Laurence Olivier

Wouldn’t you want to live your life following your Personal Legend in order to become a legacy, an inspiration, and overall have a purposeful life? The Alchemist, a novel by Paulo Coelho, speaks grandly about one’s Personal Legend. A Personal Legend is what one is destined to do, and their spiritual purpose in life. Personal Legends are deserving to be followed before anything else in life due to the great pleasures it would bring you in life. First, following your Personal Legend would show…

A natural satisfaction is always wrought when anyone fully accomplishes something that they set out to do. The ending to The Alchemist was a very fulfilling conclusion featuring the two-part completion of Santiago’s Personal Legend and featuring a comical instance of irony leading up to the final achievement of his search for his treasure that has more than just a humorous tone, reiterating the lessons Santiago has learned from the inner transformation of alchemy. Santiago’s viewing of the…

life, following in her father’s controlling footsteps. When John tells his mother he is going to marry Arlene, his girlfriend, she objects to the idea of him marrying his true love. Hagar believes she will be unable “to hold up her head in town” (Laurence 199) if John marries Arlene. Once again, Hagar is merely focused on her own happiness rather than making sacrifices for her son’s happiness. Her incapability to recognize her stubborn behaviour is an indication of her lack of self-discovery.…

The book The Alchemist, by Brazilian writer Paolo Coelho, tells the story about a boy named Santiago who changed a lot through his journey as he discovered that he was the Alchemist and became a spiritual leader. Similarly, the novel The Deportation of Wopper Barraza, by Chicano writer Maceo Montoya, introduces us to a character named Wopper who also changed as a result of his journey and was surprised to learn that he would become a political leader, a Municipal Representative. However, even…

As people set out on their personal legend only few will achieve their ultimate goals. People are scared to achieve these goals because of the fear of failure, love, fear of realizing the dream they have fought for all our lives, and from childhood people are told everything they want is impossible. In Paulo Coelho’s novel The Alchemist, a young boy named Santiago, who was a shepherd decides to follow his dreams in finding treasure at the pyramids in Egypt. Santiago is faced with many obstacles…

after witnessing the death of his dad “Slick Will” at one of these races. He wants to be the one in charge the one everyone idealized or as the movie portrays it, “The King of Cali.” The label is currently being held by his biological father “Smoke” (Laurence Fishburne). This movie tries to depict something that happens in the underground world of the biker gangs. The end of the movie tells the full aspect of the entire movie when Kid said, “the difference between men and boys is the lessons…

The Alchemist Analysis Everyone wants to follow their dreams, but it is never spoken of how rare chasing them really is. The Alchemist was written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian spiritual writer. In The Alchemist, a major part is to follow your dreams. The main character, Santiago, does this by searching for a treasure in Egypt that he saw in his dreams. Through The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho displays the importance of destiny, along with overcoming the doubts that go along with that, in a…

What’s Behind the Mask? In a world full of so much injustice and hurt, it is no wonder we put on fronts and wear masks that ensure no one sees beyond the pretty smiles. In his poem, We Wear the Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbar uses powerful descriptions to deliver the message that people hide their pain and suffering from those around them. The use of “we” in the opening stanza of the poem, “We wear the mask that grins and lies” (stanza 1), proposes this a universal problem and that all humans are…

In poems “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” by the altruistic and erudite Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou, they constantly talk about the lives of a caged bird. This is due to the birds symbolizing a hardship. The meaning of the poems are to show how hard African-Americans had to fight for their rights because of how many limitations they we given. There are many things that make the two poems similar. The first quote that supports this is “... I know what the caged bird feels” (Sympathy, Stanza…

When ones hope is taken away it serves as a conflict and it makes one feel as if they are worthless.In “Sympathy” Paul Laurence Dunbar talks about a bird that is isolated in a cage from its habitat and makes an effort in trying to escape the cage. In “Caged Bird” Maya Angelou compares a free bird to a caged bird and their how different their lives can be when in two different scenarios. In both of these poems the birds are alike in many ways and also very different. In “Sympathy” and “Caged…