A Journey Through Life: The Alchemist
I want to be a famous actress, with two children, and five houses in five different countries. Everyone has goals. Whether they involve career, relationships, or self-actualization, goals are important to the development of an individual. When we are children we tend to set our goals high and expect them to be attained early in our lives. This idealism, however, quickly fades as we either set more easily attainable goals for ourselves or simply lose these idealistic goals altogether. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coehlo is about not letting these goals go so soon. The King of Salem tells Santiago that when we are children we have these goals because they are our Personal Legend. However, as we age, time causes us to forget our Personal Legend. Throughout his journey towards achieving his Personal Legend, Santiago struggles to discover precisely what his Personal Legend is: is it treasure, love, or simply the journey itself? As a shepherd, Santiago lives out what he perceives to be his purpose in life. He comes from a home where people have no unique goals for themselves; their only purpose is to survive. His parents "worked hard just to have food and water, like the sheep"(10) that Santiago cares for. In this way, sheep are u
In summary, whereas Santiago gains treasure, love and the experience of a lifetime, he finally realizes that his Personal Legend is actually the self-actualization he gains through the obtainment of all these things. Through this self-actualization, Santiago learns about the Soul of the World. In turn, with this knowledge comes the realization that discovery of one's Personal Legend is not the end of the road, "it's 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 becomes one thing only"(151). In this way, alchemy itself is a metaphor for Personal Legend. As alchemists strive to achieve perfection (gold and eternal life) from a simple substance, a person who is discovering their Personal Legend is striving towards perfection in their own life. se as a metaphor for the human condition. Yet, Santiago is not satisfied with the life of a sheep; he desires to know the world, learn of it's people, and travel. The best means of fulfilling these desires is to become a shepherd. Only after dreaming of distant treasure does Santiago realize that he too is limited within his purpose in life. The boy does not primarily desire physical riches, however he begins his quest expecting to find a concrete yet elusive form of treasure buried in Egypt. As this treasure gives his dream a literal meaning, it gives his dream of travel a more significant meaning as well. Discovering the world and this treasure is more than Santiago's purpose in life; it is his Personal Legend. He is tempted by the prospect of becoming rich and being able to travel the world, as opposed to merely herding sheep in the Andalusian coun
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Approximate Word count = 1207
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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