5. THE
ALCHEMIST
Paulo Coelho
author
Novel
type of work
Fiction
genre
Portuguese
language
1988, Brazil
time and place written
1988
date of first publication
The original publisher was a
small Brazilian publishing
house; Rocco, another
Brazilian publishing company,
was the first large publisher to
print the book. Harper One is
the American Publisher.
publisher
8. As it happens in most of the cases; Paulo’s
parents had very different plans for their son’s
future. They wanted him to be an engineer and
tried to stifle his desires to devote himself to
literature. Their intransigence and his discovery of
Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer aroused Paulo’s
spirit of rebellion, and he began routinely to flout
the family rules routinely. His father took this
behavior as a sign of mental illness and, when Paulo
was seventeen, he twice had him admitted to a
psychiatric hospital, where Paulo underwent several
sessions of electroconvulsive therapy.
9. Shortly after this, Paulo became involved
with a theatre group and began working as a
journalist. In the eyes of the comfortably-off
middle class Christian family in Brazil of that time,
the theatre was a hotbed of lose immorality. His
frightened parents decided to break their promise
not to confine him again and had him readmitted
to hospital for the third time. When he came out,
Paulo was even more lost and more enclosed in his
own private world. In despair, the family called in
another doctor who told them: Paulo isn’t mad and
he shouldn’t be in a psychiatric hospital. He simply
has to learn how to face up to life.
10. After this period, Paulo returned to his
studies and it looked as if he was finally going to
follow the route his parents had prepared for him.
But unluckily for the parents, this period happened
to be in the sixties, and the hippie movement had
exploded onto the world scene. Paulo wore his hair
long and made a point of never carrying his identity
card; for a time, he took drugs, wanting to live
the hippie experience to the full. His passion for
writing drove him to start a magazine, of which
only two issues were ever published.
11. Around this time, the musician and composer, Raul
Seixas invited Paulo to write the words of his
songs. Their second record was a huge success and
sold more than 500,000 copies. This was the first
time Paulo had earned a large amount of money.
12. Around this time, the musician and composer, Raul
Seixas invited Paulo to write the words of his
songs. Their second record was a huge success and
sold more than 500,000 copies. This was the first
time Paulo had earned a large amount of money.
13. In the midst of the ‘70s Paulo decided that
he had had enough experience of ‘life’ and wanted
to be ‘normal’. He got a job at the record
company, PolyGram, where he met the woman who
would later become his wife. But this didn’t last
for a very long period of time. But, as we could
imagine, fix jobs were not for him.
14. In 1987 Paulo wrote his first book, The
Pilgrimage. He then wrote The Alchemist in 1988.
He is now a renowned book writer but he
also writes for various newspapers.
Paulo and his wife Christina now live in
between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in Tarbes,
France.
15.
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19. Contemporary Literature is a vast group of
written works produced from a specific time in
history through the current age. this literary
era defines a time period but is also describes a
particular style and quality of writing. Some
see it as an extension of postmodern
literature, but most refer to it as a literary
era of its own.
20. Most agree that the era of
contemporary writing began in the 1940's. A
few scholars claim this period started at the
end of world war II, and this is where the era's
pairing with postmodern literature comes in.
The postmodern era began after WWII, in the
1940's and lasted through 1960's. The
contemporary period extends to the current
day.
21.
22.
23. Typical characteristics of the contemporary
period include reality-based stories with strong
characters and believable stories. Settings usually keep
to the current or modern era, so futuristic and
science fiction novels are rarely included in this
category. Well-defined realistic, and highly developed
characters are important in classifying a written work
as contemporary, and most writing in this category
features stories that are more character driven than
plot driven.
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25. While sleeping near a sycamore tree in the sacristy of
an abandoned church, Santiago, a shepherd boy, has a recurring
dream about a child who tells him that he will find a hidden
treasure if he travels to the Egyptian pyramids. An old
woman tells Santiago that this dream is prophetic and that
he must follow its instructions. Santiago is uncertain,
however, since he enjoys the life of a shepherd.
Next Santiago meets a mysterious old man who seems
able to read his mind. This man introduces himself as
Melchizedek, or the King of Salem. He tells Santiago about
good and bad omens and says that it is the shepherd boy's
duty to pursue his Personal Legend. Melchizedek then gives
Santiago two stones, Urim and Thummim, with which to
interpret omens.
26. Santiago wavers briefly before selling his flock and
purchasing a ticket to Tangier, in northern Africa, to which he
travels by boat. Shortly after he arrives there, a thief steals
all of Santiago's money, so the shepherd boy decides to look
for a way to make enough money to return home. He finds
work in the shop of a crystal merchant, where Santiago makes
improvements that reap considerable financial rewards.
After eleven months of working in the shop, Santiago
is unsure of how to proceed. Should he return to Andalusia a
rich man and buy more sheep? Or should he cross the vast
Sahara in pursuit of the hidden treasure of his dreams? He
joins a caravan traveling to Egypt.
