The Alchemist

Ivan Verduzco

“To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.” (Coelho, 22) With those words Santiago realized that he must listen to his heart in order to achieve his “Personal Legend”,his dreams. Throughout the book he faces obstacles that put to the test his conviction to obtain his treasure. Luckily, in his journey he meets key characters that guide him in the right direction,and because he listens to their voices he accomplish his long, elusive objective. However, Coelho use Santiago as the protagonist and the hero, in order to make a connection with his audience; in thatsense, Santiago represents every person who have dreams or goals in life but don’t know how to obtain them. Also, by using the mythological story of Narcissus in the Prologue, Coelho sets the mood fora truth in such journey. In addition to these, Coelho’s main message in the story is that along the path one finds more than just the treasure worth pursuing, but one becomes more wise about life andthe pursue of dreams.
Santiago, a simple shepherd from Spain, is conformed to his lifestyle, because in his mind he knows that’s exactly what he wanted to do. A dream changes everything. In hisdream, “a child [takes] him […] and transport[s] [him] to the Egyptian Pyramids.” (Coelho, 13) Thanks to the advice of a king how he meets in the plaza, he realizes he has to know what his “PersonalLegend” is. Of course, one might not have a dream of what he would like to do; it’s possible but no likely. In this case, Santiago symbolizes anyone who has goals and dreams. Like Santiago, the audienceconnects to him directly since most have a normal life, but have dreams and goals one would want to accomplish. Many, though, don’t know how to reach them, especially the youth. Life’s goals to themmay be just dreams, like Santiago thought, and are not convince is not worth pursuing.
Despite this reality, Coelho uses the king as a figure of wisdom and knowledge of life to convince Santiago...