The Alchemist By Paul Coelho

There was a time in my life when I rejoiced this subtle, innocent concept from an international bestselling book - “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” I read the book twice and also listened to its audio book. Many students in the class might have also read this simple, inspiring book. It is “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.

“As soon as you begin to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.” Barbara Sher’s quote illustrates Paulo Coelho’s attempt in The Alchemist to raise the idea that individuals should pursue their Personal Legend and individual dreams. Coelhio uses a multitude of literary elements such as symbolism and setting as described by Thomas C. Foster in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In The Alchemist, Coelho uses his characters as symbols to manifest his overall theme to engage in following your personal legend. The way Coelho’s illustrates his theme throughout his work can be interpreted as both realistic and problematic. Throughout Santiago’s journey along with personal experience, the reader can validate Coelho’s

The Alchemist is an allegoric novel about a shepherd boy, Santiago. The young boy did not follow through with his parents expectations of becoming a priest and instead following his desires to travel and became a shepherd. He went through a tough and long journey to fulfill his own personal Personal Legend, to

"But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision" (Coelho 70). This quote from Paul Coelho's The Alchemist reflects on that idea that when someone decides to take risks and persevere, they will discover so many opportunities and uncover their own character. Just like the protagonist, Santiago, from The Alchemist, I have experienced my own journey to find myself and who I am, and it all starts with a friend, a river, and a canoe.

before he decides to get married. He also learns more about love from her. He learns what love feels like, and what you do because of it. He learned what love feels like from her because when he first sees her, he feels as if time is standing still “At that moment, it seemed as if time stood still… When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke... It was love.” (Coelho 94). He also learns about what you do for love. She tells him to finish his journey before getting married even though she loves him back and probably wants him to stay, and that she would wait for him while he’s finishing his journey because she is a desert woman and the desert women are used to waiting. Another reason she told him to go is because she doesn’t want to hold him back and stop him from pursuing his personal journey and it's all because she loves him too.

In the story, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago has a recurring dream every time he sleeps underneath the sycamore tree that grows near the remains of a church. In his dream, a small child keeps on informing him that he will find a hidden treasure if he travels to the Egyptian Pyramids. So, Santiago asks a gypsy woman to decipher the meaning of his dream. She tells him to go Egypt, find the treasure, and bring her back a portion of the treasure. Then, Santiago meets Melchizedek, the King of Salem. He explains to Santiago about good and bad omens and says it is important to accomplish his Personal Legend. Melchizedek provides Santiago with two stones, Urim and Thummim, to help

The Alchemist is a book about how this boy travels with sheep just to find a treasure. The book itself is all about a personal legend, because that is how he got to find these omens was with his personal legend. A personal legend kind of explains what you want to happen in your life and then what you expect to happen because it is something you made for your personal legend.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo is a story following Santiago,a young Shepherd from Spain. Santiago leads a simple life, travelling with and tending to his sheep. The boy keeps having this strange dream every time he sleeps under a sycamore tree at an abandoned church of a child telling him to seek his treasure at the foot of the Egyptian Pyramids. Confused, while travelling through Tarifa, the boy decides to consult a Gypsy about the meaning of this dream. This mysterious woman told the boy to go to Egypt. Strangely, the Gypsy hadn’t charged him anything. Instead, she told him that if he finds his treasure in Egypt, he owes her 1/10 of it.

This essay is going to be on the book the alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho. Some say that the alchemist is one of his greatest books. This is due to all the the ideas of having a dream, or Personal Legend, and going through obstacles to conquer it.

The Alchemist Summer Report The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, tells a tale about an Andalusia Sheppard named Santiago who pursues his personal legend. While sleeping at an abandoned church, he has a reoccurring dream about a child telling him to go to the pyramids to find a treasure. Confused about the strange occurrence, Santiago consults an old gypsy woman on its meaning. She insists that the dream is real and he should follow it.

The Alchemist The Alchemist is a short parable published in 1988 by the author Paulo Coelho. It follows the story of an Andalusian shepherd that is the proprietor to a large flock of sheep. The boy, Santiago, goes on an adventure across countries to find treasure in Egypt. His journey started as a dream where a child pointed him in the direction of the pyramids.

Between the summer reading choice and novel synopses, “The Alchemist” was most interesting to me, but I didn’t know what the alchemist was. So I researched on it before I read this book. The alchemist is a person who studies how to transfer metal into gold, so I thought, according to the subject the story would be about a journey of studying how to transfer lead into gold. But my prediction was completely wrong until now. Transforming lead into gold takes just a few parts of the story.

In Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist, the alchemist is asked, “Why are you an alchemist?” His response is simply, “I’m an alchemist because I’m an alchemist.” It is as straightforward as that. I am a theatre artist. There is not a cute story about how I saw a show when I was younger and was inspired; it is simply who I am to the core of my being. I am fortunate that my time in theatre has brought me to places like Cincinnati Music Hall’s stage, the mainstage at Playhouse in the Park, the Guignol Theatre at the University of Kentucky, and other theatres that lend themselves to being name-dropped. However, the theatre that I have done that has most shaped my worldview and molded who I am as a person has happened in the most unlikely of places: dormitory

1 Santiago, for his entire life, devotedly attended the seminar every day in order to become a Catholic priest. However, Santiago was not liked by any student in the seminar at all; fellow students perceived him as a brainwashed, Catholic dweeb.

Throughout his life, Santiago has lived and rested near a sycamore tree. It is right next to an abandoned church. For a living Santiago herds, tends, and guards sheep. Almost every day, he has a dream about a child who tells him that he should travel to the Egyptian pyramids to find hidden riches. Santiago decides to follow his intuition. Along the way, Santiago meets this peculiar man that appears to read minds. He introduced himself to Santiago as the King of Salem. Santiago doesn't believe him. He thinks this is all a hoax. The King of Salem tells him that he should pursue his desires no matter what. Santiago then saw dreams and personal legends from a different outlook. Before Santiago left for his journey, the king gave Santiago two gems.