...In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a boy named Santiago travels through the desert in search of treasure. Along the way he meets many people who help him, like the crystal merchant and the Alchemist. He also learns many things about himself and the world. Some of these things would be the Soul and Language of the World, Language of God, and how to read omens, but the most important thing he learned on his journey was how personal legends play into people's everyday lives. Through the contrasting views of the crystal merchant and the Alchemist, Coelho introduces two characters who present Santiago with opposite ways of handling the obstacles that come along with personal legend. The merchant believes dreams should motivate and push people, while...
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...01:090:101:50 index 14579 First-Year Byrne Seminar Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist: A contemporary quest of self-fulfillment and joy HCK 131 Tuesdays 2:15-3:35 Dr. Dámaris M. Otero-Torres Department of Spanish and Portuguese 104A Carpender Hall DC Office hours: by appointment e-mail: dotero@spanport.rutgers.edu phone: 732. 848.6874 seminar description: Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is as a modern classic. Originally published in Portuguese in 1988, this novel has since been translated into 67 languages, becoming one of the best-selling books in history. Inspired by the teachings of ancient alchemy, the story narrates the adventures of a shepherd named Santiago, as he travels through the African desert in the pursuit of his dream: to see the pyramids in Egypt. As he journeys through the desert, Santiago becomes the ultimate alchemist when he learns to transform his life by tapping into the language of the soul. Our first goal in the seminar will be two-fold: to explore the contemplative principles of ancient alchemy as the foundation for this allegorical text and to delve into the “messy” stages of a hero’s journey. In medieval times, alchemy was considered a science, aimed specifically to transmute base metals into gold, to discover a universal cure for disease, and to prolong life. In our days, “alchemy” is basically understood as a metaphor for personal transformation. Indeed, the poetic connotations of the word “alchemy” underscore its lack of substantive...
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...dreams, and others hide their dreams in fear of failing in the end. People lay out excuses, whether it may be the problem with time, money, family, or work, these factors should not interfere with working to achieve your dreams. There is no doubt that it won’t be an easy process, there will be obstacles, and there will be challenges, how you overcome these things are up to you. Your reaction to these hardships could in fact make it or break it. This process of achieving your dreams is shown in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Coelho’s novel was written to show the importance of dreams and having something to live for. In an interview with a magazine, Coelho explained, “The Alchemist is about -- well, it is a fable about the necessity we have to follow our dreams.” Coelho also added, “They will lose their jobs, they will start having problems, but it is the only choice because in any case, you have to pay a price for your dreams,” when he was asked about the problems that may evoke when people would start chasing their dreams. To Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist was written to show the self sacrifice that needed to be made to follow your dreams. The Alchemist outlines the adventures of Santiago, as young shepherd, as he travels from his homeland in Spain to Egypt in search of a treasure that appears in his dreams. During this journey he meets many people such as a wise king, a merchant in fear to live out his dreams, his true love and the Alchemist. On the way to the pyramids, he comes...
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...In Paul Coelho’s novel, The Alchemist, following ones dreams and being able to recognize signs and omens that come across ones path dominated the main purpose of the story. In the novel, a young shepherd named Santiago goes on a journey to find a treasure beyond his craziest dream. Along his way, Santiago learns to listen to his heart and defeat his fears. Through character, conflict, and form, the author suggests that when one really wants something, the entire universe conspires in helping them achieve it. To begin with, on his journey to pursuing his dreams, Santiago meets many characters that help him. Santiago is a shepherd from a small Andalusia town. He chose to work as a shepherd so he can travel the country. Santiago goes to a woman...
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...In Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, a young shepherd boy goes on a journey after having a recurring dream about treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids. He comes across many hardships along the way, but he follows through with his goal and finds his treasure in the end. In the novel The Alchemist, Coelho conveys the importance of not only having dreams, but also actually pursuing them. Santiago’s trust in his mentors gives him the knowledge and ability to chase after his aspirations and fulfill his Personal Legend. King Melchizedek tells Santiago that the world’s greatest lie is “that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate” (18). Santiago could have disagreed with the king and believed in the ideas of his book, but instead he trusts King Melchizedek. By doing so, Santiago learns that he must struggle to meet his goals instead of sitting back and allowing fate to control his life. He realizes that he can’t stay in his comfort zone of books and sheep, and must go out and explore the world. When the stranger in Tangier asks him if he has enough money to cross the Sahara desert, Santiago thinks that this is a strange question, but “he trusted in [King Melchizedek], who had said that, when you really want something, the universe always conspires in your favor” (36). Despite the fact that he lost all his money to the thief, Santiago’s trust in King Melchizedek taught him to be smarter and to view the world in terms...
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...The Alchemist is a very unique book like no other. Although the book shows many messages and themes, there is also other many pieces of literature, art, music, and films that express or set the same message. One piece of literature that relates to the Alchemist is “The Last Shots” by Yuri Bondarev. This book expresses the theme of fear which is also portrayed in the Alchemist. The book focuses on the soldier's perspective of war and how they were compelled to be in the war. A musical piece that relates to the Alchemist is “Let It Go” by Irina Menzel. This song has a very uplifting and positive message that expresses the importance to gain strength and hope when facing a difficult situation or decision. It expresses the theme of not giving up....
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...Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Page 1 / 94 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R. Clarke. Published 1992. ISBN 0-7225-3293-8. = CONTENTS = Part One Part Two Epilogue PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it. He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows. It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the half-destroyed roof. Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Page 2 / 94 I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended. He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious...
