First published more than 27 years ago, “The Alchemist” is an inspirational fable by a Brazilian author Paulo Coelho about self-discovery and following your dreams. It is an allegorical novel which excites, inspires and encourages you to follow your dreams by a story of a young shepherd who has a dream and the courage to follow it.
The novel tells the tale of a young Spanish Shepherd boy named Santiago who has recurring dream about a treasure lying underneath the Egyptian Pyramids. His parents want him to be a priest but instead he takes a journey searching for the buried treasure. Believing that finding the treasure is his ‘destiny’ he leaves the comfort of home and travels into the African desert towards the Egyptian pyramids to find it. When he tells his father about his decision, his father tells him “Travel the world until you see that our castle is the greatest and our women the most beautiful”, but in his journey he sees the greatness of the world, meets many exciting people like kings and alchemists. However, by the end of the novel he realizes that the real treasure was the journey itself and the wisdom and experience he acquired during the journey.
His journey starts with his decision to travel to a nearby village to meet a fortune-teller who could interpret the meaning of his recurring dream. She tells him to go to the pyramids of Egypt to find the treasure of his dream, it is destined for him. He doesn’t believe her and thought that her words are utter nonsense and returns back to the village where he meets an old king, Melchizedek, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt and also tells him that “when you really want something to happen, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”, which is the core theme of the novel. He also introduces the idea of a Personal Legend. A personal legend is something you have always wanted to accomplish. Santiago always wanted to travel, whether as a tourist or as a shepherd. He embraces Shepherding in order to travel, to achieve part of his personal legend.
Santiago embarks on a journey to cross the Sahara desert and crosses the Strait of Gibraltar and reaches Tangier, where he is robbed of all his money he earned by selling away his flock of sheep. He works hard again and earns back enough money to join a caravan across the desert. Along the way, he meets an Englishman who has come in search of An Alchemist. They travel together through the Sahara desert and meanwhile his journey; he learns more about himself and the world and overcomes incredible challenges. During his journey, he falls in love with Fatima, a beautiful Arabian woman he meets at a desert well. He asks Fatima to marry him but her reply leaves him dumbfounded. She says she will only marry him after he finds his treasure. He is baffled by her answer but later he realizes that true love will not stop one’s personal legend and if it does, it is not true love.
Santiago then finally meets the alchemist who helps him recognize the signs, the ‘omens’ around him, and teaches about Personal Legends. He says that people want to find only treasure of their personal legend but no one wants to find the personal legend itself. The alchemist also states “Those who understand that their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings”.
Ultimately Santiago reaches the Pyramids and starts digging at the spot where the treasure was supposed to be according to his dream. Eventually it was revealed that the treasure is not there underneath the Pyramids but it is buried there from where he started his journey. At the end of the story he realizes that the real treasure was the journey itself and the wisdom and experience he acquired during the journey.
“The Alchemist” is a very exceptional philosophical fable that reflects our own lives. We have similar dreams like the protagonist of the story, Santiago. If you have read this book, then you will know just how insightful and inspirational the story of a simple shepherd boy who decides to follow his dream can be. If you have not, I recommend it to you.
There are many lessons we learn from The Alchemist but basically the story is all about the experience of attaining the wisdom of life through a sort of personal journey, discovering-yourself and paying attention to signs and omens along the way and it gives a very inspirational message that always keep following your dreams no matter what price you have to pay in return.
Tongue in Cheek 