Santiago's Life In The Alchemist

In the novella The Alchemist, Santiago’s life is controlled by personal choice. Throughout the book he makes several big choices that impact the way he lives his life. He decides on his own to become a shepherd so he can travel. He also decided to continue on his journey to find his personal Legend even when he feels like giving up. The people’s actions around him also affect him further proving that his life is controlled by personal choice. If Santiago’s life was controlled by fate than his decisions would have no effect on his life. Santiago’s life is controlled by fate because of previous choices made in his life including becoming a shepherd, starting his journey towards his personal legend, and many others. In the beginning …show more content…
Santiago is told frequently to follow the omens and that they will help him to find his personal legend. Santiago is also told that if he does not go on his journey to find his personal legend he will regret it later. Despite the idea that everyone in life has a purpose and Santiago’s is to follow his, it is still his decision. He decides whether or not he is going to accomplish his goal and whether or not his life will benefit from his decision. For instance, the birds fighting. Santiago was forced to make the decision whether or not to tell the chieftain of his vision from the omen. His decision lead to him feeling better about himself and having more faith in he omens after he told the chieftain and risked the chance of dying. The omens play a role in the choices Santiago make while following his personal legend as well as changing the way he feels about himself. Fate did not decide Santiago’s life in the novella. At the very beginning of the book Santiago has the dream about the treasure and the gypsy tells him to go find it. The dream was a signal towards him looking for his Personal Legend even if the treasure was not found in the place he was told to go. Despite this, Santiago once again made the choice to travel to Egypt. The challenges that he was met with were simply choices made by the people around him, not