Again you have three blogs due over the next two weeks:
1.) How is The Alchemist a hero journey?
2.) React to a review on mouthshut.com
http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-925035707.html
3.) Comment upon Coelho's blog
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/
All of the outside postings should be pasted into our blog in order for you to receive credit.
Let me know if you have any questions...
44 comments:
The Alchemist is pretty much the definition of a Hero Journey. However I would like to disagree with something said in the hero’s journey handout. “The journey is a process of separation, transformation, and return. The stages tend to be cumulative: each must be completed successfully is we are to become heroic.” I think that even beginning a journey is heroic. The boy in the story pretty much had the life, his sheep respected him and the familiar towns did as well. Because of a dream, because of a silly profit and a king the boy left it all behind. This takes so much strength and charisma. Throughout the book the boy had many chances to pull back and go and maybe many signs that he should have but he didn’t. The sincere desire to fulfill a dream was, to me, what made the boy heroic. Our narrator separated himself and transformed and then also returned. So this does mean that he’s a hero but even before the end of the book we realize that he’s heroic just because he was able to leave so much and get through so much. Its not really what the outcome is that makes the boy heroic but rather the obstacles and people he conquered that make him heroic. The boy is heroic and makes the book heroic because of the things he learned and the challenges he faced. He learned about himself and he learned about the things around him. The boy went beyond his senses and grasped something that only patience that give. The boy is heroic and makes this book a heroic journey because he had so many chances to turn back, but he didn’t. No matter the obstacle he took it as a learning experience and moved on. He was determined to meet his personal legend and nothing was going to be too big to keep him from it. This sole fact makes the boy a hero. “ There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” If we fear what is unknown, if we fear life itself we will become our own nightmare, innately going underground. The boy could have burred himself deeper in his cave but he crept out to find a bigger meaning in life.
NUMBER 3
I posted a response to this question of Coelho's blog: "Do you have a goal? What is it?"
I am a newcomer to the world of Paulo Coelho (currently I'm reading The Alchemist in my twelfth grade English class) but from what I've gathered so far, Paulo's main message seems to be one of people seizing control of their destiny, finding and following their "Personal Legend," and avoiding a stagnant, meaningless existence. I'm guessing, because most people on this blog are avid fans of Paulo, that their life goals are quite similar to his in this sense.
Personally, while I believe that finding your destiny is an admirable goal, I think that helping those who are trapped by the cruelties of the world (poverty, war, dictatorship, etc.) escape and be able to lead safe and happy lifestyles is a more important goal, and what I consider to be my goal. Perhaps this is my "Personal Legend;" frankly I think the pursuit of justice and equality is more important than the pursuit of self. For example, what if someone believed that his or her destiny was to be (God forbid) a murder or a terrorist? I think that the majority of us would then not wish this person to fulfill his or her "Personal Legend."
In any case, back to my life goal: To put it simply, I want to help make the world a better place, as cliché as that might sound. I don't yet know in what specific capacity but I know that I want to join the Peace Corps after college. Mr. Coelho (and my English teacher) might argue that school is just one of the obstacles that is suppressing my true dreams, but I view high school and college not as a roadblock but as a path to help my unlock me true potential. After the Peace Corps, I do not know exactly what I want to do. Perhaps I will become a teacher, or a writer, or a diplomat, or a social worker. Or none of these things. In any of these scenarios, college is a significant stepping stone that will help me (and in many cases, be necessary) in my endeavors.
I also have the notion of someday wanting to marry and have children. Lately I've been wondering if that is truly a personal goal or merely me trying to fulfill the role that my society wants me to. Yet I truly love working with kids, as a babysitter, tutor, or even just a friend. I also know that the love of my family is one of the greatest gifts I have ever received, and I want to pass that on to the next generation. I want to experience being a mother someday, both the joy and the suffering of it. Isn't it one of the ultimate human experiences?
At the present moment, I'm not too concerned about this goal because I know that I want to wait a long time before having a family of my own. I am much more focused on my present: finishing high school in the best way I can, and afterwards embarking on a great four year exploration in college. So while I do not have a set roadmap for the rest of my life, I do think the most important aspect of goals is not letting them detract from living and experiencing the present moment. I am a firm believer in the Carpe Diem philosophy. Thousands of authors and philosophers before me have written about this concept much more eloquently and thoroughly than I could ever hope to. I will close with one of their thoughts, specifically that of Borges, who says simply, "the future exists now."
This is my response to number one: how is the alchemist a hero journey?
Everyone has their own personal definition of a hero. My definition of a hero may be different from someone else's, as are my thoughts on The Alchemist. Because my current definition of a hero is open to suggestion, the way I feel right now may not reflect the way I feel later. My current definition of a hero is not someone famous, or physically strong, or gorgeous which is how a hero is portrayed in Disney movies and other Hollywood sorts of garbage. My definition currently is someone who literally or figuratively follows Campbell's definition of a hero journey of their own will to do so and truly believes that their actions are just. This establishes the main character of The Alchemist as a hero in my eyes.
So far, the story of the alchemist almost parallel's Campbell's definition of a hero story. Santiago lives in a normal world and then gets a call to adventure through his dreams, at first he refuses the call, and then he meets the king of Salem, who becomes his mentor and gives him the stones, which serve as the medallion to guide him. Santiago crosses into the threshold when he enters Africa. The sword is one of the tempters because the boy wants the sword, and is distracted, allowing the thief to steal his money. As the initiation continues, the boy must travel through the road of trials, which he literally travels through the desert. This is as far as Santiago’s journey has gone as of page 105, which is as far as I have read, however, he is not the only one going on a journey. There is also the Englishman. His journey at the moment is parallel to santaigo’s however, I feel as if santaigo understands many things to a deeper extent than the Englishman. Since the title of the book is The Alchemist, I think that Santiago’s involvement in alchemy will become much more prominent, and perhaps he will be the one to learn the secrets. As for predictions, if this continues to follow the hero story, then it is likely that the battle that seems to be coming between the tribes will be the big slaying of the dragon, in which it is possible that Santiago will be crucified.
Before starting to study the Hero Journey and the Alchemist, I pretty much only thought of a hero as someone who saves others lives and makes a huge difference in the world. However, after studying it I've found there's another type of hero. A type that tries to find their Personal Legend and that might even be more admirable than someone who saves lives. Santiago goes for what he wants, which I think many of us are afraid to do for fear or failure. But a real hero and Santiago, accepts that failure and takes it as another step and process or their journey to their Personal Legend. When Santiago has his money stolen by the guy in the cafe, at least he just gives up and wants to buy sheep and go back to his old life. But once he meets the merchant and spends time with him, he realizes he can't give up and he has to keep pursuing the treasure in Egypt. I agree with Sarah with what she said about the beginning of the story being heroic. I think as soon as Santiago leaves his sheep and starts to go toward Egypt he becomes a hero. There are tons of people what to do something different but they don't have the courage so when Santiago does do this, you can admire him for leaving everything behind and when even failing, he keeps going. This is similar to what we talked about in class with Fight Club. When Tyler puts the gun to people's heads and starting making then do what they want, he's making them follow their Personal Legends as well as becoming a hero (which I don't know if you could say that considering they did it out of fear not because they wanted to). Maybe that's what every person needs to give up everything and start to find their Personal Legend, someone to scare us enough to forget about the failure and everything we are leaving behind and just think of what we could achieve and where we will be once we finish the journey.
Number 3: I posted in an answer to the question: how do you face fear?
on Paulo Coelho's blog.This is the link: (I said my name was haxolither)
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2008/03/31/question-of-the-week-12/#comments
Fear is something difficult to overcome, often times I used to view it as a negative force, and I guess you could say I was afraid of fear. However, I have learned to view fear as a positive force, as well as a negative one.
To me, fear is a negative force on my life when it is preventing me from doing what I really want to do. There is always the chance that every time I get into a car, I might not make it to the destination alive, however if I let that fear of death control me, I would never be able to leave my house.
At the same time, fear can be something pushing you forward. If I fear car accidents, I can use that fear to try to become a better driver.
If I can turn my fears into something positive from something negative, then I can push myself forward towards achieving my goals.
Recently I had been afraid of bad things happening to me, things like having the acceptance to my top choice college revoked (I am a senior in high school) and when I am fearful of things before they happen, even if they don't happen at all, I always feel pre-shock deep inside of myself, as if preparing for the worst allows my fears to overcome me, and change my actions or decisions because of fear. When I am afraid like that, it is impossible to enjoy life. I was telling myself, "oh it doesn't matter that I'm having fun right now, because tomorrow I'm going to get a letter saying I can't go to college and then my life is over." life becomes so much less enjoyable that way, and since the likelihood of me getting that sort of letter is slim anyway, if that letter was coming, after I got it, I would probably be a little bit relieved, because I would be able to let go of that fear. But because I have decided to make fear a positive force in my life, I was able to let that fear go and accept that I was hurting myself more by fearing something unlikely. Instead, I choose to allow a fear of mine to let me do things like try harder in school so that the schools see that I am still trying. I also diminished the fear of mine by thinking about what would happen if I could not go to college. I believe that so much of our world is dependant on money and possessions; I might try to live without depending on those things. Maybe I could free myself from the trap of society's will that is imposed upon me if I just let go. However, one day I hope to make a film that will change the world, and becoming a film major is the best way to start myself on a road that will lead me to getting what I truly want. If I let my fears get in the way, I know that I will probably not be able to move forward at all, let alone enjoy the time I have.
I have just started reading The Alchemist in my 12th grade English class and I felt compelled to comment on the “Quote of the Day”. Although I am not very far along in the book, I was able to make a connection between this quote and the main character, Santiago. Santiago’s dream of traveling is one that defies the expectations of his parents. Santiago’s parents had wanted him to become a priest however, this arrangement did not satisfy Santiago’s desire to explore and learn about the world. Upon receiving his father’s blessing, Santiago realizes that his father wishes that he to could travel the world, but continues to conceal these desires under a life of work and the responsibility of providing for his family.
Santiago makes a decision to leave a predetermined life of comfort and familiarity and embark on one of uncertainty and adventure. Santiago must trust his “impulse and passion” in order to follow through with his dreams. Santiago’s courage enables him to follow his Personal Legend. “Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth” (22). Santiago believes that his Personal Legend is to travel and he does so by becoming a sheepherder. “ At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend”(21). It is wise of Santiago to ignore the voice of reason and to pursue his dreams of traveling. If he were to deeply analyze his circumstance, any doubts, and the possibility of failure, Santiago would fall prey to fear and defeat. Santiago, unlike his father, will not live a life of regret but one of fulfillment because although he may run into obstacles as a result of acting on impulse, he his achieving his Personal Legend.
I felt a connection in this quote not only to Santiago but in myself. Being a high school senior, our fall and winter days are filled with college visits, endless applications and the anxiety of waiting to be admitted to our top choices. If there is anything that I took from this unnerving and chaotic time, it is to go with your gut instinct. College counselors reminded us many times that whenever we stepped onto a campus and had that “special feeling”, you knew that it was the school for you. I took this advice very seriously. My college tour took me all over Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and all the way to the cornfields of Ohio. But, during these tours, my mind wandered to thoughts of the second school that I visited and how comfortable I felt during my time on campus. The big name schools and all of the great financial aid packages that they could offer a student didn’t sway me. I kept going back to that second school in my mind. I finally decided one night to apply early decision. If admitted, I would be bound to the school. By applying early decision I was able to show the school just how seriously committed I was to them. Fortunately, everything worked out and I was accepted. What a relief. Things could have turned out much differently had I not decided to apply ED and I am happy to begin the journey of fulfilling my Personal Legend, whatever that maybe and wherever it may take me.
So the mouth shut review I chose was, One of the finest books ever written!
By preetdacool.
