The Alchemist Omens

In the beginning of The Alchemist, Santiago asks Melchizedek: “These are good omens” (pg.29). This is a Telegraphic sentence emphasizing Omens ability to break through fate and help you to follow your journey to find and achieve your destiny. Omens also serve to demonstrate Santiago’s spiritual growth throughout the story. The motif of omens serves to offer guidance on Santiago’s journey and reassure him that the Soul of the World has endorsed his journey. Melchizedek states, omens are part of the Universal Language, and if Santiago understands this language he can find meaning in his environment. For example, Santiago considers the event of the stones Urim and Thummim falling from his pocket as an omen. In doing so, he fines meaning in this

Many say that every single person on the planet has his/her own destiny, but they always leave out details on how to find it, making it difficult to explore one’s destiny. Movie and book heros demonstrates that it is hard exploring one’s destiny. Take the book The Alchemist for example, which is amazingly written by Paulo Coelho. The main character is Santiago, an ordinary shepherd who lives in Andalusia. He has a recurring dream about a hidden treasure in the Pyramids of Egypt. In order to find out what his dream means, he meets many mentors and good people along the way that help him interpret his dream, including the Alchemist. They tell Santiago that there is an actual treasure that is waiting for him and that he should go after it. He then decides to leave Andalusia and go after his dream in Africa. Along the way he faces many difficult obstacles that almost cost him his life. For example, he leaves Tarifa, Africa so that he could leave with a caravan that was going to Egypt. As the caravan is moving along the desert, the large caravan has to stop at an oasis because there are many tribal wars. He sees the love of his life here, Fatima. But at the end, he is able to experience a difficult journey that leads him to his treasure, which is his true Personal Legend or true meaning in life. Another good example is the movie The Matrix, which is produced by Joel Silver. In the movie the main character, Thomas Anderson otherwise known as “Neo,” is firstly known as a hacker, but he primarily works at a software company. Neo receives many calls telling him to go learn about the truth, but many times he refuses. Finally, Neo accepts to learn about the truth, which is that he's been living in a program world, the Matrix. His crew members Morpheus, Trinity, and many more, explain to him that Neo is the one to save them all. He too faces many life-threatening obstacles along the way. In the end, Neo discovers that he is the “one.” The Alchemist and The Matrix buttress the theme of finding one’s Personal Legend as both main characters, Santiago and Neo, go on a quest with lots of obstacles to find and explore their true destinies and discover who they really are.

“Dad, where are you going this time?” said Santiago with a smirk. It seems like you’re never here, and I need you. You may not realize it, but I do.

The pungent smell of chestnut trees filled the air as his knees grew tremulous, insecurities filling his mind of the future. For years he had walked the trails in attempt to once again reunite with mankind after the devastating shipwreck that set him off course. From the corner of his eye he saw a swallowtail butterfly, nonetheless of his wife’s favorite, no doubt it was a sign. He must keep moving. Alike to this harried individual and his determination to keep moving after being reminded of his family, author Paulo Coelho illustrates similar traits in characters as well as the same principles through his works of art. In the novel, “The Alchemist,” Coelho utilizes the motif of omens in Santiago’s journey to reveal themes, and teach readers valuable life lessons.

Santiago’s journey begins when he has a strange and interesting dream about a treasure. It is not the first time he has had this same dream so it sparks an interest in him. He goes to an old woman who

The Alchemist written by Paulo Coelho, is an inspirational masterpiece filled with life lessons. It is a story about a young shepherd boy named Santiago who has a dream about treasure by the pyramids. Santiago meets an old king who gives him advice and sets Santiago on his journey that would lead him to fulfill his Personal Legend. Santiago learns many life lessons along the way, finds love, and perseveres to find his treasure. Throughout Santiago’s adventure Paulo Coelho focuses on several main themes for readers to learn from his book.

