Dreams are a part of everyone's everyday life. Some people work hard to achieve their dreams where as some people believe in superstitions or Omens that help them achieve the same. The Alchemist written by Paulo Coelho revolves around this very ideology of going after your dream mentioned as a persons own personal legend throughout the book. The author uses an Allegoristic style of writing to express his thoughts through a young Andalusian Shepherd named Santiago.What I took away from this book was a new perspective to thoughts and goals which I did not expect to do so when I started reading this book.
Paulo Coelho’s life’s influence on this book
Paulo Coelho was born on the 24th of August 1947 in Brazil. As a young boy he always had a dream of being a writer. His parents were strict about religion and that reflects in the Alchemist with refferences to god and natural forces. According to his first book “The Pilgrimage” Paulo Coelho mentions that during his 500-plus mile walk he had a spiritual awakening, the thoughts of which have been expressed indirectly in “The Alchemist”. He always wanted to become a writer and one day he did achieve his goal, his personal legend.
The Review
Part One
We as readers are introduced to the story with a bit of a background of the boy Santiago, his family, their ideologies and beliefs. Then without even realising it you start living the adventure that Coelho wants every reader to experience. Realities of life start reflecting in the pages to come and you start forming opinions of decisions that you make in your day to day life and compare it with what Santiago does.
“At a certain point in our lives we lose control of whats happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the worlds greatest lie.”
-The Old King of Salem Melchizedek
The author has done a masterful job of conveying emotions that the Shephered boy experiences to the reader. Coelho uses characters like the Gypsie and Melchizedek the king of Salem that play an important role in taking the story ahead. Readers would also be able to relate the aforementioned characters to people in their everyday life. Coelho encourages us to adapt to situations and keep learning skills, languages, cultures etc. which he beautifully portrays using Santiago in part one of “The Alchemist”.
Part Two
Coelho begins this part with expressing the realities of competition and constant innovation in business through a crystal merchant and his competition with a nearby market. The Shepherd boy was hiered in part one of this book by this crystal merchant as the boy needed money to get to his personal legend. Like the boy even the crystal merchant has a personal legend and fears loosing it if he listened to the new ideas of the boy. However they go ahead with the same and earn a lot of money allowing the boy and the merchant to get closer to their personal legend. The crystal merchant feels that the boy is lucky for his shop and does not want to let him go now.
Superstitions are something that people believe in to this day. For example Beginners luck which Paulo Coelho has used in this book is one of his ways of potraying reality through fiction. Having a religious Catholic background Coelho does not refrain from delving into other cultures which we see in the book. I personally feel he has picked up these ideologies from his own life and is just sharing the same with his readers. Along the path of finding your personal legend you would experience many distractions that would stop you from achieving your personal legend. Coelho expresses this using the satisfaction of the boy for what he has learned along the way making the boy almost give up his goal. Coelho does a good job of also describing every scene. You will easily be able to frame the scene in your mind allowing you to visualize what you read making the experience more fun.
There was a section in the book which was about tribal wars which I felt made the story a bit too slow. Till this point the Shephered boy was moving, travelling or was deeply involved in the story. The tribal wars keep the boy out of the story making it a bit boring.
“Men have never understood the words of the wise. So Gold, instead of being seen as a symbol of evolution, became the basis for conflict.”
-The Alchemist
The protagonist of the book is finally introduced more than half way into the book. He is the most influential character that is used to build up the entire conclusion of the book. Further through the pages Coelho will talk about the Alchemist and what he is capable of.
This part gets into the crux of the story and what the goal of the boy was which you would find out by reading the book.
My Opinion
I feel baring a certain section mentioned in the above review the book is good. Its worth reading for people who want to get into reading books. The story line is simple and easy to understand. I often lost track of time reading the book which according to me makes The Alchemist a good book to read. It will initially take a while to get into the book but after a few pages you would be engrossed into the story.