I chose this review because I felt like it gave us a good insight to the book. It explains its cheesiness and also explains why it works so well with this book. “Dreams, symbols, signs, and adventure follow the reader like echoes of ancient wise voices in "The Alchemist", a novel that combines an atmosphere of Medieval mysticism with the song of the desert.” The reviewer knew how to manipulate us just like Coelho did. He draws us in with fantasy and images of a greater place and they hold us because we live somewhere where those things don’t exist. The reviewer notes the dream that drove Santiago is what created his personal at the end. This dream was Santiagos 3rd world and everything that led to this, to the Pyramids, were the most valuable. “Santiago sees the greatness of the world, and meets all kinds of exciting people like kings and alchemists. However, by the end of the novel, he discovers that "treasure lies where your heart belongs", and that the treasure was the journey itself, the discoveries he made, and the wisdom he acquired.” While this book seems simple, as the reviewer points out, it’s the simplicity that makes it readable and enjoyable. “Simple things are the most valuable and only wise people appreciate them.” The simplicity of this books makes us read into it more and makes us see more of it. I think this book is more interesting and more thoughtful because the focus wasn’t on big words; it was on a journey and finding out who Santiago and we really are. This book leads us on a journey, the reviewer notes, that we would never imagine could happen but is appealing because we want it to be able to come true. “He tells people what they want to hear, or rather that he tells them that what they wish for but never thought possible could even be probable.” We learn through the Alchemist, and more clearly this review, what the essence of the book is. Our greatest fears and our greatest life obstacles are what keep us from being truly successful and truly happy. Example: I am petrified of trains I’ve never been on one and I hope I never am on one. I have a fear that it’ll fall off its track and we’ll crash. So in essence I have a fear of death. This fear keeps me from true happiness. A train ride could be amazing but because of my fear I hold myself back. The desert and getting lost could have been Santiagos biggest fear but he pushed forward and by the end he has reached his happiness. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.” This review also talks about the alchemist relationship with God. The reviewer says that on a journey one fails to acknowledge any type of god but throughout each step he realizes more and more that the soul of the world is Gods soul conspiring to each individual’s personal legend. The reason Santiago started his journey at the church is because Gods soul and the soul of the world conspired to create Santiagos journey. One final topic the reviewer talks about is Santiagos “twin-soul” like Urim and Thummim they aren’t worth much but they will always be together because they were meant for each other. Finally, the reviewer ends his review by relating Santiago to the reader. “Because we can all identify with Santiago: all of us have dreams, and are dying for somebody to tell us that they may come true.” This book leaves the reader vulnerable to dreams and adventures that we never took and now wish we had. This book is a mystical adventure that we all wish we could take, but we pretend like we can’t because we have prior engagements. The difference between: Fate VS. Freewill, Santiago has freewill; we have Faith; to school, church, work, society, or what have you.
As we all know, one day we will die - either we like it or not. Having this in mind, I ask you : how do you imagine your funeral? If you want to know how I imagine mine, I wrote this text in my book “Like The Flowing River” that I just found in the internet :
http://immortal4740.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/my-funeral-by-paulo-coelho/
So I choose this quote and idea because its something we all think about it whether we realize it or not, depends on the day. The first time I thought about death was one day on the way home from church with my Barbies (of course) I always used to wonder what’s next and if my Barbies would come with me. Now I ponder the question every day with everyday activities and it’s a huge brain cramper in Humanities. If I died today I wouldn’t want a funeral. I maybe want a little ceremony with family, but truly it would be up to my family because I would be dead. Now let me think of my 83 year old grandmother, most days when I’m over there she constantly reminds my grandfather where her plans are where the phone numbers are and everything. She has plans and she has a set path for her afterlife. She wants close family and relatives to morn over her. I think that while we are alive and especially as we age and get closer to the finish line we need something to do, to occupy us. This is why most old people plan funerals, because it’s something to do while your alive. When your dead your dead it doesn’t matter what happens, we like to plan funerals because its something we like to think about when we are alive, it makes us feel better. Once you’re dead it doesn’t matter what happens because we have no control. The only plan that I would make is to be cremated, I decided this after seeing the catacombs in France, but I don’t want my ashes spread in the ocean because then I just become fish food. My uncle who died last year is in a vase in my aunt’s house and my aunt and her three children have lockets with ashes in them. This is how I would like to be when I’m cremated, closest to the hearts of those who loved me the fullest. There doesn’t need to be a celebration just an acknowledgment that my cell phone will be out of service is fine.
This is in response to the question of the week on Coelho’s blog: How do you face fear?
I agree with Beth (blog-name of Haxolither) that fear is a positive as well as negative force. There are fears which don’t hold me back from anything besides harming myself. These are what I consider positive fears. These fears include walking in the middle of the highway, touching a hot stove, getting behind the wheel drunk, etc. On the other hand, fear can act as a negative force when it comes between someone and their desires. I think these are the fears most people are referring to on this blog. Judging from the other comments, it seems that most people here have expelled this form of fear from their life, and I wish I could say the same. Sadly I can’t; I often find myself a slave to unnecessary fears. I recognize the fact that it’s unnecessary, however I continue to let it control me. I often put too much stock into what other people think of me. I have a fear of not being liked, a fear of self, which I’m sure a lot of people share with me. I often hold back or won’t open up to people due to this fear. I also often not do what I want to do out of a fear of disappointing other people. For example, last summer my mom was getting stressed out with work, and wanted someone to help her in the path lab. Part of her job doesn’t involve that much training, because it’s just cutting up and labeling specimens. She begged me to come in and fill in this job, so I did. This job was as boring as it sounds, and I spent most my time thinking about how badly I wanted to be somewhere else. I’ve learned two things from this experience. That a) formaldehyde is a horrible smell, and b) don’t always try to please others. Another one of my biggest fears is losing what I have in order to gain something else or bring something to the next level. I agree with what Coelho said in The Alchemist that everything has its price. Sometime I don’t want to pay that price, and fear sacrifice. I believe that there exists a natural balance in the world: for everything thing lost, there is something else gained. Newton’s Third Law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, applies to a lot more than just physical forces, but in the forces at play which can’t be calculated. (haha..I feel like a loser for saying that, but I do believe that.) College is my next big change, which will force me to lose much of what I have now: my family, my dog, my friends, my home, Berwick. I fear that I won’t like the trade-off between what I will have to lose, for what I will gain. But I also know that it’s something I have to do so my life doesn’t stay static. Perhaps my biggest fear is change, fear that when the balance is disturbed I won’t like the outcomes, and will want to return to how it once was.
ps. I also really like what someone else posted on Coelho’s blog on how he/she handles fear:” Nothing can really harm me internally, but only the surface. My core being will not be harmed.”
This is a post I posted on Paulo Coehlo's blog about Two Stories from Jewish Tradition.
Isaac dies
This semester I started taking a World Literature course and it was a little different than any other English course I’ve ever taken. I was used to everything being graded and the discussions were followed by an agenda. However, this course is very unlike that. There are not many graded things and our discussions go wherever we want them to go. At first, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but after being in it for a quarter, I’m realizing I’ve never grown more as an English student. I’m no longer writing for a grade but I’m writing to be a better writer and I’m no longer contributing and saying comments that I feel teachers want to hear but comments that I think contribute to the discussion at hand. Although, at first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this new set up, I’ve come to realize the challenge made me grow more and I really enjoy the class.
Even though others think it’s rude of Isaac, the priest thanks him in the end for challenging him. The priest shows a very important aspect that I think everyone needs to accept in order to grow. It’s not just that we need to be challenged but also that we need to take risks. If we stay in our comfort zones, we’ll never grow as human beings. In the Alchemist, there’s a quote “ Naturally, it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.” We need to take risks and accept being challenged by other people, otherwise we wont go anywhere from where we are now. There are many people who do settle and stay in one place because they are afraid of what will happen if they don’t, however, I don’t think that’s where you are happiest and living your full potential.
Forgiving in the same spirit
The word sorry is now thrown around without any emotion behind it. I do it all the time. I say sorry without truly being sorry or without even thinking about what I’ve done. This reminds me of a quote from Fight Club: “Narrator: When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just...
Marla Singer: - instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?” It seems we throw emotions around without meaning them and never really listen and acknowledge what’s happenings around us. We are always just concerned with what we are doing and what’s happening to us. This story shows that if we keep doing this, it’s not going to end well.
The Rabbi forgives the shopkeeper for insulting him, however, the shopkeeper never actually says sorry. It may be better that he didn’t falsely say sorry and keep being mad at the Rabbi but in the end he’s punished for the things he’d done to the Rabbi. He has to live his life in misery. If the shopkeeper had stopped for a second to realize what was going on around him, maybe he would have realized he wasn’t being fair to the Rabbi and he could have given him a sincere apology and saved his business (even though that shouldn’t be his first priority when giving the apology).
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2008/04/01/question-of-the-week-12/#comments
In response to the question, "How do you face fear?" on Coelho's blog...
In order to answer this question, I must sum it up by simply stating: right now, I don’t face fear. Throughout my recent study of World Literature and Humanities for school, I have had more chances to look inside myself than ever before. After doing so, I would say that fear is one huge element that encompasses many issues I face. I fear any change that is permanent, I have a fear of being disliked, or people not understanding the person I truly am or am trying to become, a fear of what I will do with my life, how I will get it (pretty much a fear of the future in general), and also a huge fear of death, just to name a few.
I know that part of facing fears is acknowledging how they got there in the first place. This is the process I am currently going through, and know I will continue for a while. Part of the problem is that I don’t know why I fear; I’ve always accepted that I just do. These fears that have no reason for existence sometime consume me, and I allow them to manifest in parts of my life that I don’t fear. Sadly, it’s not hard to say that fear has been the groundwork for my path in life, a path that also causes me to settle. In school I’m afraid that I’m just not smart enough, so I settle for not trying hard so I can have something to blame it on. I settle for not speaking my mind at times, or acting in a way that I don’t want to present myself, because I’m afraid of taking risks and being judged or disliked for how I want to act. I’m scared of a change in my life that’s permanent, and that permanent change being a bad one, but I settle for my preoccupation with this unknown. I also get worked up by fearing little things; I fear that this writing is bad, so it takes me too long because I overanalyze everything, but I eventually settle for the final product which I all too often see as not impressive enough.
I understand that fear is an instinctual part of being human, and I’m not trying to eliminate the fear anything in my life, because that’s not possible. One way I will overcome big fears though, so they don’t run my life, is by living in the present. I think my tendency to live in the past or future is the root of many of my fears.
I know death is guaranteed, but life is not; my own life is what I make of it, and it won’t be successfully created without me facing fear. Right now in my life, I need to take the biggest steps forward, and resist taking even more steps back. During this time, I’m slowly learning about myself, and fear unfortunately comes with that. In my Humanities class, we discussed the differences between wisdom and knowledge, and in a previous paper I wrote about how it relates to me. I know that I’m gaining more and more knowledge with the passing days, but I’m far from possessing wisdom. I will be wise when I accept, instead of fear, the results of my newfound beliefs and knowledge. This is when I accept the fact that I will go nowhere after I die, because that coincides with my belief that there is no god. This is when I stop apologizing for who I’m willfully becoming because I fear that this new person is being judged. It’s also when I stop agonizing over the possibility that some change may occur in my life that will have a permanent impact, because that change is not a part of the present state that I ignore by living in the future.
I believe that I can only face my fears when I possess wisdom, and also that I will become wise as a result of facing my biggest fears. This seemingly makes no sense, but maybe it’s possible that there is no arrow pointing one to the other, and they work together in some sort of cycle which I’m unable to grasp until my journey is complete.
One of my favorite quotes so far in The Alchemist (which I’m currently reading) speaks of strains caused by people’s fears. When Santiago’s heart is speaking to him it says, “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.” This couldn’t be more related to me, and I can say I’ve experienced every one of these examples. I realize that when I finally face my fears, my heart will no longer suffer. Not just that, but it will also be the guiding force in my life, instead of fear. I want to reach the point where the voice from my heart is heard above the drones caused by fears from my mind, as well as everyone else around me.
This is my post about The Alchemist being a hero's journey.
We were given a handout in the packet of papers which defines what the hero journey is comprised of. Thus far, Santiago has: received the call, refused the call, answered the call, crossed the threshold, began his journey into the unknown (abyss), and began to transform through what he is learning from the experience of trying to fulfill his person legend. His quest for fulfilling his personal legend seems to be a fine parallel to the hero's journey.
Santiago also acquires the guides and mentors necessary to aid him through this journey. He learns to read and trust omens so that he can succeed his Personal Legend and his intelligence grows. He also begins to teach people about what he is learning. He uses what the old man has taught him to expand the knowledge of the Englishman who in turn shares his intelligence of alchemy. So as a future hero, he is already attempting to better the world, which is something I believe all heroes accomplish in some respect.