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...THE ALCHEMIST By Paulo Coelho New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993 ISBN # 0-06-250218-2 (paper) 174 pages Comments by Bob Corbett November 2009 This is a lovely book, tender but profound. It is about the importance of seeking one’s own meaning of life and spending one’s life fulfilling it. Coelho calls it seeking one’s “Personal Legend.” It reminds me very much of what the Existentialists would have called “authenticity.” However, unlike the Existentialists who write rather darkly about this process of seeking one’s own meaning system, Coelho’s young shepherd boy is seeking his Personal Legend in something much like a fairly tale. However, Coelho at least gives us a process and set of obstacles we might well expect, and his hero fulfills all four: First one must discover that our lives are dictated by custom, family, law and tradition and we must be willing to overcome these in order to seek our own unique Personal Legend. If we get to this first stage we may well run up against love as an obstacle, particularly in believing that in order to have the love of some other we must give up our own Personal Legend and live in a way that the other needs for us. On the author’s view this is a mistaken notion of love. “You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit its because it wasn’t true love .. the love that speaks the Language of the World.” Supposing one gets past that second stage and realizes love...
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...The Alchemist Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R. Clarke. Published 1992. ISBN 0-7225-3293-8. PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it. He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows. It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the halfdestroyed roof. I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended. He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he had spent the past two years, leading them through the countryside in search of food and water. "They...
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...The Alchemist “He had no idea how he was going to transform himself into the wind. He wasn’t an alchemist.” (pg.146). Santiago, at this point in his journey, is faced with something perceived to be impossible. He has someone saying that he can do it but the obstacle is so great, everything seems impossible. “...You told me you loved me… because of that, I have become a part of you.” (pg.100). No one lives without the fear of disappointing someone you love. When you love someone, you feel as if they are a part of you, similar to how Santiago and Fatima feel towards each other. Santiago was on the verge of letting love get in the way of his person ledgend. He was too blind to realise at the time that finding Fatima was not his legend, she...
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...The Alchemist Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R. Clarke. Published 1992. ISBN 0-7225-3293-8. PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it. He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows. It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the halfdestroyed roof. I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended. He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he had spent the past two years, leading them through the countryside in search of food and water. "They...
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...often peeks from behind the bawdy song of a tavern bard. Scholars often envision a bygone age where the brutal Westeam Empire spanned the length of the Aerocloud. It was an age of exploration and discovery but so too was it one of unparalleled cruelty and greed. The Westeam dukes ruled with a union held together by alchemists and the power they harnessed from the mysterious Aerogel. It was with this power that they built the first airships and rained death upon the bewildered Arya and the fierce Broncs. Armed with simple weapons and riding only horses, they were no match for Jraxido, the first Skyduke of the Empire. For five hundred years, the land learned to fear shadows in the sky. But just as it gave them control of the skies, Aerogel too brought the Empire into a dark age. With great pains they tried to hide it, but the Skydukes could not delay the inevitable any longer. After five hundred years, the secrets of the Aerogel were known to all. After half a millennium of oppression, the Rebellion was more than an irritating insect to be squashed at leisure. Harvesters were built, blueprints stolen, and the Aerogel War ravaged the land. The alchemists of the Iron Institute were given new liberties. In their dark laboratories, unspeakable experiments were performed without a care for consequences. Terrible weapons were developed with devastating...
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...The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, is the first novel I have chosen to read and discuss about in regards to my essay assignment, and the second novel is Looking for Alaska, by John Green. The topic that is relevant to the novels, deals with Personal journeys and self realization. This enlightenment that the characters reach at one point in the novel is the very essence that is desired by many men and women across the globe. Some may say that we are all wandering aimlessly, yet not all those who wander are lost..therefore, although we are not lost, we cannot exactly find what we are unsure we're looking for, resulting in our constant loitering. Although ignoring self discovery seems quite effortless and tolerable, it often will do more harm to...
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...warfare: One thing there is which all Satan's cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot take by surprise, and that is simplicity. After Santiago has his dream, he is soon visited by Melchizedek, the mysterious King of Salem, who tells him that soon after someone embarks upon the path of their destiny, all the Universe conspires to help them, but only for a little while. Soon after embarking upon a trip to Africa, his money is gone and he must struggle, as almost all of us do, with precariously balancing his material needs against not losing sight of his dream and his destiny. I don't want to give too much away, but Santiago does a much better job than most of us. He never confuses the good for the best, in spite of all temptations to fear, anger, hardships, contentment, pride in achievements, and other distractions that successfully derail most of us from pursuing our callings. Santiago's weapons are not "determination," but trust, not...
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...Ben Jonson (1572–1637). The Alchemist. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. | | | | |Introductory Note | | | | | |BEN JONSON was born of poor parents at Westminster in 1573. Through the influence of Camden, the antiquary, he got a good | 1| |education at Westminster School; but he does not seem to have gone to a University, though later both Oxford and Cambridge gave | | |him degrees. In his youth he practised for a time his stepfather’s trade of bricklaying, and he served as a soldier in Flanders. | | | It was probably about 1595 that he began to write for the stage, and within a few years he was recognized as a distinguished | 2| |playwright. His comedy of “Every Man in His Humour” was not only a great immediate success, but founded a school of satirical | | |drama in England. “Sejanus” and “Catiline” were less popular, but are impressive pictures of Roman life, less interesting but more| | |accurate than the Roman plays of Shakespeare. ...
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