The Alchemist

Know the writer:

Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today, the recipient of numerous prestigious international awards. Paulo Coelho is a storyteller with the power to inspire nations and to change people’s lives. 

Summary:

Once there was an Andalusian shepherd who was very friendly with his sheeps, named Santiago.  He had a repeating dream, in which he goes in an adventure and finds treasure in the Egyptian Pyramids. Being fascinated by his recurring dream, he wants to achieve the treasure in order to be rich and marry the Merchant’s daughter. He then goes to a gypsy so as to interpret the dream for him. The gypsy after interpreting the dream suggests Santiago to go to Egypt and unleash the secret there.

Later he meets an old man named Melchizedek, who was the King of Salem, who provides a lot of courage and self-confidence by encouraging him to follow his destiny. He then urges Santiago to sell his sheep to him so that the old man would provide information to him. The old man however didn’t inform Santiago about the treasure, but suggested him to follow the Omen and handed him two stones, Urim and Thummim which would provide the answer when he could not read his omens. Then he sets for his journey.

When he arrive Tangier, he gets robbed due to which he gets startled and helpless. He spends the night there and the following day, he finds a local crystal merchant’s shop where works for almost a year and increases the business of the merchant.  Santiago almost forgets his aims but later he remembers it and then decides to move on.

He then joins the caravan crossing the Sahara desert to head Egypt, where he meets an Englishman who was studying to become an Alchemist. He learns many secrets, techniques and lessons from the Englishman. He later falls in love with Fatima, who lived in the oasis where the caravan had stopped due to the war. Santiago proposes Fatima to marry him, but she tells that she would marry him only after finding his treasure.

Santiago then meets an alchemist who guides Santiago to the pyramids and shares him his wisdom about the Soul of the World. In the last few days left to reach Egypt, the alchemist and Santiago get caught by a tribal group but they get set free due to the ingenuity of the alchemist. Then the alchemist gives Santiago the gold i.e. the Philosopher’s Stone that would lead him to the pyramid.

Santiago finally reaches the pyramid and starts digging there but does not find the treasure.  While digging two men see him and beats him for digging. After listening to the dream of Santiago, one of the two men says that the treasure might be the one buried under the abandoned church in Spain. He again starts his journey back to Spain where he ultimately finds the treasure and then plans for his re-union with Fatima……

My views:

“The Alchemist” is a magical story which teaches us and encourages us about the necessity of wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’ s path and above all following our dreams.  The main knowledge what we can gain from this novel is that, it’s not about our journey or our destiny but what really matters is the thing that we learn during the journey and many new ideas that we achieve on our way.  This novel ideally concentrates on the ups and downs that come across our lives when we want to achieve our goals in life. I was really interested to know about the adventure of the shepherd Santiago and his destiny. It is a self-help novel, i.e. it suggests one on living for our dream and encourages people to follow their dream. The thing that I learnt from this novel is that when we really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that our wish comes true.