Whether or not Santiago turns out to be a true hero depends on the ending of the story which has yet to be revealed. If he ends up making a complete transformation and then returns, completing the journey, it is possible for him to be deemed a hero by definition of completing the journey. Although, completing the journey isn't everything. It depends on the individual and their definition of what a hero is whether or not Santiago himself ends up a "hero". I believe if he takes what he learns by the end of the book and is able to then spread that and teach others that he can be considered a hero.
After journeying through the trials and tribulations of his Personal Legend, Santiago can act as a hero to all those that wish to pursue their Personal Legend. If he in the end receives happiness from this journey of his, then he can be an example for all those who want to achieve their satisfaction and the dream which they sought when they were younger. He can also be looked to as a hero because he makes the connection with the Soul of the World and is able to turn himself into wind through understanding. As long as he is not selfish with what he has gained a new understanding of and helps others like some have helped him along the journey, he in the end can be considered a hero who has completed the journey.
Here's my response to qusetion number 1:
Over the past few days, I have taken quite a bit of heat for my statement that traveling is not just wandering. I continue to stand by my claim, however, that a pointless meandering change in position is not travel. I’m not suggesting that one must take the first step in his journey knowing his destination. I’m not even suggesting that that destination must be made clear to this traveler until he has already reached it. But the hero’s “journey is a map”, and I believe this is a hero’s story. All I’m saying is that, to be a traveler, you must at least be holding a map. Maybe it’s hard to read, maybe it’s “a code” like that of the Emerald Tablet that “can’t be understood by reason alone” (126). We’re all moving, all the time, and I would say that a traveler is the man who gets any kind of map out, prepares himself to exist elsewhere, and stops walking in circles. So if the traveler holds a map, and the hero’s journey is a map, Santiago is traveling the path of the hero.
You make sense of an illegible map the same way that Santiago and the alchemist travel through a massive expanse of desert: you learn to speak its language. “I learned that the world has a soul,” said Santiago, “and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things” (83). Someone who doesn’t travel is easily frustrated by languages and maps and meanings that he cannot understand. He continues to walk in circles and, although he is moving, he has given up on progress and thus has lost his ability to travel. A man of perseverance and maps is often a man of fear, a man who hesitates. “He spent the entire afternoon of the second day looking out over the desert, and listening to his heart. The boy knew the desert sensed his fear. They both spoke the same language”143”.
A hero’s journey can be a web of callings and thresholds and revelations and guardians and abysses, easily definable and able to be catalogued. But most of the time, “the journey” of a hero is simply “a map.” Coelho might say that it’s a map that is small enough to be written on the face of a single emerald. When a man wanders because he has given up on getting anywhere, he doesn’t travel. When a man holds a strange map in front of him and takes his first hesitating step forward, he has traveled further than some men ever will. “The sheep had taught [Santiago] something even more important: that there was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired” (62 ). It was the language of travel, the language of a hero who wanders with a willingness to go somewhere.
I tried to post this on Coelho's blog, but it kept saying that that post no longer existed in the database. I'll try to do it again tomorrow but, at any rate, I've copied it here. It's a response to Coelho's "what is fear" question mixed with his ideas about favors and missed opportunities in the sections above.
As a high school senior in a World Literature elective, I just finished reading “The Alchemist.” I was struck by its refreshing optimism and the courage and confidence it took for Coelho to write a happy ending. Many authors today write stories of doom or tragedy or aching, mundane, emptiness because our society has turned drama and pain into entertainment. It is with this same fresh sense of hopefulness that I read Mr. Coelho’s words today: “I must live all the favors God has given me today. There is no bank where one can deposit favors received…if I do not make the most of these blessings, I shall lose them forever…Each day has its own miracle. I must accept the blessings of today, to create that which is mine; if I do this with objectivity and without guilt, tomorrow I shall receive more.”
I examine and reflect upon my life most while I am writing and, as a writer, I have learned certain facts about myself. I have even begun to understand why I am the way I am and why I act the way I do, a feat that once seemed overwhelming. If there is one thing that I know about myself with certainty, it is that my goal every day is to go to sleep every night with as few regrets as possible. Often I try too much or push too hard because I’m more afraid of what I would lose if I didn’t push than what I might push away if I do. It’s somewhat of a Carpe Diem Complex, a fervent desire to lose the what-ifs. So as I read Mr. Coelho’s words about favors and his claim that “if I do not make the most of these blessings, I shall lose them forever,” I recognize and sympathize with his fear of missed opportunities.
Right now, I am a person who is trying to learn her faith. But because I haven’t reached the stage of true belief yet, I struggle with the fact that Coelho attributes all of our favors and opportunities to God. A belief in God implies a belief in fate, which easily negates the idea of free will. If my life is destined to end in some way already, I don’t have any opportunities to miss because no choice will change the final outcome. My desire to live without regret has given me invaluable moments and life experiences. I have learned to love roller coasters, to let go of grudges, and to take artistic leaps of faith. I have learned to say I love you, to ask someone to stay, and to know that I gave them everything I could as I watched them walk away. Without that pervasive fear of looking back and wishing I hadn’t let something pass me by, I don’t think that I could have ever lived as much as I have. I just can’t relate God to the idea of opportunity because I need to believe that mistakes and successes are a product of my own actions.
What I like most about this idea, however, is the notion that “a favor cannot be saved.” This way of thinking nudges me forward. When a nagging fear urges me to put something off until tomorrow, this idea tickles at my conscience. It pushes me forward and into something new. So how do I face fear? I understand that never knowing is much scarier than whatever obstacle or hesitance I’m facing. It’s the idea that it’s now or never, and I know I can’t live with never.
This is my response to the following review:
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-132359-1.html
I chose this review because I disagree with this person that becoming the wind was "boaring".
First of all, I agree that the author "cannot write in the way Paolo Coelho wrote". Ok now that I'm finished making fun of the author's terrible grammar and spelling, I suppose I should get to the core of my disagreement with the author.
First of all, I think that the main idea of the book goes far beyond learning "new things from whatever one has around." More importantly, it is about learning about one's environment by learning about one's self and paying attention to instincts and personal will. The part about becoming the wind is not boring because it asks the reader to challenge his or her own existence. It is important because becoming the wind is a seemingly impossible task for a man to achieve, however, because Santiago is able to force the wind, the sun, and the hand that writes all to challenge their own existences, he challenges his own. Why not become the wind? Forgetting the so called "laws" of nature, Santiago believes he can do anything and because he does not let doubt keep him down, he is able to become the wind. It is a brilliant part of the story and probably one of the most suspenseful parts, as he is on the brink of death.
I can't really understand what he is saying exactly at the end because of the grammar issue.
Some weird syntax 0_0. I don't know whether he is trying to say he likes the end or doesn't… but more importantly, he says that he does not understand how the boy became an alchemist and that the name was inappropriate. This I highly disagree with. The boy became an alchemist because an alchemist is someone who turns lead into gold: burdens and weight into value. He was able to turn the journey, being taken advantage of by thieves, traveling through the desert, and losing everything, and turn it into a valuable experience. This is why he is an alchemist. The title fits, because Santiago is the alchemist and the story is his journey. There is no reason why the title shouldn't fit. Besides "The Alchemist" is a cool title anyway.
this was my comment on coelho's post - "Fine words are meaningless
when we come face to face with suffering.
(The Fifth Mountain)"
It became really lengthy and I didn't mean for it to be...
The word suffering has such a negative feel to it. Due to this feeling that all associated with it is bad, it's very easy for the individual to get wrapped up in the idea that with suffering everything else becomes negative too. It can absorb us into shutting others out and putting up a wall so that we are not bothered more by other forces of suffering which may be lingering around. This wall remains impermeable to everything, alternate feelings and a chance to feel better, people who love and care for us are normally shut out, and words have no meaning unless they are the ones going on through our heads when we are in a state of suffering.
It's easier while suffering and neglecting to let the outside in to be numb when someone says "it will be OK" or "I'm sorry, hope everything turns out alright". I believe the human mind is conditioned to in situations of suffering think the worst. It begins normally with why, whether it is why did this happen to me or why did this happen to another individual which in the end affected me. After thinking of this we then begin to think of how it's only going to get worse from here, it's a very pessimistic attitude. It's easier for us to be negative and pessimistic due to the negative affect of the word suffering and the act of suffering on us as human beings.
If the word suffering is redefined by the individual that is, fine words have the ability to mean something. If instead of having this negative force which comes to the word, it is looked upon as something that will in the end open up and opportunity and occurred for a more positive reason, then the wall of negativity and pessimism may not have to be put up to shut all other things out. If we chose while suffering to think optimistically that our suffering is to teach us something beyond that moment, then we can be more open to the words from others as encouragement that life is supposed to proceed and we are to move forward. By letting those words affect us while in the state of suffering, slowly the meaning changes. With others to aid I believe suffering becomes more bearable and something that we can overcome quicker. There will always be a period during suffering where the person who is will want to shut themselves into an emotional room for a bit, but it's just part of the healing process. It's better to overcome suffering than to let it overcome you. Without healing, it will start to control aspects of our lives in a negative fashion.
For an example: When my friend died when I was a sophomore in high school, I thought the world as I knew it was going to end. We were pretty close and she was one of those people that if you encounter them you never want to let them go because they open you eyes up so much to the world. I felt like I had lost a guide in my life, she had already impacted me in so many ways. After I met her, she changed who I was because she was so bubbly and carefree and she knew how to experience life to the fullest. I was devastated when she died. I didn't know what I was going to do and nothing anyone was saying was helping me at all. I listened to music a lot putting up a wall no one else could enter. I never really talked to my parents about it and went to bed crying at night thinking of how life at school, my life, and the immediate world around me was going to change. I stopped singing after that year because it was something we did together at school; softball was hard because it was the sport we played together. Eventually I opened up again, no thanks to the "professionals" who lingered at school for a few weeks after her passing and then reappeared the year of her first anniversary, but because I finally realized I couldn't let this affect me in a negative way. I transformed the suffering into an optimism that things can only get better from here. I never let go of softball and quit because she wouldn't have wanted me to. I began singing again because if she was here she'd be right beside me and I still believe she is to a certain degree. I've become the person I am due to the fact that I realized being more outgoing and not shutting myself up into my own little world is what will open the opportunities for me to experience life to the fullest.
When we let fine words mean something while suffering, it opens up the opportunity for us to change things and make the suffering a positive experience to move on from so that tomorrow, the day may be just a little better.
I enjoyed reading the review posted by “Mastbanda” on Mouthshut. I think that he did a great job of summing up all of the themes that we discussed in class in a very simple way. I have enjoyed our class discussions but upon reading this review, I now see more clarity in some of the major themes of The Alchemist.
“Mastbanda” brings up a few great points that I would like to elaborate on. He states that this novel is “full of optimism, hope, and vision”. We focused more on Santiago’s journey as an enriching experience that would lead him to his Personal Legend. It takes a brave person to leave a life of comfort for one of uncertainty and because of Santiago’s unending hope; he is able to embark on this journey. Santiago’s desire to find something greater is what fuels him along his journey. This hope is reinforced with each person that he meets. Although Santiago struggles with obstacles, his encounters with the Englishman, the King, a Gypsy, Fatima, and the alchemist, all offer him guidance and wisdom. Santiago understands that the world conspires to help one achieve his Personal Legend and that is why he has such optimism and faith that he will find his treasure. Without this hope and optimism that Santiago has in himself, he would not be able to accomplish his Personal Legend. Although Santiago’s heart urges him to move forward with each twist in his journey, it is his hope that propels Santiago closer and closer to his treasure. Without hope and optimism, our dreams would be forgotten and life would be filled with regret and failure. Santiago is able to reach his goal through the wisdom he acquires from those whom he meets and from his passionate optimism and hope.
