Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist

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The Alchemist, a novel by Paulo Coelho, begins with a boy in search for more than the life of a priest. Literally, following his dreams, Santiago seeks out the Egyptian pyramids with the help of both people and omens. While on his journey to fulfill his personal legend, he meets many obstacles both physically and mentally. At the moment, these situations seem to be a setback but eventually we realize that it teaches the boy many things about life such as listening with his heart. Paulo Coelho teaches us, the readers, that it is in an instant in which our lives can change in an unprecedented manner, which is the theme and overall message of this book. Coelho implements such instances throughout the book. Examples include the story of the miner, meeting…show more content…
He gave everything up to pursue his personal legend, but years had passed and the miner could not find what he was looking for, an emerald. After examining hundreds and thousands of stones, he was still unsuccessful, but because his drive and willingness to give everything up to follow his dream was so great, the king of Salem was able to interfere. Transforming himself into a stone, the king of Salem rolled up to the miner. With all his anger unleashed, the miner picks up the stone and threw it “but he had thrown it with much force that it broke the stone that it fell upon, and there, embedded in the broken stone, was the most beautiful emerald in the world (24).” This shows how in one moment the miner had nothing, but in the next, he had found something that he was searching so longingly for. In our lives, like the miner’s, there can be at a point where we just want to give up and quit. In this moment, we mustn’t let our fears overtake our goals and ambition because our salvation can be right around the corner. We can never expect or predict what is to

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