The alchemist teaches him many life lessons to help him find his life path but mainly focuses on listening to his heart. “The heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say” (Coelho 134). This lesson the Alchemist teaches him helps him while traveling the desert as he later encounters different problems that he will need to listen to his heart to solve the

The pursuit of dreams, when a person wants something with enough passion, everything seems to go perfectly according to how it was planned. When they are young, everyone knows what their personal legend is, and at that point in their lives everything is clear and possible. However, as time goes on, a mysterious force seems to blind us of achieving that goal. Santiago went through all those attempts to get to his personal legend. At the beginning of the story, Santiago, a young shepherd, whose life is spent fulfilling his passion of traveling by herding his sheep through the fields and towns of Spain. One night, Santiago woke up because he was having the same dream he had in past nights. After, Santiago dreamt he was greeted by the king of Salem he told the boy that

For this summer’s reading assignment, I choose to read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. To be honest, I didn’t choose this book based on the complexity of it, but because it was recommended to me by four of my peers. When I found out the number of pages, I, like any other student who had two weeks left of summer, downloaded the pdf version and started reading. As I began reading, I was instantly intrigued. Within the first 5 pages of the novella I was able to make a spiritual connection that foreshadowed in The Alchemist. I related this book to a movie "Joseph, King of Dreams". Both Joseph and Melchizedek had a destiny.

In The Alchemist, Santiago crosses a desert on his journey to Egypt in order to find his treasure. Ravaged by harsh weather and brutal warring tribes, the desert symbolises the difficulties and hardships that are faced by those pursuing their Personal Legends, and the danger of fear. However, Santiago accepts and listens to the desert which presents him with an omen, warning him of an approaching army. Had Santiago feared the desert completely, he would not have been presented with the warning and therefore would be unable to protect those in the oasis. Thus, individuals who are pursuing their destiny should not fear hardships and difficulties, but should accept them and continue on their journey. Alternatively, the reoccurring and dominant idea of dreams throughout The Alchemist, represents one’s inner destiny – or Personal Legend. Much like Santiago’s inner desire revealed in his dream was to find the treasure, “… The child said to me, if you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.” (pg.6), the motif of dreams teaches that one should follow their dreams in order to fulfil their Personal Legends, as such imaginings help one to realise their destiny and thus, they will be rewarded with aforementioned

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.

In his novel, The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho gives many lessons to the readers. Each character has its own life style. When readers seem that they are in a similar situation like characters, they find some solutions from the behaviors of the characters and apply the knowledge to their lives. One of the sympathetic characters in this novel is Santiago who is the main character. Every moment, people’s life is the process of finding dream so most of the people may agree the situations Santiago is faced with.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is an enchanting book about shepherd boy named Santiago who travels out into the desert searching for treasure to find an Alchemist and learn much more than he ever expected. The book conveys lessons and themes in which can be applied to our own lives, and I will focus on three. The three themes I will focus on are unity, fate, and love. One of the big themes in The Alchemist is unity.

Reading has allowed me to become more communicative and understanding of others’ feelings. In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, there is an emphasis on the personal legend of humans. Essentially, the author is conveying that humans should be what they truly want to be, whether it’s pertaining one’s occupancy or personality. I have learned how important this message since in the book it explains that those who don’t learn this will regret it the rest of their lives. Furthermore, I have developed better communicative skills from this as I have learned more about how humans are and whereby I can empathize more easily. This has not only taught me to take this into consideration in my life, but has also taught me about the vulnerability of human nature.

My personal legend would be for everyone to look up to me and eventually come to me for help. I want to be that person you bring up in conversation and say “oh she’s a good person, nice people. I remember hearing this and that.” My sister and some of my really close friends already say I give decent advice. I’m going to accomplish my legend is by finishing high school, and live life gathering information and understanding life. I need to grow and achieve what life has to give me in order to be looked upon and to be spoken about with great deeds and actions. Age, experience and me are the only thing holding me back from accomplishing this personal legend. With time and a lot of patience, I can achieve this goal. My family somewhat knows of this