Who Is The Hero In Foster's The Alchemist

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

Santiago made a reasonable sum of money working for the crystal merchant, and decided it was time to abandon his job to continue his search for his treasure. Along the way, he was halted by a tribal war in the desert and forced to stay in an oasis. During his visit he met a young woman named Fatima. After only a few interactions, Santiago decides he wants to marry this woman, “‘I came to tell you just one thing,’ the boy said. ‘I want you to be my wife. I love you’(Coelho, 95). What once was negative became positive. Santiago’s journey had been paused multiple times, and he was stuck in an oasis instead of venturing to the

In Chapter 1 the author explains the symbolic reasoning of why a character takes a trip. They don't just take a trip they take a quest. Structurally a quest has a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a reason to go there. Quests usually involve characters such as a knight, a dangerous road, a Holy Grail, a dragon, an evil knight, and a princess. The quest also involves the character to gain self-knowledge out of taking the adventure to the stated place where he or she is going.

All stories consist of a similar structure of stages, ranging from using a couple to all twelve, that help the protagonist in their journey to better themselves or others. The sole concept of this is called a Hero’s Journey. Now in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the whole plot is based off of the hero’s journey. The protagonist, Santiago, goes through all twelve stages in his quest to reach his personal goal which ultimately makes The Alchemist a great example for the hero’s journey. In the book, Coelho introduces Santiago as a boy who is a shepard that was raised to be a priest. He is pleased being a sheep herder but is also fond of wanting to travel and dreams of finding a treasure. This starts off the “ordinary life” stage thus followed

Every character that travels down a path, that encounters obstacles on their journey, that makes sacrificial decisions faces each of these components as they undertake a life-altering quest. Often times the hero ventures out to save someone or solve a problem, but in fact, their true journey is a search for self-knowledge. Through every obstacle and road-block along the way, the character discovers more about themselves and their true identity. Though they may have journeyed across great lands to accomplish their mission, the thing they were searching for was inside of them all along; the journey and challenges only helped to reveal their real character. As explained in Thomas C. Foster’s literary criticism, How to Read Literature Like a Professor,

The physical journey of a character plays a central role in the book and influences many parts of it. Both The Odyssey and The Kite Runner, have main characters that go through a physical journey for different reasons that impacts their lives in many ways. By introspecting the books’ themes, archetypes, and symbols, it is more comprehensible. In The Odyssey and The Kite Runner both, the physical journey augments to the meaning of the books in total.

He is robbed in Tangier but meets a crystal merchant. When Santiago convinces the crystal merchant that he can help him increase sales, the merchant hires Santiago. While Santiago was working for the merchant, it is revealed that the merchant had a Personal Legend of making a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy land of Islam. However, the merchant said, “...the thought of Mecca that keeps me alive... I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living”, meaning that he never expected to fulfill his legend. The crystal merchant’s outlook on life almost convinces Santiago to return to his home in Spain, but after realizing that the merchant was unhappy with being stuck in the same place, Santiago decides to go

Following that, Santiago tries to expand his knowledge. Lastly, Santiago puts in heavy effort and gets to his goal. To begin, Santiago works hard and is rewarded. For example, when Santiago works for the crystal merchant and brings business to the shop, he is rewarded with money to get him to Egypt: "I'll work all night, until dawn, and I'll clean every piece of crystal in your shop.

Soon after, Santiago is forced to work for a crystal merchant in the hopes of replacing his lost money and continuing on his quest. He works for the merchant for eleven months and during this time, continues to think less and less of his Personal Legend. He becomes skilled in this practice and begins to work towards instead, replacing his flock of sheep and returning to his past lifestyle. During this time, Santiago perceived reaching the pyramids as an impossible feat claiming “Egypt was now just a distant dream for him” and that, like a mirage, it would always be just out of his reach (56). In this way, Coelho shows that Santiago’s morale is lessening. The more that he stays at the crystal shop, the more he sees his treasure as a mirage instead of a physical object.

Santiago, at the start of the story, was in the church. Then he went to the fortune teller and they told him that there was the treasure near the pyramids. This is when Santiago started his dream and would do anything to get there. Before he got to the fortune teller, the church changed his mind set. Although the church was abandoned, he had a big role to pay in having Santiago have the commitment to go for the treasure.

In most works of fiction, journey is a trial of the protagonists’ character, skill, loyalty, among other virtues and qualities. Journey might entail hardship and suffering, but one might gain a valuable and lasting experience and knowledge. Protagonist might grow as a character and develop into a more complex being. It is highly likely that in most fictional stories, protagonist starts out as innocent and inexperienced, whose lifestyle is devoid of any complexities and ignorant of the outside world. Lifestyle that shortens the perspective of the protagonist and opposing to any change. However, protagonists’ lifestyle is affected by something or someone, in some cases greatly altering their character. In books, Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, Golden Compass and Wind in the Willows, protagonists embark on

In the stories of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Hundred Foot Journey, the protagonists embark on a journey which eventually returns them to their origin, allowing them to see how they evolve throughout their path and how their views of the world change. Santiago travels to the Sahara Desert to find his treasure, but realizes his Personal Legend is not the material wealth he gains, rather, how he balances the mind and heart to achieve success. Hassan looks to the people around him to give him the strength to succeed, but his power to succeed comes from within. Santiago and Hassan travel between continents, but return to their start. This allows them to realize that their Personal Legend is not the material wealth they receive – rather,

Santiago had never laid his eyes on the pyramids before, yet he saw them in these dreams; something that seemed impossible, unless there was some form of spiritual connection to the universe that wanted him to pursue his “personal legend”. The boy became curious so he decided to get his dream interpreted by a gypsy. Curiosity is another aspect that makes Santiago successful in finding his “personal legend”. Had he not have been both curious and ambitious, the story would just be about a young boy tending to his sheep. The gypsy informs him of the great treasure that awaits him at the foot of the pyramids.

A journey is a composition of music. Different instruments come together to play different strings of notes that harmoniously combine to create a symphony. Santiago, the main protagonist from The Alchemist, experiences many symphonies on his road to realize his Personal Legend. His experiences guided him to his goal and when he had finally achieved it, the story came to a close. The ending of the novel was obvious and satisfying. Paulo Coelho left his audience with a satiating end to a long story. The ending of the story fitted perfectly with the book because it enhanced the idea of the Soul of the World, the cycles of life, and overall these ideas all came with realizing his Personal Legend.

Both novels, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, can be viewed as journeys of discovery to the reader. Both journeys in both novels are a very significant part of the development of the story itself. The Alchemist is a journey of self discovery for Santiago, the young Andalusian protagonist, which is all about him fulfilling his Personal Legend which would strip him of all of his impurities. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is also journey of self discovery for Christopher, the young British protagonist. Christopher’s journey of discovering himself is about him finding out that his mother has not died and she is still alive, which he learns through his journey, he discovers a lot of new things about himself that he did not previously know or knew he had in him.