“My heart is a traitor.” (Coelho 123). This is what the main character said after listening to his heart. In the novel, ‘The Alchemist’, a young shepherd boy named Santiago leaves his hometown, Andalusia, in Spain and goes on a search for his treasure. After dreaming about the Pyramids, he starts to doubt about his dream and gets aids from the gypsy and king of Salem. Dealing with many individuals and overcoming many threats and jeopardizes, Santiago understands the Soul of the world. He also learns how to listen to his heart and finds his true love on the way. Eventually, Santiago achieves his true destiny with bravery, patience and curiosity.
During and before his journey, Santiago shows bravery as he deals with conflicts with others and worries inside himself. First of all, the fact that Santiago went on the journey to find his destiny shows his character. After dreaming about the Pyramids, Santiago doubts that the dream is somehow related to him. And, after meeting Melchizadek, the king of Salem, Santiago knows that the treasure is his destiny and goes on a journey to find it. Without this bravery, it would have been unable for him to even start his journey. Also, he possesses bravery at the chieftains and in front of the Alchemist. He watches the flight of the hawks and assumes that they are omens from the desert. Santiago goes directly to the chieftains of the oasis to tell them what he saw. It could be very risky thing to do because he could be misunderstood as a spy telling a lie about the omens. This is because the oasis is a neutral area. And, after telling the chieftains about the hawks, Santiago meets the Alchemist, who appears with thundering sounds, in order to test his courage. The Alchemist asks who dares to read the omens from the desert. Santiago, instead of telling it was someone else says, “It is I who dared to do so.”(pg.101). He was able to prove himself to the chieftains and the Alchemist. This also enables him to show himself to the alchemist and make him join his journey. Finally, Santiago travels to the Pyramids when wars were still going on. The two of them were unarmed and vulnerable. However, Santiago had his bravery and was able to go on. If he was afraid and stayed back at the oasis, he would have to wait until the wars were over. Or, even worse, he could have been caught in the middle of a desert for several years. Bravery worked as the most important and essential part of his journey with his second biggest character, patience.
As Santiago goes on the journey, he exposes patience in many ways. Specifically, patience is showed at the crystal shop. Santiago got all his money stolen by a thief. However, without being frustrated, he starts to work at a crystal shop. At first, he could have thought that he had made a wrong choice. However, he worked silently at the crystal shop for 11 months in order to buy a new flock of sheep. That’s almost for a year. It took a lot of patience for Santiago. It didn’t help him to actually buy a new flock of sheep, but enables him to start the journey again and provide him with confidence. Also, he was able to follow the Alchemist to the Pyramids quietly. The two traveled without talking much. It is very hard to go many days with no speaking. However, Santiago quietly traveled to the Pyramids without complaining. This shows that Santiago had a lot of patience during his journey. Patience in this particular part lets him listen to his heart instead of complaining all day. Patiently following his destiny is also related with listening to heart. Santiago says, “My heart is a traitor. It doesn’t want me to go on.”(pg.123) which could seem like he is acting impatiently. However, he could have just ignored his heart. Instead of doing that, he kept listening to his heart, and he was able to learn some valuable things from it. For example, he learned how to see the changes his heart makes. Like this, Santiago shows patience during his whole journey. The next character may be a little bit apart from patience. Curiosity.
The third character, curiosity also plays a vital role in Santiago’s journey. Curiosity is generally related with learning things and understanding the Soul of the world. The first part can be seen at the crystal merchant’s shop. Santiago makes many relationships with crystal merchant. Especially, he is curious about the crystal merchant’s life and learns many things from him. The crystal merchant, unlike Santiago, doesn’t like change and wants to stay how he is now. That made him stuck in the crystal shop for 30 years. However, Santiago wanted some change and bravely went on his journey. This shows that the two’s character is very different and helps Santiago learn from people who are completely different from him. Also, when the two were talking about the statement ‘Maktub’, Santiago was curious about the meaning. However, instead of just understanding it as “It is written.” Santiago tries to know more about it by asking more questions about it to other people. Throughout the journey, Santiago encounters many individuals knowing Maktub. This enables Santiago to raise his curiosity at Maktub. During the way to the oasis, Santiago meets the Englishman at the caravan. The two has a completely different point of view. The Englishman thinks that knowledge is gained by books. In contrast, Santiago thinks that knowledge and wisdom is earned by real life. Then, Santiago becomes curious about the Philosopher’s stone and the Elixir of life. Alchemy wasn’t his destiny and it had nothing to do with him. However he tries to learn from the Englishman’s books and shows great interest and curiosity in them. This gives him a little more step to understanding the Soul of the world. The part where Santiago’s curiosity reaches its zenith is when he is talking to his heart. Many questions are asked and answered between Santiago and his heart. Especially, the part where Santiago asks, “Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams?” he is most curious about the relationship with his heart. Santiago learns many things by his curiosity which are valuable. Overall, Santiago shows curiosity in almost everything new he meets and tries to learn something from it.
At the end of the story, Santiago ends up at the Pyramids and realizes that his treasure is in Andalusia, Spain, not at the Pyramids. When he went back to the old church under the sycamore tree where he started his journey, he was able to find the treasure. Throughout his journey bravery, patience and curiosity is combined to help Santiago. He possesses bravery whenever he encounters danger. He also shows patience and curiosity when he was learning what he didn’t know. Also, he knows that his treasure is also Fatima, his true love. Overall, the author shows that your treasure can be near you.
Reflection : My journey
The room of Van Gogh - Vincent Van Gogh
My life has been always capricious starting from my first move. At the age of 4, I had to move to Malaysia. Since then, I have always moved around in nearly 3~4 years. Those experiences developed my pesonalities rather finicky. Also, my father was a little finicky, too. Therefore, I was effected by my father, also. However, I think acting finicky is not only bad. Finicky people tend perfect work and don't like many things started and not finished. Like that, I always try my best at least in my view, to make my work perfect. The finickiness does have some disadvantages, like people being reluctant to go near you. , but it was worth it. I feel really good when I am looking at my work when I'm done. As for me now, the finicky personality of mine is a good factor which makes my work better. Also, when I am grown up, I will bring me up whenever I need to do a project.
Piccasso : Dreams
