Comparison Of 'The Best Place And The Alchemist's Secret'

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Two very similar, yet very different readings of two everyday working men with a scheme to put their profession over the top. “The Best Place” by A. F. Oreshnik is a story about a doctor who hypnotizes his criminal patients in order to steal their money and live the life he wants to. “The Alchemist’s Secret” by Arthur Gordon is a story about an alchemist that creates a poison for people who are looking to kill someone. The main characters in both stories are the average everyday people, with a side job that turns them into criminals. These two men are very similar, with two very different jobs. Both men in these stories are looking for one thing more than anything else. Dr. Whitney in “The Best Place” and Dr. Maximus in “The Alchemist’s Secret” are both looking for a way to make some extra money, without working much harder. The reader can tell Dr. Whitney likes his job because the reading says, “And …show more content…
Whitney’s scheme is a bit trickier than the scheme that Dr. Maximus has devised. Whitney has to deal with criminals, which can be dangerous at times unlike Maximus where he deals with regular rich people. Also, Whitney has to talk face to face with government agents and his employees and it can be difficult to keep a crime like this quiet. He has to make sure his assistants are in the break room so they do not find out about his scheme, and even when he does see them he has to keep a straight face in order to keep the information confidential. Maximus on the other hand does not have any employees or co-workers, so it is much easier for him to keep this crime a secret. He “helps” people that are unhappy with their spouses to get rid of them, and the only people that know about Maximus and have the money for his poison are the rich. The reader knows this because the “visitor” that goes to see Maximus has a silk handkerchief and can afford a box of chocolate, which were expensive in the late 1800’s. In both cases, the people that these doctors meet are very

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