“Mastbanda” also briefly talks about Santiago’s relationship with Fatima. He happened to use one of my favorite quotes in the book, “So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you”(122). Fatima’s presence does not deter Santiago from completing his journey. She is able to let go of Santiago knowing that if he loves her, he will come back to her. If Fatima were to hold him back, she would be preventing him from completing his Personal Legend but because she loves him, she will wait patiently for his return. The merchant’s daughter, whom we were introduced to in the beginning of the story, is a temporary infatuation. Santiago believes that he wants to settle down with the merchant’s daughter and if he had followed through, he would have given up his Personal Legend. This encounter is one of the many distractions that Santiago is able to leave behind in the pursuit of his Legend.
I agree with “Mastbanda” in his review that this book is filled with “dreams, symbols, signs, and adventure.” The Alchemist is a great novel in the way that it encourages the reader to realize his/her Personal Legend and not to be afraid of it. I am sure that I will return to The Alchemist and some of Coelho’s other books in the future.
Joseph Campbell’s quote pertaining to the Hero’s Journey is one that I can identify with and understand after having finished The Alchemist. Campbell says that the Hero’s Journey “is fundamentally inward-into depths where obscure resistances are overcome, and long lost, forgotten powers are revivified, to be made available for the transfiguration of the world….[Now] it appears that the perilous journey was a labor not of attainment but of reattainment, not discovery but rediscovery. The godly powers sought and dangerously won are revealed to have been within the heart of the hero all the time.”
Santiago’s realization of his Personal Legend takes him from the life of a shepard boy to the unpredictable life of a traveler. Santiago is compelled to search for a treasure that transpires in his dreams on multiple occasions. Having finished the book, I now know that Santiago returns to the same abandoned church at the end of the novel where he had first tended to his sheep. His calling takes him far away to Egypt on a taxing journey where he endures many obstacles and meets many mentors who instill wisdom in this passionate traveler. It is necessary for Santiago to embark on this journey because in doing so, he is able to “come to the center of his own existence.” The King of Salem tells Santiago that “to realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation” (22). Santiago’s desire for more in his life leads him to his Personal Legend and the journey that he must travel in order to accomplish it.
Santiago is a hero because he responds to his call. He takes a chance on the unknown, something his own father regrets not doing, and immerses himself in a journey to unearth his treasure. Ironically, the path brings him back not to the “discovery” but ‘rediscovery” of the same abandoned church, a place he had known all along. Santiago’s purpose in life was to travel and because he fulfills his calling, despite the “perilous journey”, Santiago completes the Hero’s Journey.
I went to respond to one of the mouthshut reviews.. and then had to register and now can't find the one that I was commenting on...
Here's what I said in response though..:
I very much agree with this review, especially the second to last line: "a book is a guide...not the ultimate changer. it is wat u make out of the book is important..." I was reading through some of the previous reviews before stumbling upon this one. Most of them say something close to "this book has changed my life". I feel like the book is a good example but also something we should already have known. It gives us the tools to use to find ourselves and look within, but no matter what that person has always been within us since birth; the problem is that many people don't take the time to search within because they are too concerned with what is on the outside.
If more people read this book and discovered/had the revelation that truly the treasure is within, many of society’s problems could diminish. If we as human beings each understood that it's really what is within a person, judgment and the fear of being judged may become less prevalent in society. If we care more about following our dreams and true self than appeasing those around us, epidemics such as materialism which seem to be plaguing the society around me at least would lessen. The key is to teach these ideas. This book is one source to spread the message, we as those who have read the book also need to take part in spreading the lessons which are revealed in its pages. We need to share the book, share what we have learned and interpreted in our own minds, in order to advance the world around us.
By discovering ourselves from the heart, much can be learned. It's like the saying one must learn to love themselves before they can be loved by others. In order to love yourself, you need to talk to your heart, discover who you are, and follow that path. It needs to be understood that we do not need to reach anyone else's standards but our own. If we strive to reach our dreams, those standards are already set at the top of who we could be and the best to our potential. It's those who do not follow their dreams that have the lower standards.
This is my response to a review by someone named vmshut. http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-80846-1.html
When reading your review, I kept stopping at one word. Destiny. Although, I agree that in the end Santiago is suppose to find his treasure, using the word destiny gets away from the point of the book. The King says that the world’s biggest lie is “that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate” (18). If destiny means an event that will inevitably happen in the future then destiny and fate mean the same thing. Santiago shouldn’t rely on fate and destiny. He has to rely on his inner determination to get him to his Personal Legend. I think Paulo Coelho is telling us not to just “believe in destiny,” which you say is what the book is trying to teach us. I think it’s the opposite that we shouldn’t just believe in destiny and let that belief alone take us to our Personal Legend and through our journey. We should forget about destiny and fate. That’s what the King is saying to Santiago when he says that that is the world’s biggest lie. He doesn’t want Santiago to depend on the idea that it’s meant to happen, he wants him to take charge of what happens to him on his journey. As I said, Santiago is indeed supposed to find the treasure, he’s not supposed to depend on destiny and fate to find it, he’s supposed to depend on his heart.
You do a very nice job summarizing the book but I think you left out some key moments that make Santiago grow as a person. First being the crystal merchant. Santiago spends a long time working for him and in the end he learns something important. The crystal merchant is supposed to reflect who Santiago will become if he just goes back to being a shepherd. The crystal merchant has his shop but he never tries to expand it. Once Santiago comes, the shop expands. Santiago watches the crystal merchant rest on the fact that his life is okay. The crystal merchant never wants to make his store better until he is pushed by Santiago and he will never pursue his Personal Legend, to go to Mecca. Once, Santiago sees what he will be if he doesn’t continue his journey, he leaves the idea of returning to his days of sheep herding and continues on his journey to the Pyramids.
You also left out the part where Santiago has to turn himself into wind. When the tribe tells him to turn himself into wind to save him, at first he doubts himself and thinks his life is over. However, when it becomes time for him to do it, he succeeds. I think this makes Santiago grow the most in the story. At first he doubted himself, but then he leaves if he tries to achieve it, he can do it. Santiago learns one of his biggest lessons in his journey and then at that moment he knows he will finally be able to reach his treasure.
The Alchemist depicts a hero’s journey through the active and passive happenings of the main character Santiago. As the book begins the reader is immediately able to compare the story to the steps in the idealistic hero’s journey map. After Santiago’s initial dream had the night he spent in the abandoned church, his life begins to change as he takes risks and faces challenges in order to fulfill his Personal Legend and find his treasure. In order to do so, he goes through the eight-step transformation that is ‘the hero journey.’ Santiago’s introduction to the king marks the threshold of his journey. The stones the king gives to the boy are symbols of guidance and comfort. Santiago meets the crystal merchant, through whom Santiago is able to learn about himself and finalize his plans to continue in his journey to the Pyramids. Every person and situation in the story seems to lead Santiago towards his treasure, inevitably helping him to discover himself and live out his personal legend. It is because of people like the king, the crystal merchant, the Englishman, the caravan leader, the alchemist and Fatima that Santiago is able to return to the abandoned church at the end of the story having transformed and rediscovered him. The actions of Santiago and of the people he comes in contact with clearly mark the eight steps in his journey.
I believe that Coelho meant to write a story that displays the hero’s journey in a way that illustrates the hero in a way unlike Odysseus and Superman. Coelho’s The Alchemist is a journey of inner spiritual heroism, the private pathway that leads to self-acceptance and understanding. Santiago is not characterized as someone who sacrifices his life to save others on purpose. Santiago is characterized as a hero because of his courage and free will. He is meant to stand as a hero to those people holding back from their own personal legends, living the safe lives they know that they are capable of. Through Santiago Coelho demonstrates a hero’s journey that is more mental than physical but is nonetheless the same journey.
Mouthshut.com requires an account in order to post on the reviews (I think?), so I'm posting mine here, and I'll give you the link to the review I'm commenting on: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-92575-1.html. The author of the review goes by "Tipu U V," so if you see that name mentioned in this post, that's who I'm referring to!
As “Tipu U V” has said, “The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho-
can be looked upon as a novel for good reading or a book to enlighten. Unfortunately it didn’t help me in either.” Going into this book, I had already been bombarded for months on how incredible it supposedly was, and, to poke some fun at Coelho, I think this served as an immediate “omen” hinting that I wouldn’t enjoy it. There were some parts I found entertaining and well written, but as a whole, it didn’t live up to my expectations, nor did it change my outlook on life.
The Alchemist is a unique kind of book, in the sense that it combines chin-rubbing epiphanies and overly-simplistic, middle-school level reading. I applaud Coelho for being the first author I’ve seen to do this, but I can’t say that the simplified writing made it more powerful: “The alchemist turned to the boy. ‘This is for you. To make up for what you gave to the general.’ The boy was about to say that it was much more than he had given to the general. But he kept quiet, because he had heard what the alchemist said to the monk” (155). It may be a qualm that can easily be overlooked, but it’s passages like this one that cause mental eye-roll. Coelho seems to have taken an oath before writing The Alchemist, vowing that every individual action or thought receive its own sentence; in turn, many parts of the story feel more like grocery lists than smooth flowing writing.
To criticize this individual passage, I’m irked by the back-to-back sentences each ending with the word “general;” it adds an unwanted sense of repetition. In fact, repetition appears to be another one of Coelho’s own commandments of writing. Dear Coelho, we know that the boy heard “what the alchemist said to the monk” (155). The entire book would have had a much more cohesive feeling to it if Coelho had spent more time of the fluidity of his sentences rather than depicting every single detail of Santiago’s journey. I’ll again say thast I doubt these personal observations matter to the many fans of Coelho; but, as a budding writer myself, I fall into the treap outlined in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Lullaby: “The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up.”
Now that I’ve given off the impression that I despised Coelho and his writing (not true), I’ll share that this is a book I would recommend, to the right person. Given its fairy-tale like plot, I see this as a perfect bedtime book for a young, imaginative child. It’s a great nightly installment of fantasy, and also teaches the basic morals of “follow your dreams/heart” and the arguable “everything happens for a reason.” To reiterate the words of Tipu U V, “This is a good read to those interested in understanding philosophies in a simple way.” It’s almost like a workbook of philosophy, a Level 1 Intro to the lofty intangibles of our world.
The strongest enjoyment I got out of The Alchemist was the rare moments of dry, perhaps unintentional, humor. Passages like, “The boy was tempted to be ruyde, and move to another bench, but his father had taught him to be respectful of the elderly. So he held out the book to the man- for two reasons: first, that he, himself, wasn’t sure how to pornounce the title; and second, that if the old man didn’t know how to read, he world probably feel ashamed and decide of his own accord to change benches” (17), are humorous in their uncensored rudeness. Santiago’s foolishness is often entertaining, yet adds a bit of likeability to his character. As he nearly faces death, we root for him to pull through, and all breathe a sigh of relief as he finds his treasure at last, allowing us to shut the door of this “magical little volume” (San Francisco Chronicle).
My post from Coelho's blog:
I see fear as one of the most bothersome feelings in our broad range of emotions, yet I cannot imagine living life without it. Fear has stopped me from doing many things, it’s even kept me locked in my house (or close to it) for almost a year, but it’s essentially what defines reality. When I picture my life without all my fears and worries in it, I see a dream world, and all its encompassing clichés. Then when I re-add fear into the mix, I see what I have now: a pleasant life, and the recurrent black cloud that darkens my way, and forces me to grow.
Erika said that, “I know that part of facing fears is acknowledging how they got there in the first place,” a point that proves our fears say something about us. When I was 7, my aunt thought it would be a good idea to watch the Stephen King movie “It,” you know, the one about a murderous being who can transform himself into anything, and in turn parades around as a killer clown. Thus began a tremendous fear of the dark, of clowns, and of the dangers I might face at my aunt’s house. I later learned she was an alcoholic.
As I’ve grown older, my fears have moved away from tangible objects, and now ultimately center on death. I’m not afraid of flying, I’m afraid that the plane might crash and lead to my death (note to self: reading a novel about plane crashes while flying isn’t the best idea). I’m not afraid of bridges, but I’m afraid of veering off one while driving, and I’ve thought of several ways to survive the spectacle. I’m certainly not afraid of sleeping, but just a few nights ago, I woke up from a “night time, sniffling, sneezy, WORST-sleep-you-ever-got-with-a-cold” (there was no Nyquil in the house) and sensed that my breathing was a little off. My heart raced as I was convinced this was a sign of a fast-approaching death, and I struggled to keep myself awake in order to take just one more breath. Needless to say, I woke the next morning (and immediately bought some Nyquil for the next night).
