The Alchemist is a brilliant novel that focuses on Santiago’s journey to his Personal Legend. It shows all the hardships this protagonist faces along the way and how he almost loses sight of the reason for his journey on several occasions. However, this novel is not just about the complicated and long journey that Santiago takes throughout the novel, but the great symbols, motifs, and themes that are shown throughout the storyline. There are many elements of fiction that bring this novel together for an interesting and contemplative storyline to read. Unlike most books, The Alchemist does not use chapters to organize the storyline. There is a prologue, part one, part two, and the epilogue. The prologue is the only part of the storyline
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First, the sheep are the first symbols that are introduced in the story. They portray people who do not try to discover their Personal Legends. They just go after what they need, like food and water and do not appreciate the wonders of the world. They are only concerned with having the minimal material needs which is something many characters in the book are like, such as the baker and the owner of the glassware shop. The merchant at the glassware shop even explains his feelings of wanting to stay where he is at instead of moving forward to Santiago:
I don 't want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons that I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I 'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don 't want to do so. (60 …show more content…
Paulo Coelho creates mystery at first by naming this novel The Alchemist, because although the prologue is about the alchemist, he really is not apart of the story until about three-fourths the way through the book. I think that Coelho wants to convey that Santiago is like an alchemist. The definition of alchemy is any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value. Santiago takes a dream that could have been taken as a silly fantasy and turned it into a journey where he found gold and jewels. So the title, The Alchemist, is a huge symbol in this book that does not stand out at first, but is very important to the
First, the sheep are the first symbols that are introduced in the story. They portray people who do not try to discover their Personal Legends. They just go after what they need, like food and water and do not appreciate the wonders of the world. They are only concerned with having the minimal material needs which is something many characters in the book are like, such as the baker and the owner of the glassware shop. The merchant at the glassware shop even explains his feelings of wanting to stay where he is at instead of moving forward to Santiago:
I don 't want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons that I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I 'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don 't want to do so. (60 …show more content…
Paulo Coelho creates mystery at first by naming this novel The Alchemist, because although the prologue is about the alchemist, he really is not apart of the story until about three-fourths the way through the book. I think that Coelho wants to convey that Santiago is like an alchemist. The definition of alchemy is any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value. Santiago takes a dream that could have been taken as a silly fantasy and turned it into a journey where he found gold and jewels. So the title, The Alchemist, is a huge symbol in this book that does not stand out at first, but is very important to the