The book is following a boy - Santiago -who is a shepard.

He decided to be a shepherd after he

was in a seminary for a long time. He likes to travel, though, he has a girl he is interested in. He
also has a dream that a dream interpreter says he should listen to- that he should go to the
pyramids of Egypt and find a treasure.

Ideas: This boy is a a shepard, which is often connected to Jesus- he leads his sheep around
that he talks to and appreciates but knows that all they think about is food and water, and they
trust him etc. There is just a lot that could be interpreted that the boy is jesus and we are all his
sheep - except for the girl

Keep in mind- Narcissist and obstacles in achieving a dream

An old man appears and starts discussing Personal Legends with the boy. He says he is the
kind of Salem. He says that people realize their personal legends early in their life but there is
some force that makes them believe that they can no longer realize this personal legend. THey
learn early what their reason for being is and the universe is trying to help out but people give
up on it too early.

I like the idea that he is so sure that people know their Personal Legends and reasons for being
so early in life, and it is making me reflect on the ideas I have had for my life. He also made it
sound that only the people who go full force into realizing their Personal Legends will realize
them - that is why the guy is helping him, he recognizes that he is realizing his Personal Legend
and is about to give it up.

The boy decided to go on the Journey and the man told him to listen to good Omens and that
the universe will conspire to help a person achieve their personal so now he is on his trip and he
is kind of trusting of people.

THe omen thing is something I feel a lot of people do not trust anymore, and a lot of people do
not put their trust in other people or the universe as well. I guess it could be something to try
and see how it goes.

The boy gets robbed of all his money in the village, and at first he feels sorry for him but then he
makes the decision to not look at the situation in a bad way

he realized taht he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and
as an adventurer in quest of his treasure

Changing his attitude is something very positive a lot of people should do -

He also observes other people speaking different languages but still understanding each other
 If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world

All things are one - he is going around and reading the omens

The boy is now working to try to get money to go back and buy sheep, he has started to give up
on his dream

The treasure was now nothing but a painful memory, and he tried to avoid thinking about it
- Sounds familiar
-
About changing the Shop to be more prosperous- I don't want to change anything, because i
don't know how to deal with change. I'm used to the way I am - people are too afraid to take on
new challenges and take risks in the opportunity of change- one of the things that kill dreams
the fastest

Sometimes, theres just no way to hold back the river

it was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as a
part of a search for something believed in and desired - the language that everyone understood

THe boy finally decides to not give up on his dream - he knew that he could always go back to
being a shepherd- but he was happiest thinking about achieving his dream and going to Egypt-
for a while he thought his dream would be best left unrecognized like the crystal merchant and
Mecca

The boy is on a caravan through the desert and meets an englishman who is trying to become
an Alchemist. The boy believes that Alchemy is unnecessarily complicated and can be learned
from everyday life- not just books and stuff.

The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into
the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to
know everything, because its all written there

Quotes about being in the present

tHey make it to the Oasis- and the alchemist is and he knows there is someone he is supposed
to tell the secrets of the world too, and it does not seem to be the Englishmen

Then the boy Meets Fatima and he falls instantly in love - the keep meeting and talking and she
eventually realizes taht she is a part of him now- and that she wants him to achieve and pursue
his dreams and she will wait for him because that is that all these signs and God have shown as
the path

Everything in the world is starting to make sense to the boy, he listens to the language, and the
silence and he can understand everything because of the universal language and signs

I think the love the two share is very powerful and pure - she wants to support him in any way
and understands what they want / what their path is

The boy learning how to understand everything is kind of inspiring, how we just need to really
take in signs and learn from what is around us to understand it- listen to the silence, listen to the
signs.

when you are in love, things make even more sense

Plunge into the Soul of the World

The boy reads the omens from the flight of the Hawks and warns the tribe to be ready for an
attack, and he was right and saves the tribe

He is approached by the alchemist who wants to help him achieve his Personal legend and
offers to lead him through the desert- and though the boy was hesitant at first, he decides to go
because he realises he will regret it if he does not

The begin their Journey, and the Alchemist helps the boy realized everything he already knows,
about being connected to the soul of the world and understanding the language of the universe

One of the most important things he learns is to listen to his heart, and he develops a
relationship and dialogue with his heart. They say that the heart always helps people, usually
children and older people because they want people to achieve their Personal LEgends, but as
people get older they don't listen to their heart so the heart gets quieter because it does not
want the people to suffer knowing they did not listen to their heart.

Lessons and important Quotes from the time in the Desert

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they dont
deserve them, or that theyll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just
thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but
werent, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands.
Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.

Happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert... Because a grain of sand is a
moment of creation, that the universe has taken millions of years to create it.
When you possess great treasure within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you
believed

Dont give into your fears - if you do you won't be able to talk to your heart

The boy and the alchemist come across a tribe that wants to kill them, but the alchemist says
that the boy can turn himself into the wind and if he can do so they will let him go.