I believe the only way to face my fear of death is to slowly accept the concept of it, but that in itself I find challenging. I can’t force myself to accept that death will come, because that will only make me more afraid. I’m at a point in my life that I’m too timid and scared to think that I need to live everyday like it were my last- that would stress me out, because I’d want to accomplish so much, always fearing that I was leaving something out. Normally I’d face fear by building up the courage to do the thing I was afraid of, but you can’t do that with death- you can’t come back from it. So I guess to again reference Erika, I don’t face this fear, and I don’t want to face it head on. I just hope that I have a lot of time left in my life to figure it out.
Option 1: The Hero’s Journey
In one of our class discussions before break, we were asked what a hero was and almost everyone defined it as someone who sacrifices for other people. In contrast to our initial definition of a hero, the hero’s journey describes an extremely self-centered process. When I was first introduced to the concept of the hero’s journey, it bothered me that it was so self-serving. It went against all that I initially considered a hero to be. However, I now realize that that’s because I was ignoring a critical part of the journey: the return. The return is the selfless aspect of the hero’s journey, the step where the soon-to-be-hero takes all that he has gathered from his journey and returns it to society. The process of becoming a hero is selfish, but what occurs after that is extremely selfless, and fits with our initial definition of a hero. I think it's necessary that a hero exhibits selfishness, before he can exhibit selflessness. He must travel inwards and reach the center of his own existence before he can travel outwards and give back to society.
The part of The Alchemist when Santiago reaches his inner existence is when he begins talking to his own heart. This shows symbolically that he has reached the center of his internal world and understands it to the point that he is able to communicate with it. Once he can communicate with his true self, he can communicate with everything on earth, such as a wind. According to Coelho, everyone has an “exact function as unique being.” It’s our choice as to whether or not we want to perform that function. Fate and willpower are interconnected in that we have the willpower to decide if we want to carry out our fate. Although Fight Club argues that “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.” I think Coelho would say that we can choose to be a unique snowflake if we have the willpower. We are born and we die in the same way, and it’s in between then that we can decide to follow down a unique path; to follow a hero’s journey.
As I said before, the critical part of the journey, is the return. It’s when the hero takes all he knows about himself and unburies it for the world to see. This is symbolized process of digging for treasure. The treasure is something internal which makes someone unique. “Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.” The treasure is what’s at the center of everyone's internal existence, the prize in the middle of all of our personal labyrinths. The hero’s journey is the process of separating from the outside world, looking inside of yourself for this treasure, and then giving this treasure to the world. Santiago’s “return” occurs in the last passage of the book, when he hears Fatima calling for him. Now that he understands himself, he is ready to understand Fatima, and can give back to her all that he has learned through his journey. Even though he is only giving back to only one person, it’s enough to be considered a hero. Having an impact on one person is still creating a permanent ripple in time, for that person will go on to affect another person, and then that person another, etc. I think Fatima also can be considered a hero, for she understands herself as a woman of a desert, and now is able to return that to Santiago. Fatima represents the rare kind of hero who doesn’t need to go on a journey because she was born understanding herself and living in accordance with her innate being. The fact that she can understand and communicate with the desert proved to me that she must understand herself, because understanding one thing means you understand all things on earth. This is what allows her to love Santiago and what allows Santiago to love her in return. It also brings to mind the message in Octavio Paz’s “My Life with the Wave”: that you must understand the center of your own existence, before you can love and understand anyone else's. So perhaps, anyone that has the ability to love can be considered a hero.
The other one will be up really late, thanks to a 7-chapter bio test I need to study for. :/
Every person on the face of the Earth has a gift.
For some this is revealed spontaneously,
others have to work to find it.
(By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept)
This concept makes me a little bit uneasy. I agree completely, however I do believe that some people never do sincerely find their gift. I often wonder if I know my gift or if there is something more that I am capable of that I just haven’t given thought to. It seems like there are things that I am good at, things that I am not so good at and not very many things that I am great at. The things that I am great either don’t seem to be great or aren’t concrete. Neither has my gift been revealed to me nor have I found it, and that is unsettling. I don’t seem to be looking for it though, as I’m not sure how I would go about it. There seem to be all of these things holding me back from experiencing new things, things that may be in some way connected to my gift. If I continue to let these things hold me back, I wonder if I will become the Crystal Merchant. Maybe I am not being held back at all and I am just afraid or lazy. I guess I just don’t know how hard I should be looking for this gift. As I continue to get to know myself everyday I think everything will become clearer until a realization is finally met. I’m worried about what the future holds and what kind of gifts I will be able to offer the world, at the same time I am content with how things are, I trust that everything will work out in a favorable way. I sometimes wonder if I am too trusting. As long as I choose my own paths and stay true to my heart and my mind it seems that I will be happy. This is why I wonder if those people who never discover their gifts leave this world with a sense of satisfaction or with a sense of incompleteness. Does knowing your gift and embracing it determine the quality of your life? Could I live happily without ever recognizing it? In a way this quote is comforting, I am being told that even if I don’t find it, I have a gift. This is also comforting because even if this gift is never discovered, other people can recognize it within you and appreciate it without you even knowing. It seems however, that whenever I have complimented or pointed out these qualities in other people they do not take it seriously. People are either too modest or don’t have the confidence to accept and share themselves and their gifts with the people around them. I don’t want to say that I am not one of these people, I have no idea. The truth is I believe what this quote says and it makes me feel both secure and insecure at the same time. Those things that make me unsure, force me to question, and make me feel like a hypocrite, have seemed to be those things of the most significance in my life so far. I appreciate the larger spectrum of thought that this smaller quote invoked in me.
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2008/04/01/quote-of-the-day-65/#comment-33781
3) His question was: How do you face fear? Here is my answer...
In order to answer this question I felt that I needed to first analyze my fears and come up with a list of things that I was afraid of before I could continue. To start, I believe that fear is something that one needs to have in their life. Fear provides the boundaries to an individuals comfort zone. True individual growth comes when an individual steps out of his or her comfort zones and therefore begins to extend their boundaries. After thinking for awhile about the types of things that I am afraid of I found that there are two types of fears in my life, fears that I am going to call external and ones that I will call internal. I know that using the words “external” and “internal” are not accurate descriptions to classify fears, but it works better than anything else I can think of at the moment. So bear with me here…I’ll start with “external” fears.
What I’m considering external fears are the fears that do not affect me as much. External fears are the more average ones. Examples of some of my external fears are spiders, snakes, and excessive heights. How do I face these types of fears? Well…these fears do not have much of an impact on my life. They are the category of fears that are avoidable and do not come in contact with me on a daily basis. If I really had to I could probably break these fears, but for now they are just based on something that developed in early childhood and has just stuck with me. To face my fear of spiders for example, reading some information about spiders and coming into contact with them might be an easy solution. Basically, what I am trying to say here is that the fears that I am calling “external” are ones that do not affect me much.
The other category of fears in my life are much more serious. The “internal” fear that I will focus on is one that impacts the way I live my life everyday. This fear is the fear of losing someone close to me in life. When I was younger my best friend died in an accident that I was also involved in. Without going into much detail, I was also both physically and mentally scarred by this incident. I have spent years coping with this accident and one of the things that still remains within me is this fear of losing someone close to me in my life. This fear is not limited to death. I am afraid of losing touch with people, like I lost my friend a few years ago. How do I confront it? Well, I of course try to avoid it, but it is obviously something that affects me daily. I recently had to experience this very badly involving the loss of someone very close to me. The person did not die or get injured, but our relationship changed very dramatically and suddenly which left me questioning my life and myself.
This recent experience has led me to analyze myself as a person. This is how I am confronting my fear. I have always hated the feeling of being alone in life and I have always tried to have a person that I could fall back on in my toughest times. But after this recent falling out, I have begin to tear down my walls and confront this fear. I am having a really hard time, I am not going to try and pretend like I am healed. I see this confrontation of my fear as a positive thing though. I am learning more about myself than I even thought existed by confronting this fear. Especially heading off to college next year and having dealt with this fear, I feel like it will better prepare me for the next time something like this may happen.
I have always been one to stay out of fears way and try not to look it in the eyes. But now my worst fears have approached me directly and I have realized that the only way I am going to be able to achieve true happiness again is to stand up and face them. I have no doubt that I will undergo a lot of personal growth in the next few months, but there will also be pain. I will emerge a better person and I will be changed forever.
How is The Alchemist a hero journey? Whip out Joseph Campbell’s 12 steps and you’ll see it follows every step, or moreover, we MAKE it follow every step, to a T. After being given the basic formula, we assume our job is to then find the answer to each step. We read “Here I am, between my flock and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted,” (27) and tell ourselves that it must be introducing step #2, the “call to adventure.” So we plug this into the equation, convinced that we’ll find ourselves with a hero somewhere down the road. The whole process is so mathematical, it drains all the fun out of reading because, no matter how hard Ms. Hoyt tries to convince me, math problems are not fun.
In no way, shape, or form do I think these 12 steps should garner a hero; my view on Santiago is no different. I’m done with searching for a proper definition for the word hero, as I know I could never do it justice, but to me, Santiago isn’t one. By titling the steps “The Hero’s Journey,” the protagonist is given a heroic status right off the bat. The reader is stripped of any choice thy have among the matter; this character is shoved down our throats as a hero, just like Hercules and Simba and all the other Disney brouhaha (I actually love Disney, I really do). The way I see it, when anyone is expected or sets out with the intention of being a hero, they fail. This is because a true hero of mine must not realize that they’re a hero- they must not cloud their vision by trying to apply the Hero’s Journey to their life. An unexpected hero is one of the greatest value.
While I cannot define a hero in my own words, the alchemist comes close when he says: “No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it” (159). In this class, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing how we don’t matter, we’re such a smart part of the universe, and that what may seem like the end of the world to us doesn’t even register as a blip on the disaster-radar of existence. While a hero shouldn’t believe they are God’s gift to a world, a true hero should believe in something, and act on their belief to cement their place in the history of the world, without the pessimism of insignificance. To achieve this, the hero shouldn’t have to follow any formula, any steps, nothing: the hero comes from within, and is defined by whomever chooses to accept this.
Greta: May I just say that that was one fantastic blog entry. Fabulous stuff. :) I did have a question for you (or for anyone, really) concerning something you wrote about, how "understanding one thing means you understand all things on earth." Coelho applies this to the desert a lot, but if this were true, couldn't one argue that Santiago's journey shouldn't have been necessary to begin with, because by understanding his sheep he understood everything? I just don't quite get how this works... In any case, great work - now on to my response:
NUMBER 2
I read a lot of reviews of mouthshut.com before I finally found one that I wanted to comment on. The majority of them were rather effusive in their praises of Paulo Coelho and The Alchemist. A few were very cynical. At least half of them were pretty poorly written. This review I liked in particular because it provided a fairly balanced portrayal of the novel, and provided some decent perspectives on the book instead of pure plot summary.
My favorite line of your review is: "This book does not provide any radically new concepts about life." I completely agree with this; while the terminology of the book ("Personal Legend," "Soul of the World," Maktub,omens, etc.) might be new, the concepts of heroism, fate vs. free will, love, and more certainly are not. Yet I don't think it was Coelho's intention to devise radical philosophies. Instead, I think he wanted to present what he feels are some of life's most important lessons in the most simple and universal format that is possible. Judging by the success of the novel over the past fifteen or so years, I would say that it worked.
You also brought up one of the book's major themes - fate vs. free will - when you talked about "the gospel of whatever happens, happens for good." This concept was undoubtedly the aspect of the book that I struggled with. My personal beliefs are far from etched in stone at this point in my life. I usually feel that there are too many patterns at coincidences in the world for there not to be some divine force behind it all, but then I think of senseless acts of violence and I struggle for the reason why. Coelho's concepts of Matkub and Personal Legend seem to me to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, no matter how much I try to wrap my brain around them.
In the end, I think I just have to accept that this is just one of the many things in life I will never truly understand. I have a difficult time with mere acceptance though, because I feel as though my society has trained me to question everything, to never accept anything at face value without knowing the reasons why. With technology and science on the rise and organized religion on the slow decline, it almost seems as though the mode of the alchemist, who dictates that "the Tradition is always right."
