The Alchemist (novel)
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The Alchemist is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho which was first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it has been translated into at least 69 languages as of December 2016. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.
Plot
The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, he decides to travel to a Romani fortune-teller in a nearby town to discover its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that there is a treasure in the pyramids in Egypt.
Early into his journey, he meets an old king, whose name was Melchizedek or the king of Salem, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt and introduces the idea of a Personal Legend. Your Personal Legend "is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is." He adds that "when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core theme of the book.
Along the way, the boy meets an Englishman who has come in search of an Alchemist and continues his travels with him. They travel through the Sahara desert and during his journey, Santiago meets and falls in love with a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima, who resides with her clan near an oasis. He asks Fatima to marry him, but she says she will only marry him after he completes his journey and finds his treasures. He is perplexed by this, but later learns that true love will not stop nor plead to sacrifice one's Personal Legend, and if it does, it is not true love.
The boy then encounters an alchemist who also teaches him about Personal Legends. He says that people want to find only the treasure of their Personal Legends but not the Personal Legend itself. The boy feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states, "Those who don't understand their Personal Legends will fail to comprehend their teachings". It is also stated that treasure is more worthy than gold. The main theme recurs all through the novel, "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."
Characters
Santiago or 'The boy'
The boy is the protagonist of The Alchemist. Born in a small town in Andalusia, he attends the seminary as a boy but wants to travel the world. He finally gets the courage to ask his father for permission to become a shepherd so that he can travel the fields of Andalusia. One night, in an abandoned church, he dreams of a child telling him that if he goes to the Egyptian Pyramids, he will find a treasure. Later, he meets a mysterious man in the town of Tarifa, who sends him on a journey to the other side of Africa.
The boy's open mind makes him particularly suited to finding his Personal Legend. He also values his freedom very highly, which is why he becomes a shepherd and why he resists involvement in things that threaten his freedom. In the end, he realizes that playing it safe is often more threatening to his freedom than taking a risk.
Melchizedek
Melchizedek is the king of Salem, a mysterious, far-off land. Melchizedek appears to Santiago in the town square of Tarifa, where he tells Santiago about the Soul of the World and his Personal Legend for the first time. Melchizedek always appears to people who are trying to live their Personal Legend, even if they don't know it. While he appears at first to be dressed in common Arab dress, at one point he pulls aside his cloak to reveal a gold breastplate encrusted with precious stones. He also gives Santiago the magical stones Urim and Thummim.
The crystal merchant
He gives the boy a job in Tangiers after he has been robbed. The boy takes the job at the crystal shop and learns much about the shopkeeper's attitude toward life and the importance of dreaming. The shopkeeper, while generally afraid to take risks, is a very kind man and understands the boy's quest — sometimes better than the boy himself. This is the case when the shopkeeper tells the boy that he will not return to Spain, since it is not his fate.
The Englishman
The boy meets the Englishman on the caravan to al-Fayoum. The Englishman is trying to become a great alchemist and is traveling to al-Fayoum to study with a famous alchemist who is rumored to be over 200 years old and to have the ability to turn any metal into gold. The boy learns much about alchemy from the Englishman, who lends his books while they travel across the Sahara.
Fatima
A beautiful girl who lives at the al-Fayoum oasis. The boy falls in love with her at the well, and they talk every day for several weeks. He asks Fatima to marry him, but she insists that he seek out his Personal Legend before they marry. This perplexes him, but the Alchemist teaches him that true love never gets in the way of fulfilling one's dreams. If it does, then it is not true love.
The Alchemist
A very powerful alchemist who lives at the al-Fayoum oasis in Egypt. The boy hears about him through the Englishman, who wishes to study with the Alchemist, but the boy is revealed to be the Alchemist's true disciple. The Alchemist dresses in all black and uses a falcon to hunt for game. The Alchemist is also in possession of the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone.
The Coptic Monk
The boy and the alchemist stop at a Coptic monastery, and the monk invites them in. The Alchemist produces gold from a pan of lead the monk provides, and separates the disk into four parts, giving two to the monk, with instructions to give the boy one piece if he ever needs it, one to himself, and one to the boy. The monk tries to refuse the offering, but the alchemist tells him that "life may be listening, and give [you] less the next time." Afterward, when the boy crawls back beaten and elated from the Pyramids, the monk gives him the other part of the gold disk and helps him recover.
The Romani (Gypsy) Woman
She doesn't know about the Pyramids of Egypt. She states "I have never heard of them, but if it was a child who showed them to you they exist." At first sight, she looked crazy, suspicious, and dangerous to the boy. She was promised one tenth of the boy's treasure if he ever found it.
