,” by Mary Oliver, the authors both meet at describing what life is like and how to live life like the fullest, even though there will be things to stop you, and you may stop yourself. Both of these poems point out that you have to be the main character in your life, you have to beat everybody or every obstacle that will trouble you, you must overcome it to achieve the highest points of your life. In “The Laughing Heart,” the author says “and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.” (14, 15). Charles Bukowski is saying that if you learn to successfully overcome your obstacles, your life will continually get better because there are less problems to face. A similar line in “The Journey,” is “...as you left their voices behind,/ the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,/ and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,” (24-29). The author is saying that as you started to seize opportunity, solve problems and face challenges in your life, you became stronger, and you became the main character in your life. The theme of these two poems is that your life is your life, and even though you will have to overcome obstacles and face challenges, you must be the main character in your life to live your

Life sometimes seems scary. The fear of failure and the fear of the unknown make a person rethink its choices and goals, this happens all the time. As time passes, be days, moths, years or only simply one experience can change our whole vision of the world, about life, about what really matters and consequently about our goals. Throughout my whole life I have questioned so many aspects of my life, of existence, and consequently about my future. I never stopped wanting to achieve something big, that could change the whole world, some amazing adventure that would be the one thing that would give birth to all the amazing things that could happen next. As time passed I realized that life itself is one big adventure, and that what I will do every day will matter for me and for the people around me. I realized that life is not some perfect movie where there are good guys, bad guys and that in the end of one amazing journey everything would be solved. It may be a childish vision of the world, but it had motivated me for years to do the thing I believed would help me achieve this, and to believe in myself. Obviously as I grew up, I saw what the world really looked like, that sacrifices have to be made, that there are things which no one can control, that if I want something I have to work really hard. In today society everything counts.