But back to your review. You write, "I think, one can definitely relate to the incidents in his/her life. It does strike a chord somewhere. Be it the hope, despondency, fear, courage or love." This just speaks to Coelho's success at writing in the "universal language." While it is not "linguistically lavish" as you put it, the message is so clear that it transcends boundaries of culture and age. Something that proves this on a personal level is the fact that my little brother, currently a sixth grader, is reading this book and enjoying it just as much as I did. Is he getting different things out of it than me? Certainly. There are probably some concepts that he is too young to understand, just as there are undoubtedly concepts that I am too old to understand. But this is the first time that he has ever been remotely interested in anything that I've been reading in school, and that I have read something that is mutually accessible to a twelve year old boy and a seventeen year old girl. If this mere book can even for a moment bridge the treacherous waters of sibling rivalry, imagine what it could do for, say, Israel and Palestine!
NUMBER 1
I'm having a difficult time concisely conceptualizing the hero/hero's journey, so I will just focus on one aspect of the Campbell definition from the hero's journey - The Atonement - and how it relates to Santiago.
In the map of the Hero's Journey, "The Atonement" is the necessary stage between the hero's transformation and his return to everyday life. In this time, the hero becomes at one with his "new self" but being brought "into harmony with life and the world." I would view Santiago's atonement as the final stage of his journey to the Pyramids, when he rides solo through the desert after having finally departed from his chief mentor, the alchemist. In this moment, the journey is truly Santiago's to seize and to own. Unaided, he does all the things that the alchemist and his other mentors have taught him to do: he listens to his heart, he is conscious of living in the present moment, he is embracing his personal legend, and is careful to understand that while unearthing his physical treasure is a necessary part of his journey, it will not bring him greater value than all the lessons and experiences he had encountered on his quest.
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring part of Santiago's atonement is the manner in which he is able to take control of his fears. I've noticed a lot of blog entries in here over the past week on the subject of fear - specifically how necessary it is, or if it is necessary that we must eliminate it in order for true progress. Using Santiago as my guide, I would say that, in deference to our Hero's Journey handout, fear does not have to die in order to make way for courage. When the soldiers discover the boy searching for his treasure, he is terrified, "frightened at what might happen." He never specifically states what his fears are, but I would suspect the tops ones are failing so close to the journey's end, never seeing Fatima again, and dying. Yet the following day, he pushes his fears aside, embracing a bold, borderline swaggering attitude as a last ditch effort to save himself from a deadly fate. His fears are far from dead; they are still residing, unspoken, just below the surface. But he is able to channel his terror and anger into standing up for himself. It reminded me of a scene from the movie Glory that I think we discussed a few months ago in class. Denzel Washington's character is being mercilessly beaten by one of the generals in the army, but instead of giving in to the pain, he takes complete ownership through unbelievable self-control.
I found it interesting that this stage of the journey is called The Atonement, because at first it was unclear to me exactly what sins the hero was atoning for. It didn't appear to me that Santiago had committed any particular egregious sins that he had to repent from before going on his journey. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that perhaps my definition of sin was too narrow. I tend to associate the word sin with religion, specifically the whole Ten Commandment guidelines like "though shall not kill," or "though shall not covet thy neighbor's wife." Or I think of the Catholic Seven Deadly Sins: lust, greed, sloth, etc. But these definitions narrow atonement down to committing a "wrong" dead, going to Confession, and then being pardoned until your next transgression. I think Santiago is searching for something much deeper than words of wisdom from a priest. Throughout his physical and mental journey, the boy finds ways to better listen to himself and the world, for ways to understand the Universal Language, for ways to live for the present moment. In doing this, he is atoning for his former lifestyle. Santiago cannot change the past; there will always be that portion of his life where he was a passive wanderer, content to follow the herd mentality and settle for a subpar lifestyle. Yet rather than bemoan the lost time, he chooses to learn from his mistakes and atone by embracing a new lifestyle.
It is in the Atonement that Santiago finally proves that he is capable of being the hero that, as Greta so aptly wrote about, will return to the community with a renewed sense of purpose in order to, as Gandhi so aptly once said, "be the change you wish to see in the world."
How is the Alchemist a hero's journey?
I don't think the Alchemist is a hero's journey. By my definition a Hero's journey is a process of self discovery and i'm not quite sure Santiago is discovering himself. It's more like he's discovering this "soul of the world" garbage when what he really should be discovering is his own soul. A hero has to be an individual, his own person, have his own soul. I think finding this soul of the world just make part of everyone else. I mean if there's this shared soul, universal language and if he lives by this, how is that making him his own person. Isn't this just another form conforming? Just not conforming to society but to the soul of the world. Just as he was being lead by his sheep is he not now being lead by the pyramids and his treasure? I mean, he wasn't even the only one with this "treasure" in the pyramids. At the end did he not learn where the treasure is from some other guy's dream?
I think to be a hero you have to have some sort of individuality. The journey santiago was on seemed more like a religious awakening than the path of a hero. The only thing i can think to compare this to would be the Odyssey or the Aenied. In the Odyssey we have Ulysses traveling throughout the Mediterranean trying to return to his wife. He sacrifices himself, goes literally through hell and back for his wife, all the while writing his personal legend. This is true heroism. Through his sacrifice Odysseus defines himself, not the soul of the world. It's his own soul that finds meaning. And even Aeneas who founds Rome, discovers his own power to lead, not the power of the universe. So thats where i stand with the Alchemist: a story of religious / spiritual enlightenment, not the tale of a heroic journey. I hope this answers the question....
if not: the Alchemist is a heroic journey because it kinda follows the form of the handout which was given to us which is really just the idea of another person. For sure it starts out as a heroic journey, but it was the turning to faith instead of himself as a guide that made this more religious than heroic.
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-37337-1.html
Although this review is rather short it captures the essence of the book and the message behind the story very well. I liked this review because it did not describe The Alchemist as “life changing” or ‘incredibly inspiring’ but instead as a book that asks you to look inside of yourself to ‘find your inner alchemist.’ I totally agree with what is said in this review, I did not find this book to be so influential that I all of a sudden feel the need to re-evaluate and change my life, however I found it evoking questions in my mind. All though I found it to be very predictable and sometimes a little bit too fairy-tale-ish it is still worthy of reading as it does seem to influence many people to make their dreams a reality and believe in themselves. Personally, people have said in other reviews this is a ‘great self-help book’ and I do not believe this is what Coelho meant this book to be. In writing this I think he wanted to expose a hero and tell of a spiritual journey, not tell everyone in the world how to be all that they can be. This review suggest that the reader be inquisitive and possibly even comparative of Santiago to oneself, to believe in free will and dreams but not to let the book become a self help book or the source of ones lifestyle. I can say with complete honesty and sincerity that this book may not even be remembered when I think back to all of the books I have ever read. It is so built up to be amazing that I found reading it to be a let down as from time to time I felt that I could have read this at a much younger age. I am glad for Coelho that so many people want to change their lives after reading his story, but I however do not feel so strongly impacted by his words. I appreciated that this review did not seem as obsessive and over-analyzed as some of the other reviews did.
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-50209-1.html
this was probably one of the best book reviews i have read. The man, so i assume, speaks the truth. We do live in the age of instant mac and cheese, and this book caters (heh) to this fact. I think about the fiftieth time i read the words "personal" and "legend" together, i kinda got sick of it. Not only is it repetitive, but it is the same idea just spoon fed to us over and over. The basic concept of this book was basically given to us, and i think to get the general idea you didn't need much thinking. Personally, i think that pondering over this book is something that Coelho didn't expect. I think its a stretch, really, to bring out of it anything other than the obvious: go after your dream and don't let anything stop you. Sorry, but this almost reminds me of the plot of the Little Engine that Could. All you have to do is think about your dream, keep that dream in your heart, tell yourself its possible and go for it. So, i whole heartedly agree with this reviewer. Except for the fact that he hated the book. I wouldn't describe my feelings about the Alchemist as hate...more disappointment. I was expecting something to change my life, but instead, as the reviewer said, i learned a lesson that could be taught almost as effectively in a picture book. This was not like reading something real, like Borges. To me, the Alchemist is to novels as Blink-182 is to punk: catered to the simpleminded, mainstream, popular culture. I prefer the indie stuff, myself. It's generally a bit deeper.
additionally, i would just like to commend Meg's use of HTML in her post. thats true quality.
I responded to this one:
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-103211-1.html
Mouthshut wasn't sending me a conformation email, so I'll post this on there after it eventually comes...but here it is:
I want to first start by saying that I am happy that you took the time to review this book and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I read it also and for the most part I enjoyed it too. But this book is by no means a "perfect 10".
You should never base your admiration for something off the fact that other people like it too. Just because Madonna or the French government thought it was good does not mean it is good. Everyone has their own interpretation on things and something that one person enjoys could be completely different for someone else. With that said, my interpretation of this website was that it was for readers to honestly critique a book and make recommendations. So I do not understand why you spend the first half of your review telling me how popular and famous this book is. If people needed to know how popular The Alchemist is they could just look at the front cover and read the words "International Bestselling Phenomenon". For some reason, part of me feels like you might have been one of the people to read this based on its popularity. I read it for a World Literature class, so I am not sure why our teacher picked the book. I probably would not have read it had it not been required. I tend to stay away from the best sellers list just as I like to stay away from mainstream media and music.
I did enjoy the message of The Alchemist a lot. Coelho makes a lot of very good points about lifestyle, personal discovery, and imagination. I would say that the idea that impressed me the most came at the end when Santiago discovered that the treasure that he had been on a quest to find was buried beneath his starting place the whole time. It really speaks to me on a lot of different levels including spiritually. It questions our westernized view of travel and what is really required to achieve personal growth. The fact is that we are such complex beings that we are born with the answers to our dreams already in our head, it just sometimes takes a journey like Santiago's to realize them.
"This book puts dreamz into words, things which everyone of us experience daily and ignore its meaning......every sign of nature has a hidden message, only those who can read between the lines are able to decode it........Dreamz are what U are!"
One of my biggest problems with The Alchemist was how simple all of the quotes and metaphors were. They fit right into Joseph Campbell's idea of a "hero journey" and at times it was almost painfully obvious. I mean common, talking wind? I'm hoping that most people who read the book are able to connect to these "hidden messages" as you say. I think that is the case and I also think that is why this book is so popular.
I would recommend this book to people, but I do not think it is a perfect book by any means. It is a quick and easy read. It is likely that any reader will find something in it for them. I would give this book a 7/10 overall compared to other books I have read.
This is a response to a review on mouthsut.com titled "A Magical Fable." Here's the link to it: http://www.mouthshut.com/Comment/readcomment.php?rid=103056&c=1&r=1
Wow, what an amazing review! To be completely honest, I decided to read your review because I found your username, GypsyEyes, amusing. But usernames aside, I thought this was an excellent review. I found everything that you had to say very interesting, and I really like your writing style.
The first thing that stood out to me in your review was when you said “He [Coelho] makes it seem like we’re not alone at any point of time, we’re one with this world and it with us. The small things in life, like the gentle breeze and the sun have been given more purpose and magic, personalities by themselves.” I completely agree. It’s a very comforting book to read because it makes you believe that you’re not just a meaningless spec, but might have some greater purpose which the world can help you to fulfill, and you can, in turn, give to the world. It also makes us appreciate the small things that we often fail to perceive because we are so accustomed to them. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never forget the drops of oil on the spoon.” In other words, Coelho urges us to appreciate the small pleasures, while not neglecting our more important purpose, a balance between working towards the future while living in the present. This book reminded me that it’s okay to put the future on hold, and simply live in the moment. More importantly, I think The Alchemist argues that if you’re doing what you want in the present, then you are also working towards your desires in the future, although you might not be entirely aware of this. My favorite passage from the book deals with this idea: “The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day in itself brings with it an eternity.” (pg. 103)
Another thing--I liked what you had to say about choosing between being a “poor victim” and an “adventurer on a quest for treasure.” I agree that after every obstacle, you can choose to treat it as another step in your journey, or decide to become a poor victim. I think it’s much easier to decide to let an obstacle defeat you, and fulfill the role of the poor victim. People that complain about everything really only want other people to feel bad for them. This book urges people to choose to take the higher road, and work around your obstacle instead of giving into self-pity.