27. Santiago meets an Englishman who wants to learn the
secret of alchemy, or turning any metal into gold, from a
famous alchemist who lives at an oasis on the way to the
pyramids. While traveling, Santiago begins listening to the
desert and discovering the Soul of the World. The caravan
eventually reaches the oasis, and there Santiago meets an
Arab girl named Fatima and falls in love with her instantly.
The caravan leader gathers the travelers together and tells
them that tribal warfare prevents them from continuing their
journey.
Santiago wanders from the oasis into the desert and,
seeing two hawks fighting in the sky, has a vision of an army
entering the oasis.
28. Because attacking an oasis is a violation of the rules
of the desert, Santiago shares his vision with the oasis's tribal
chieftain. Soon afterward, Santiago is confronted by a black-
garbed, veiled stranger with a sword, who sits atop a white
horse. It is the alchemist. The tribal chieftain arms his men,
and they are well-prepared when the oasis is indeed invaded.
The alchemist offers to cross the desert with Santiago.
Soon the two men enter into an area of intense
tribal warfare. Warriors hold the two men captive, but
eventually allow them to continue their journey.
29. The alchemist tells Santiago that he needs to return
to the oasis, and that the rest of the trip is Santiago's to
make alone so that he can claim his Personal Legend.
Santiago arrives at the Egyptian pyramids and begins
to dig. He finds nothing buried in the ground. Thieves beat
Santiago and rob him of his money. After he tells them of his
dream, though, one of the thieves recounts his own dream
about a buried treasure in the sacristy of an abandoned
church.
Returning to Andalusia, Santiago goes back to the
church where he dreamed of the treasure near the pyramids.
He digs where he slept, beneath a sycamore tree, and there it
is: Santiago's treasure.
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60. The main plot of the alchemist takes
place in the Spanish pastures, the
Spanish town of Tarifa, the city of
Tangier in North Africa, and the
Sahara desert.
61. The Alchemist is set in an indistinct
time in the past. It is clearly a pre-
modern time, before automobiles and
most modern technology existed.
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69. The major conflict of the book is
Santiago’s personal tension between
completing his Personal Legend to
travel all the way to Egypt to find a
treasure at the pyramids and settling
along the way for the treasures he
has already earned.
83. Santiago’s sheep
symbolize the sort of
existence lived by those
who are completely blind
to their Personal Legends.
Santiago loves his sheep,
but he also expresses
thinly veiled disrespect for
them because of their
animal desires for mere
food and water. Santiago
discovers during his
travels.
84. Also, in a disturbing image,
he imagines that his sheep
are so blindly trusting that
he could kill them one by
one without them noticing.
These sheep symbolize the
characters in the book like
the baker and the crystal
merchant who do not pursue
their Personal Legends. Like
the sheep, these characters
content themselves with
their material desires and
social acceptance.
85. Accordingly, they lose the
ability to appreciate
certain aspects of
creation, and tend to
miss out on many
opportunities because of
their limited perspectives.
86. Alchemy, in which a base
metal is transformed into a
more valuable metal like
gold, functions as the
dominant symbol in The
Alchemist and represents
Santiago’s journey to
achieve his Personal Legend.
The symbol also gives the
novel its title. The
Alchemist describes the
process of turning base
metal to gold as equivalent
to the base metal realizing
its Personal Legend.
87. The desert, with its harsh
conditions and tribal wars,
symbolizes the serious
difficulties that await
anyone in pursuit of their
Personal Legend, but it
also serves as an
important teacher to
Santiago during his
journey to the pyramids.
As the alchemist puts it,
tests are an inherent part
of all Personal Legends,
because they are necessary
to create spiritual
growth. More than the
desert heat, the desert’s
88. silence, emptiness, and
monotony test Santiago. As
Santiago learns, however, even
the desert, despite appearing
barren, contains life and the
Soul of the World. Santiago
begins to understand his
environment, and to see the
signs of life in what seems to
be a wasteland. Eventually he
learns to recognize all of
creation in a single grain of
sand, and in the greatest test
he faces during the book, he
finds he is able to enlist the
desert in his effort to become
the wind.
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98. …whoever you are, or whatever it is
that you do, when you really want
something, it's because that desire
originated in the soul of the universe.
It's your mission on earth."
99.
100. “My heart is afraid that it will have to
suffer,” the boy confides to the alchemist
one night as they look up at a moonless
night. “Tell your heart that the fear of
suffering is worse than the suffering
itself” said the alchemist. – (Alchemist)
101. The message of the book is that, each one of us
has a dream given to us by God and He gives us
clues times again and again so that we recognize
those clues ( ‘omens’ as he calls them) and
follow these dreams with great zeal.
The purpose of our lives is to discover our
destinies and follow them. No matter how hard
the challenges that will come on our way, we
should never give up. Just follow our heart,
follow our desire.
