“Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World and it will one day return there.” (Paulo Coelho) In The Alchemist, a young shepherd boy Santiago from Spain gives up all his money and sheep to travel and fulfill his destiny. He leaves his hometown Andalusia in Spain and travels to Egypt for his treasure under the pyramid that he had dreamt of. During his journey, he meets the crystal merchant, Englishman, Fatima, and most importantly the Alchemist. After all his effort, he finds his treasure. Santiago’s significantly adventurous, perseverant and courageous qualities helped him stay true to his heart and achieve his destiny.
Santiago had his adventurous nature even when he was a little boy. In the beginning of the book, Santiago gives up being a priest because he wanted to travel and see marvels of the world. He finds his adventurous nature blooming when he was young He told his parents that he would rather be a shepherd that can travel then a priest even he knew that his parents wanted him to be a priest. By doing this, he started his fateful adventure of his life. When Santiago met the old king at the plaza, he hears about doing what people really want to do and fulfilling their destiny. When Santiago hears about this, his longing for adventure started whispering to him. Santiago decided to start his adventure for his destiny without that much of hesitation. In the beginning of his journey, he losses his money and works for a crystal merchant to go back to his hometown. During that period, he listens to merchant’s unachieved destiny and negative consequence. After years of labor, he now has enough money to go back and restart his life as a shepherd. Before he leaves, he discuss about his journey for his destiny with the crystal merchant. When Santiago leaves the merchant, the merchant says “You brought a new feeling into my crystal shop. But you know that I’m not going to go to Mecca. Just as you know that you’re not going to buy your sheep” (p58) Santiago is startled and realizes that his wanting for adventure is visible. He realizes that he is meant for traveling. Santiago’s adventurous got him jump into his journey for his destiny. But, his adventurous quality alone can’t help him finish his journey. Perseverance is needed for him not to give up his journey because of simple hardships.
Santiago’s perseverant quality helped him push on during his difficult journey for destiny. Most importantly the old king Melchizedek that Santiago had met talks about a miner who spent all his life searching for emerald without giving up. He was rewarded for his perseverance. Then the old king says “People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being. Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.”(p23) Santiago listens to the old king and decides never to give up on his journey no matter what happens to him. When he first leaves his hometown and arrives at Africa, he meets a thief and losses all his money. When he was desperate in a foreign country where there was no one to help him, he didn’t decide to sit down and start his life as a beggar. Instead, he helped a crystal merchant who helped him and let him work at his crystal shop. He could earn money and return to his fateful journey. After he meets his mentor Alchemist, he gets caught by tribesmen. When they say that Santiago has to turn him self into wind, he didn’t despair or give up because he thought it was impossible. He looked for best solutions and started talking to the desert. With this effort, he could be rescued from his hopeless situation. His perseverance is important to his journey. Yet, he has to find his courage which helps him face his challenges.
When Santiago heard that people should follow his destiny, his courageous characteristic has helped him. His courage made his decision easier and copes with difficulties. He knew all the negative consequences, but his courage made him push forward. At the oasis, he talks the chieftains about the omen he saw at the desert. After informing the chieftains, he walks to his tent. On the way to his tent, he encounters with an alchemist who took his sword out of his scabbard and threatened Santiago. There, his courage played an important role. He could prove the Alchemist that he wasn’t a useless coward. If Alchemist thought that Santiago was a coward, he might have not chose to travel with him. With his courage, he could get a great mentor ship for his destiny. While they were traveling, they got caught by bunch of tribesman. He had to talk to the desert and turn himself into wind. When Santiago was scared and unfocused, the Alchemist said “Don’t give into your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.” (p135) There, Santiago learns that the most important thing about talking to his heart is his courage. After he departs with the Alchemist, he goes the pyramid by himself and gets beaten up by refugees. After he almost gets beaten up to death, he finds out where his treasure is. There, he didn’t give up his journey because he thought there would be something horrible waiting for him during the remains of his journey. He bravely kept traveling until the last minute. If it was not for his courage, his journey would have failed due to lack of mentor ship and death during his quest to turn himself into the wind.
In the end of Santiago’s journey, he finds out that his treasure was buried at the place where he started his journey. He goes back to the church in his hometown. There, he digs up his reward for determining to follow his destiny. But, he soon realizes that the true treasure was his experiences, knowledge, wisdom and love that he gained through his journey. Courage, perseverance and wanting for adventure served as a great benefit for Santiago. His adventurous nature got him into being a shepherd. His perseverance and courage made him face the troubles he met and keep on going. Coelho is saying that if you can achieve your destiny, you will be able to discover the reason of your life. In the book, Santiago goes through all the hardships in his life and finds his treasure. After he invests his time and effort and overcomes all the hardships, he’s finally rewarded with his true treasure. This is like our life where people have to cope with troubles and achieve their own goal or so-called destiny. When people can push on their life like Santiago has, they will find their own treasure of life.
During lifetime, people see troubles get in their way. Some people give up their lifelong journey. Only people with perseverance can deal with troubles. So far in my life, I've faced troubles too. If i hadn't any perseverance, I wouldn't have been able to come so far. In the book Alchemist, the main character Santiago could achieve his destiny because of his perseverance. He never gave up when he found obstacles on his way. Like him, I could deal with problems and hardships with my perseverance. It helped me not to give up something just because it was hard and took a lot of time. Perseverance allowed me to withstand my laziness and keep push on my tasks. Every time when I received tasks, homework, obstacles and etc, i didn't give up. The important trait that helped me do this was perseverance. When the task was tiring and there was no progress perseverance made me think ' I'll work on it just another minute'. Most of the time, it improved my work dramatically. But sometimes, my perseverance made me waste time on something useless. When i had some unimportant tasks to do, i stayed on that tasks even though i knew that it was effortless. But, Coelho, the author of The Alchemist says in his book that you are actually gaining more experience than wasting your time. The important thing is what you've gained through your life
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