Lastly, I liked what you said about each reader interpreting this their own way. I think that’s true for all books, but especially this one due to all of the God references. I think the mention of God could be completely ignored, or interpreted in your own way. For me, God just represents a higher energy, but it’s different for everyone.
I tried to post this on mouthshut.com, but it's too long to fit in the "comment" box. I don't really want to shorten it, so I'll just post it here. It's my response to question number 2.
I’m a high school senior, and I just finished reading the alchemist for a World Literature elective. While reading through these reviews, I was searching for someone who offered up a new idea. Although I was a fan of this book, I felt that it became a bit repetitive at times and presented very few new ideas in the second half or so. I scanned a few other reviews, and found many of the commonly identified morals of this story: Go After Your Dreams, Take the Journey, Believe In Yourself. But then I read this review, an analysis of the book that tells me that I am the alchemist. Refreshingly, I had found a new idea.
Most people, while reading this book, see themselves in Santiago. While reading a book, I think its quite natural to associate or identify yourself with a learner rather than a teacher. Paulo Coelho himself has even said that this book is symbolically autobiographical, that he is the boy who wanders and that this is his journey. It takes a certain amount of self-assurance to see yourself in a wise guru or master. If the reader is the alchemist, it is ironically fitting that this book teaches confidence.
A large majority of the world population is seeking to learn or grow in some way. But how many of us are looking to be an example, to change someone else’s life? I think most of us would hesitate to call ourselves capable of such a feat. But the alchemist doesn’t teach through lessons or instruction. He serves as Santiago’s example, his guiding map, and imparts wisdom and strength all the same. If I’m the alchemist in my story, one question screams out loud. Who the hell am I teaching?
I began to think that it could be my little sister. It’s an obvious choice; it fits easily into that example/learner category. But then I realized that she teaches me about patience and determination every day. So then I thought that maybe it’s my dog that I’m teaching. It’s that owner/owned relationship, a classic teaching venue. But I can’t ignore the fact that many pets teach their owners more about loyalty than their fellow humans do and that my case is no exception. Finally I considered the idea that I am a teacher to my best friend. That train of thought was quickly abandoned, however, because I could never determine whether I teach her more about courage or she teaches me more about confidence. It was around this time that I realized that both my original inclinations and this new idea are right.
It’s a duality. In some instances, we are the alchemists, the gurus. In others, we learn from the example of someone else. Sometime these codependent relationships exist simultaneously in the same pairs of people for different aspects of their character. Both roles, however, should give us hope. (It’s called an inspirational book, after all.) Everyone should take solace in knowing that he is capable of both learning from the lives around him and changing something or someone else in return.
oh i forgot to say that my last post was in response to the review called "you are the alchemist" by Paulsb02
posted this on the coelho blog:
It is our actions, not our words, that truly matter in times of great suffering. We can write thousands, millions of pages of writing, but in the end it is what we do, physically that makes the true difference.
Now I’m not trying to downplay the importance of what we write (considering i’m on an author’s blog). Writing is quite a powerful, if not the most powerful, way to incite and encourage action. Martin Luther King Jr’s speech during the March on Washington did not cause any change, but it was the actions it caused, the passions it incited that helped eliminate the suffering of slavery. So ultimately it’s what we do that has the true impact.
~
Now, in the case of spoken words, i think it’s more the feeling and heart behind the words that augment and adds meaning to the voice. This is like the whole universal language deal in the Alchemist. When it really comes down to true suffering i think you have to revert back to that language we all understand, the language of the heart. We need to take the suffering of others into ourselves. We must share their suffering, understand it, and with our hearts console it. It is that language beyond words, the language through the eyes that has meaning.
couldn't find any more words to say about that topic. i tried.
1) How is The Alchemist a hero journey
sorry this is so random, my brain is fried.
Spurred on by class discussion and Coelho's simple symbols, my experience with the Alchemist has really caused me to think about how I would define a hero and what a hero actually is. Before the discussion I would make a list of heroes that included people like Maynard James Keenan, Al Schnier, and Trey Anastasio. These people are in reality nothing more to me than members of specific bands that have changed my life significantly. Does that constitute a hero though?
The first thing to look at when analyzing The Alchemist as a hero journey would be Joseph Campbell's heroes journey. When looking at the book in Campbell's definition almost anyone would agree that it fits perfectly. It seems as though Coelho even based a lot of the parts in the story off of the heroes journey formula. The Alchemist touches on all of the parts of the heroes journey. In many parts of the story, it was actually so obvious that it was hard to read and made the story a little bit boring. So in Campbell's definition, The Alchemist is a heroes journey.
After analyzing the meaning of a hero as a class and personally, I would say that my only true hero in my life would be my mom. To me the most important characteristic of a hero is someone that affects one or more people positively while still maintaining a focus on themselves. If the story about the spoon with oil in it was translated into my view of a hero, a hero is someone who can balance the oil in the spoon while observing the surroundings and at the same time, enhance the surroundings. A hero balances the concepts of selflessness and selfishness. With this balance the hero also creates something new, a third world of sorts, one that interweaves the ideas of selflessness and selfishness. I think that almost anyone can be a hero in someone else's eyes. A hero can be something as simple as just a good person. The definition is loose and it depends on personal perspective.
In terms of my own personal definition of a hero, did Santiago complete his hero journey? I am not sure if Santiago is a hero in terms of my personal definition. I do not know who's life he affected that greatly in the story. He learned how to balance the oil in his spoon while observing his surroundings and he discovered his personal legend, but I do not know if that makes him a hero in my eyes. He is a good person and he is also very wise and open-minded. I admire Santiago as a person, so maybe that does make him a hero. I believe that Santiago completed a hero journey, but I do not know if that makes him a hero in my definition.
In response to #1...
It’s difficult, for me at least, to describe how The Alchemist is a hero’s journey without going on about just the plot, so I decided to talk a lot more about the emotional journey rather than the physical one.
In the hero’s journey handout we looked at, it says that The Call can come in many forms, psychologically it can be “an awareness of a shift in our spiritual or emotional ‘center of gravity;’ the world in which we live no longer provides the stimulation or possibilities we need to grow.” I look at the beginning of Santiago’s journey not that he no longer wants to herd sheep, but it’s his current position in general that no longer satisfies him emotionally. Also, the handout says that The Call is “a realization that the story we are living no longer matches the story that we are; our world has become constricting rather than expanding.” This is when Santiago realizes that his story is no longer of a boy, the sheep herder, but that of a possible hero, and his journey is the continuation of that story.
Following Santiago’s journey through the Abyss, the desert, he meets the Alchemist, whom I believe facilitates his Transformation and Revelation. The hero handout says, “The final step in the process is a moment of death and rebirth: a part of us dies so that a new part can be born.” Santiago faces a fear of being killed by the tribesmen if he can’t turn himself in to the wind, which is one of his ultimate challenges, but it also leads him to his transformation and rebirth. It is when he truly learns of the Soul of the World, and where he knows that the soul of the wind is inside him, which helps him become the wind itself. He says that, “It’s true that everything has its Personal Legend, but one day that Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new Personal Legend, until, someday the Soul of the World becomes one thing only,”(150). In this moment, Santiago realizes just why he needed to turn into the wind, so he could understand that everything has its own Personal Legend, and by realizing their Personal Legends, we can realize our own as well.
Santiago’s Transformation and Rebirth ends with him becoming an alchemist of sorts. He learns that alchemy exists “so that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, then want to be better than he was in his former life,” (150). The alchemist then says, “That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too,” (150). I can’t help but think of a wise man, Buddha, who said that until you work towards your own enlightenment, you cannot do any good for anybody. I think these two thoughts coincide, and send the message that when you strive for your own Personal Legend, and to better yourself, you are bettering others in the process, or will soon be able to do so. I think by this time Santiago has completed a spiritual journey; he has given himself the essential tools to better those around him, and possibly become a hero.
This is what leads me to the issue of whether Santiago is a hero or not in the end. Is Santiago a hero? I think it ultimately depends on us, the readers, even though that seems like a complete cop-out, because we are always looking for straightforward answers. Santiago is what the individual creates, what we want him to be. As for me, I don’t know whether he’s a hero or not. It sounds contradictory that I call this story a hero’s journey but don’t assume Santiago is a hero, but the story describes a hero’s journey so far, it doesn’t mean it follows it to the end where a hero is revealed. Santiago may or may not be a hero, but I can say with certainty that he’s an alchemist, and that’s definitely a good thing. What he has done is peeled away the pieces of lead that have covered him so long, and transformed them into the gold that is slowly revealed after each completion of his mental journey.
To end, I have to say that I really hate thinking of a definition for a hero, and quite simply, I think we beat the concept to death during our study of The Alchemist (sorry). I made up definitions for a hero when I was asked, even though I think the term hero is “stupid,” possibly because I’m unable to define it. All issues aside though, right now the only definition for a hero I can come up with just defines a heroic act. We discussed this in class, and I said that a heroic act is leaving a legacy by giving people something positive and obtainable to aspire to, and probably something that requires them to modify their beliefs and grow as people. That is a heroic act, but does that automatically make someone a hero because they do this one act? I write for school, but do I call myself a writer? Hardly. So I wouldn’t say that means a hero is someone who does a heroic act, but it helps with the definition I can’t really make right now. We also mentioned Superman, and Spiderman, heroes that are normal people but transform into their alter egos. I think a hero, like Superman and Spiderman, needs to know when to turn this “hero switch” off, and blend in with everyday people. You cannot inspire the common people to follow their own journeys, and discover their own Personal Legends if you set yourself up to be a glorified image of someone that others simply cannot be. This is related to the quote we talked about in class that says, “The hero has died as a modern man; but as eternal man…has been reborn.” The legacy of the hero includes the little things that people can obtain for themselves, and continue the chain, therefore making this hero eternal. Santiago may not have done anything that appears amazing, but that makes him all the more able to become a hero with time.
Mine was too long (of course) so it wouldn't let me post, but this is in response to AllyJ88…
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-91218-1.html
I have to say that I disagree with your review of the ending. My personal thought on the book is that I enjoyed the beginning way less, because it provided almost too much sweetness, and its overuse of undefined terms like Soul of the World and Personal Legend made me a little sick. I think in the end though, all of these blank terms came together, at least for the most part.
You make the argument by saying, “I loved this book up until the last two or so pages when you find out that Santiagos Personal Legend is just a buch of money.” I think you missed the whole point here, and I don’t see how you can enjoy the beginning that also mentions his Personal Legend of finding treasure, but not the end. You provide no factual evidence to support your claim, but I can provide evidence of the contrary, that this is not what the ending intends to say at all. In the end Santiago, “thought of the many roads he had traveled, and of the strange way God had chosen to show him his treasure. If he hadn’t believed in the significance of recurrent dreams, he would not have met the Gypsy woman, the king, the thief or…” (165). At this time, Santiago clearly acknowledges all he has gone through to get to his treasure, but also accepts it and is grateful for it. If he hadn’t believed in his dream, he would never have discovered treasure, but he also wouldn’t have met such influential people in his life, that will shape him far more than this treasure will. It’s clear that Santiago isn’t thanking God for just giving him treasure, and resenting him for the hardships he put him through.
Also in the end, the boy thinks, “It’s true; life really is generous to those who pursue their Personal Legend.”(166) It seems like this path that Santiago had to follow to pursue his Personal Legend was not generous at all, and he was tested many times. That itself could be his Personal Legend; maybe his ultimate goal was to grow as a person, by being forced to follow a tumultuous journey, but he was rewarded generously just because he pursued this Legend, which many of us never do, and therefore never discover the treasure that could lie ahead.
There is some meaning to the reason why Santiago is in the same place he began, but now discovers his treasure. Everyone’s Personal Legends are different, and by including Santiago’s Personal Legend, Coelho certainly isn’t saying that “money is the most important thing in the universe.” He’s saying that we are all unique, and sometimes our own treasures are right where we left, but we don’t deserve them off-the-bat, and have to go on heroic journeys to get rewarded. This journey then, is clearly inward, since Santiago ends in the same place, but he is not the same person. His treasure is the physical evidence of a completion of a journey, but his mindset is the evidence of his tremendous inward growth. I think people who read The Alchemist become fixated on money itself just because it seems so superficial, but fail to recognize the substance behind it.
