The Alchemest by Paulo Coelho (2nd Post)

Santiago, quiet and considerate, is the main character of this novel, in my opinion he is very unique. He is traveling through the Middle East, to the pyramids of Egypt in search of his treasure. In the beginning I see Santiago as a carefree sprit who’s only care in the world is to travel, and he uses his sheep for that purpose. Yet, when he meets the king, who tells him to go find his treasure he sees in his dreams, he is filled with the hope he could do such a thing. But then he worries about his flock cause they can't the barren dessert that holds of little water or grazing spots, he sells his sheep to a good shepherd he knows well knowing his sheep with be happy and safe with him. "If I become a monster today, and decided to kill them [the sheep], one by one, they would become aware only after most of the flock had been slaughtered, thought the boy. They trust me, and they've forgotten how to rely on their instincts, because I lead them to nourishment." (Coelho, 7) This shows me that he is compassionate, which will help him later on.

After traveling he finds himself in an Arabic town, where he needs to find someone to take him across the dessert. Yet he doesn’t speak Arabic or know their customs, making this stop in his journey hard for him. "How strange Africa is, thought the boy. He was sitting in a bar very much like the other bars he seen along the narrow streets of Tangier. Some men were smoking from a giant that they passed from one to the other. In just few hours he had seen men walk hand in hand, women with their faces covered, and priests that climbed to the tops of towers and chanted... The boy felt ill and terribly alone. The infidels had a look of evil about them." (Coelho, 34) So in this strange land, as he described it, he went to learn the customs and the speech. So he could communicate and feel welcomed by others. After he felt he was ready to move on he left. The way he taught himself to live here in this town shows the trait that he is independent in his learning.

He leaves and continues on his journey to his treasure but has run out of coin. He comes across a old man in a glass shop, Santiago offers to clean the glass for a meal that night. He ends up staying just over a year working for the old man, cleaning the glass every day and help customers. He saves up money to go continue his traveling, but he lies to the man saying he is going get a new flock and continue with his life he had before. Yet man sees thru him, and the boy feels ashamed for lying. Yet his time cleaning the glass taught him a new lesson. "The old man continued, "You have been a real blessing to me. Today I understand something I didn't see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don't want anything else in my life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don't want to do."" (Coelho, 58) He learned that he has an effect on other people, and he feels bad for the man and apologizes yet the man just laughs, for the boy is foolish to think that it's a bad thing to have horizons and goals to meet. Santiago has an effect on other people he hasn’t realized until now.

Soon he joins a caravan that will take him across the dessert. He accompanies an Englishman, during the long journey across the sands on camel back. He enjoys learning from the world around him and the people on the moving caravan. Yet the Englishman disagrees and says books are better, they both have different ways of learning that they both accept. "When people saw that star shining in the morning sky, they knew they were on the right course toward water, palm trees, shelter, and other people. It was only the Englishman who was unaware of all this; he was, for the most part, immersed in reading his books. The boy, too, had his book, and he had tried to read it during the first few days of the journey. But he found it much more interesting to observe the caravan and listen to wind." (Coelho, 74) He continues to learn and process on his own to understand the world around him, accepting that different people live and learn in different ways. He will most likely use this information to help him in the future.

 

 

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