During my senior year of high school, a group of students were instructed to read "The Alchemist", by Paul Coelho. As I began reading this book, I realized its main purpose was about following your dreams but never get off track by stopping at a destination that is not your purpose.
The story begins with a teenage boy named Santiago whose dream was to travel the world. As Santiago recalls the conversation he had with his father, he explained to his father that he wanted to travel instead of becoming a priest, as his father wanted him to be. Santiago’s father insisted that only shepherds travel so Santiago demands that he will become a shepherd since he wanted to travel and see new things. The next day, Santiago’s father gave him three gold coins to buy a flock of sheep. His father desired for him to travel and wanted him to realize their country side is better than any other land he wants to discover.
Later on during Santiago’s traveling, he had to rest. During that time, he had a dream. In his dream, Santiago was in a field with his sheep when suddenly a child walks up and starts to play with the sheep. Eventually, the child walks up to Santiago and grabs his hand to guide him to the pyramids in Egypt. The child speaks about finding a treasure near the pyramids but as soon as the little boy starts to tell the location of this treasure, Santiago wakes up out of his dream confused. Farther along in his journey, he visits a dream interpreter who implies that he should go to the pyramids to find this lost treasure. As for the money to pay for the dream interpretation, she resists the urge for Santiago to pay for his service, but only wants ten percent of whatever treasure he finds. Santiago agrees, thinking that the dream interpreter would never know about the treasure he finds.
Moving on to another city, Santiago bought a thicker book as he promised himself before and waited for the sun to come down so he could finish his traveling to find this treasure. While reading this book, Santiago was approached by an elder who immediately began asking Santiago questions about the book he was reading but he initially ignores the old Arabian man and begins to talk to him. The old man introduced himself as Melchizedek, the king of Salem. Santiago guesses in disbelief, that the old man must have been sent by the dream interpreter. In addition, Melchizedek instantly told Santiago that he should give him one tenth of his sheep for a hint of where the treasure was. As Melchizedek writes the names of Santiago’s parents in the sand with a stick, he explains the concept of the Personal Legend. “A personal legend represents what that personal most desires to accomplish in his or her life”, he explains. Pointing to a baker in the city, he explains that the baker wanted to travel but he became a baker because everyone considered that job more important than a shepherd; having said that, Santiago became offended and left the king of Salem immediately as quick as the wind in anger. City he buys bread from the baker Melchizedek spoke about moments ago and stops by another booth to buy a ticket to another country, Africa. Wandering through the city the next day, Santiago finds Melchizedek and gives him six of his sheep, in return, the location of the treasure which was in Egypt by the pyramids.
One of my favorite stories in The Alchemist has a message to offer for a lifetime. Melchizedek explains to Santiago the story of a shopkeeper who sends his son to learn the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The boy finds the wise man in his castle in the desert. The wise man tells the boy to spend time looking through the castle with a spoon full of oil. Concentrating on the spoon full of oil, the boy never realized the castles true beauty and was sent away again with a spoon full of oil to explore. When he came back to the wise man, there was no oil in the spoon, having forgotten about the oil but honoring the true beauty of the wise man’s castle.
The Alchemist ends with Santiago leaving the alchemist as he is three hours away from the pyramids and must finish the trip alone. As Santiago rides off alone headed for the pyramids, he stopped in the distance due to a scarab in the sand and starts to dig. Ultimately, two refugees hold Santiago hostage and force Santiago to finish digging the hole because the refugees thought he found treasure. As the morning arises, Santiago stops to gasp from the involuntary servitude from the refugees and speaks again of seeing treasure. At that moment, Santiago realized that his dream of treasure was the same as what the refugees spoke of. And he knew that his treasure was not by the pyramids. Eventually reaching back to the church he began his journey was the place his treasure was.
A few great things I loved about the Alchemist were how Coelho maintained suspense from the beginning to the end. I was so eager to find out what Santiago, the main character in the Alchemist, would eventually do next after being stuck in so many situations and having to use omens to see if the right place he should be was the right place he was in at that moment. One thing I did not like about the Alchemist was how Santiago just stopped perusing his dreams of visiting other countries because of love at first sight. Santiago met a beautiful girl and just spent half of his life in this certain country without hesitating to remain true to his main goal. I wondered what would have been different if Santiago did not stop in this certain city but kept trying to reach for his dreams.
Although the Alchemist had a weak point, you have to realize the overall purpose of this book. And that purpose includes finding your true destiny or Personal Legend while searching for God to help you find the true meaning of life.
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