This part of the book was very very beautiful, the way it showed the boy communicating with the
desert, the wind, the heavens, and the hand. The transition and development that took place in
those pages was astounding and very moving.

When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, theres no need at
all to understand whats happening, because everything happens within you, and even men can
turn themselves into the wind.

That theres no need for iron to be the same as copper, or copper the same as gold. Each
performs its own exact function as a unique being, and everything would be a symphony of
peace if the hand that wrote all this had stopped on the fifth day of creation.

But you dont know about love. If there hadnt been a sixth day, man would not exist; copper
would always be copper, and lead just lead. Its true that everything has its personal legend, but
one day that Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into
something better, and to acquire a new personal legend, until, someday, the soul of the world
comes one thing only.

The boy reached through the soul of the world, and saw that it was a part of the soul of God.
And he say that the soul of god was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles.

The boy goes on to see the Pyramids, he makes it there alone and weeps, and his heart told
him to find the treasure where he was moved to tears, but when he dug he found nothing. Later,
a group of men came and beat him up for his belongings and were close to killing him when the
boy told them he was there looking for treasure from his dream. Then one of the men said that
he had a dream like that once, that there was treasure under the Sycamore tree in an old
spanish church that shepard's laid in but he was not stupid enough to go across the world to be
let down. Then the boy knew why he had to go there, and now he knew where his treasure was.
He went back and found his treasure and will return to give money to the gypsy and go back to
Fatima

The fact that he learned so much to end up back where he started was poetic. He needed to go
on this journey to understand more about himself and the rest of the world.
Major Takes:

When people are full on pursuing their dreams, the universe conspires to help them
achieve it
Learn from the past and live in the present
Take signs from the Universe
Listen to your heart
Make the choice to see things in a positive way, not as the victim
Dont give into your fears
Pursue your dreams, your legend, with full force

Research:

The Alchemist pulls from several different disciplines to create this complex story.

History
1. Moorish Invasion
a. Morrish people created a collective personal legend by invading most parts of
Europe
b. Moorish eye represents their history and racial mixing
c. Suggests that once the personal legend is achieved, it will survived many
generations
2. Spanish Inquisition
a. Melchizedek represents the Great Spanish Inquisition
b. The boy forgetting his name represents the Jewish alienation in Spain due to the
inquisition
3. Pyramids
a. Used as a historical symbol to show that humans can create wonders in this
world
4. The different settings
a. The Moors who lived in Africa lived much more dangerous and adventurous lives
- shown in the book by the lifestyle transformation the boy goes through once he
gets to africa
Geography
1. Sahara desert
a. A representation of the hardest part of his journey
b. Provides a base for his self realization - learns from it
c. This author argues that when the alchemist reads the large sand dunes, he
knows the wind Simum is coming, and that he uses that knowledge to trick the
chief into thinking it is the boy when it occurs naturally - interesting

Philosophy
1. Existentialism - human existence is an investigation of the meaning of being
2. Making choices based on what is meaningful
3. Going against the Sartrean existential angst of being for others
4. Elemental force in all objects
5. Transcendentalism - intuition - demonstrated by the symbol of the Universal Language
6. Symbol of the Soul of the World -
7. Paradise - Platonic idealism - the idea that the reality around us is only a reflection of a
higher truth - evident in the novel
8. Neo-Platonic idea that evil is the absence of good
9. Symbol of Alchemy - Neo- Platonic idea of salvation - adding spirituality to matter

Theology
1. Melchizedek - a priest king in the old Testament ( christianity and Judaism)
2. The novel also shows similarities between the Gods and prophets of different religions to
show that religions are different ways to reach the same destination
3. Melchizedek is there to help people who are in search of their destiny and takes on
many forms to make that happen
4. This person suggests that Melchizedek is the alchemist as well
5. How he is like Abraham
6. How he is like Lord Krishna- who preaches the importance of action rather than result (
which the alchemist states there is only one way to learn, it's through action)
7. How he is like Buddha - who teaches that salvation is achieved by human effort apart
from divine help - ( Melchizedek says that the world's greatest lies is that at a certain
point in our lives, we lose control of what is happening to us, and our lives become
controlled by our fate)
8. How he is like Muhammad- found in the crystal merchant - declaring the existence of
one true God

Psychology
1. Analytical psychology
a. Listening to your heart - development of intuition
2. Individual Psychology
a. Man striving for superiority and power (baker vs shepard)- takes up journey
 3. Humanistic psychology
a. Hierarchy of needs - the boy passes all of these and achieves self actualization

Mythology
1. Narcissus - beginning of book - self love is good but not at the cost of missing an
opportunity in life - Father giving consent to follow dreams

https://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ojs/index.php/JLCMS/article/view/1074/1094

Muraleedharan, Manju. "Multi-Disiplinary Dimensions in Paulo Coelho's Novel, The

Alchemist." Open Journal Academic Systems. Open Journal Academic Systems.
Accessed 30 May 2017. Originally published in Open Journal Academic System.