I think you may have completely disregarded the last line of the book, because that has nothing to do with money. In the end Santiago says, “I’m coming Fatima,” (167) after feeling and smelling the wind. In this moment, Santiago is not even considering the treasure, but instead the continuation of his destiny that will bring him to his love. This love is also what helped Santiago overcome his greatest challenge: becoming the wind. He says, “When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you, and even men can turn themselves into wind,” (147). Because of this love Santiago will return to a “treasure” far more important, and that’s Fatima. There is stronger evidence from the book then, to support that love is the most important thing in the universe, not money.
It’s clear that the treasure is not in the actual money, it’s the experience leading up to it, which I do not think you realized here. Earlier in The Alchemist, Santiago realizes that this book he is reading is an unnecessary burden, and I believe that in the end of the story he may also realize that this money is just an unnecessary burden, especially since the first thing he think of is that he needs to give some away. Santiago abandons books because they are not teaching him about his journey in the way that actually experiencing it can. In this respect, the treasure does not teach Santiago about his goals, and Personal Legend, so he can abandon it, but love and Fatima do teach him, and he chooses not to abandon those.
I can not help but play the devil's advocate. Though the book was indeed a good easy read, it is not really the best book I have ever read. The plethora of raving reviews in the poorest grammar I have ever seen only help to reduce my liking of the book. It is true that The Alchemist is an extremely easy read and therefor raises no need for breaks, I myself read the novel in one sitting. I do not however praise the book for being impossible to put down, I believe I played halo with the book in my lap several times. The story was not gripping as it is made out to be when someone states “impossible to put down.”
I am not trying to say that The Alchemist is not a worthy read, or that Coelho is not a great writer, I am simply of a different mind then those who readily fall into such texts. It is nice and comforting to read a novel with a sentence structure which allows it to be so readily understood, but I found the story itself to be equally simplistic. Boy decides he is upset with his life, man tells him what to do, he does it, he experiences hardships, he overcomes them, he ultimately wins more than he ever intended to win, and lives happily ever after making out with the wind. With the book perched on ones lap this all seems novel and completely acceptable, but when one takes the book into a setting where it is analyzed, the very obviousness of its impossibility and become all too apparent, it should make one a wee bit incredulous to hear that every single person is absolutely destined to achieve everything, simple laziness and stupidity are what keep everyone back, they simply don’t want it enough.
It sounds vary nice when it is first said, all it takes is getting up one more time and you can achieve everything. The truth is, the world does not strive to help mankind, the world is a senseless emotionless rock and does not care. It is stupidity to reduce the trials and tribulations of all those who suffer on earth to “it was a test.” No it wasn’t a test, that man really just wanted to murder your family, you get to cry now. Martin Luther King wasn’t being tested by the all holey world, when he was shot, there wasn’t much getting up left to do. People suffer in the world, we all know this, some better than others. However tempting it is to wrap all the good and bad coincidences of the world into a holey blanket of faith and fait, it is still a lie. Society is cruel to some people, that can make them stronger or worse. Little gay boys are not shot in California as a test, the wretched bigots who come to the funerals of murdered gay teens with hateful signs and words are not symbols from heaven. To say that everything is a test or a sign is insulting to all those who are injured by the motions of society, or devastated by mischance.
This is why I can not believe in God, or Faith. The bible like the alchemist, is a fools paradise, yes they are both very good reads, both very valuable for their historical references and cultural commentary, but to take the words literally is blatantly wrong. Losing ones self in fairy tale is something that should be left to small children. One who believes that kings will truly come to guide you through your personal legend, will be sitting on a bench for a very long time. Those who think the world is conspiring in their aid may wear a brighter smile while luck does take their misfortunes away after only short “trials” but when it all comes down, most will break.
Though I mean no insult to the book, or its author, I realize I have torn it to shreds. I would argue the same of any book I love if I saw it taken laterally in the very wrong instances. Just as I would chide the 11 year old who waits for their letter from Hogwarts, to spare the poor child the disappointment of realizing through experience that the world they dream of is false, I will chide the adult who tells me that omens and fait are real, for in my experiences I know the world to be far more random and cruel than would suggest consciousness.
I did like the Alchemist and I would recommend it to a friend. That is, however, under the contingency that this previously mentioned friend does not often take to believing in fairy tales.
Comment on Coelho's post on NY Times article about infidelity in nature and the comments which followed.
Doesn't make much sense out of context.
I'm going to try to look at this from a different angle. The article, I feel, is being taken far out of context. Animal behavior, below the great apes, can be said to be largely based upon ritual and genetics, both of which have developed in accordance with selection pressures. For those who do not study biology, both the behaviors and genetics (physical, hormonal, and mental characteristics) of an any species are controlled by breeding and passed down through generations. In the animal populations (other than human) the greatest factor in mating is the survival and betterment of the species.
Obviously, infidelity has proven to be a beneficial trait in genetic recombination. For a species to survive and adapt it is most advantageous for the most pairs of mates to combine genes and allow for the most diversity in the gene pool of the next generation. Animals which appear to have life mates are not together in the same way that a human couple is together, there is no religious pressure on a pair of lizards to love one another endlessly, they do not experience attachments and emotions in a way that we could comprehend.
From the evolutionary stand point certain species have developed the trait to have a single mate, or as we are now realizing, a single partner with which to raise children. The species which do play a major part in the raising of young, mainly those which contribute the most energy in gestation, sometimes find it necessary to raise children in pairs. The division of certain animal populations into male female pairs does not suggest that they will not breed else where, these species do not share our odd views on morality or societal pressures, they act in the way that is best for evolution. This, in many cases, seems to mean that many species of animals find genetic recombination with many mates and raise young with a single partner. The larger animal population's behaviors are not dictated by religion or custom.
As for the jealousy of the apes, it may be that the psyche of the great apes has leaned towards the desire for monogamy, which does have some genetic benefits as well. Monogamy allows for each individual to know absolutely which of the next generation hold their genes, allowing for conscious altruism. Also the behaviors of the great ape's of which we are a part, are often divergent from those of other animals. It may be that the culture of different species of great apes (for they do at times seem to have a culture or tradition passed from generation to generation) is favorable to monogamy, and allows for jealousy and rage when encountered with an instance of 'infidelity.'
This does not, however, mean that humans should have multiple mates, or single mates. The human psyche has developed to be much more complex than that of the larger animal kingdom. We are widely controlled by learned behaviors. Though we do have our fair share of genetically controlled aspects we are widely blank pallets. Our minds are shaped by so many variables, both the subtle and uncontrollable experiences within the womb and the teaching of society. It can not be readily said what any one person is programmed toward, certainly our genetics could point us toward infidelity, but our genetics ceased to completely control us millennia ago.
Genetics are no excuse, if one's society dictates monogamy, that is the standard by which you are right and wrong. Tragically that is what it has come down to, it is not what is natural, genetic or learned, it is what is written.
And Marvin,
I commend you on your massive efforts to make this into some sort of revolt against hard core porn and masturbation, but I can in no way see how the workings of nature have anything to do with your belief in "male led relationships" or in your apparent jadedness of the female body. I'm going to assume you are young, perhaps erroneously, and I am going to plead with you to part with your bible and society's spoon fed teachings on the issues of sex and relationships. It is far too early in life, for both of us I assume, to say that such things are over rated, sex is a very important part of a relationship. I hate to break it to you but in the society which we have developed into, which does not demand procreation as our species has far too many individuals as is, and which recognizes the natural physical activities which produce positive feelings, sex can be good simply for the act in itself.
I am not trying to break down your beliefs whatever they may be, I myself do not believe that any book translated so many times as the bible has been should be taken literally. Just as I am sure you feel no shame wearing mixed fabrics, you should not allow others to guide your ideas of human relationships, they are far too complex to be dictated.
How is the Alchemist a Hero’s journey? Firstly and most obviously, every step of the hero’s journey is followed and completed.
The Innocent World of Childhood: Santiago exists in the innocent world of childhood in the beginning of the book. Though one may originally think of a shepherd living independently and traveling the country side as anything but a child, that is how he is referred to, as the boy. This makes it clear that he has not yet experienced whatever it is that will make him a man.
The Separation
The Call -The separation and the call to adventure, occur in the same instance. When Santiago realizes that his repetitive dream is what he wishes to be true, he is separated from his world as a shepherd. With the lure of treasure, he loses taste for his current situation. His refusal of the Call represents itself in his initial resistance to leaving his current life and his inability to see the possibility of fulfilling his dream.
The Threshold - Supernatural aid takes the form of the king, who seems to represent a messenger from god. Quickly after meeting the king Santiago takes the call and crosses the threshold. He sells his sheep, gives a tenth to the king and heads to Africa. Initiation begins once Santiago crosses the river and finds himself within Africa. The first challenge occurs when he foolishly loses all of his money to the thief. This initial failure allows for transformation to occur, Santiago becomes wiser and acclimated to Africa as he works in the glass shop, learning the traditions and the language. The Desert was his road of trials both challenging him and teaching him.
The Initiation
The Challenges- The first challenge occurs when he foolishly loses all of his money to the thief. Santiago finds himself fully devoted to his journey on the first night in Africa. In a strange land where he does not speak the language or worship the same God he is pennyless and stranded, now fully separate from the old world of his childhood. This initial failure allows for transformation to occur, Santiago becomes wiser and acclimated to Africa as he works in the glass shop, learning the traditions and the language. The Desert serves as his road of trials both challenging him and teaching him. When Santiago throws off the unneeded burden of his book and begins to pay attention to the movements of his camel and the desert his transformation advances, bringing him that much closer to his personal legend.
Into the Abyss- The remainder of the challenges which face Santiago after he has crossed the desert and found Fatima seem to be the Abyss. The second crossing with the alchemist contains the most challenge Santiago has seen.
The Transformation - When Santiago is challenged by a tribal leader to become the wind he must either be transformed or perish. Though the boy never does successfully become one with the wind he does demonstrate to the reader that he has grown significantly. Santiago works with the forces of nature telling them of loving and teasing them with human emotions while flattering them with praise he manages to save his life with the aid of the wind.
The Revelation- In the nearly final moment when Santiago finds himself beaten nearly to death it is revealed to him that his treasure never was near the pyramids. The thief describes the very church in which Santiago had his dream and reveals to him the true location of the treasure.
The Atonement - After finally realizing the true nature of his personal legend Santiago returns to the monastery where the alchemist left him his treasure, having known that he would lose it a third time, Santiago’s journey is nearly complete. He understands the nature of the desert, the changes that have occurred within him along the journey, his love for Fatima and the location of his treasure.
The Return
The Return(To the Known World & With a Gift) - Santiago quickly finds his treasure in the church of the home land he had left behind. Then standing in the same spot juxtaposed with his former self, now richer in treasure, knowledge and in love it is clear that Santiago had achieved his personal legend.
By the standards of the Hero Journey Santiago seems to make the cut.
I believe that we can all find something of a hero journey inside ourselves. It may not have already come round full circle; we may still be in the process of going through, hell, we may have not even started yet. But in connecting personal experience with that of Santiago and the alchemist, it is easy to see his heroic journey. The call, which is directly related to the Personal Legend, can be seen in everyone. Santiago's call comes when he meets the king, and desires to get out of the hills of Andalusia and wants to discover and explore the Pyramids in Egypt, deep in the desert, something he feels will fulfill himself as a person, for reaching into the unknown, into a place unfamiliar to him. Little does he know how strangely cyclical it would become. As he moves along, he continues to think of his home, of the place that he left, and not only the new people he meets, including Fatima, but of how he longs to be back with her rather than make the progress towards the final goal. He ultimately, physically, ends up where he left off, but as a different person, with a new experience and perspective.
He faces temptations in giving up when trekking through the desert, when he knows he physically has all he needs to turn back, to take the easy way out, to not go any further or find his Treasure of Life. He faces his fears when he misses the home and people he loves most, while confronting death itself in the form of a battle in the desert, one to which he contributes his lessons. What he does is influenced by others, by the alchemist and the king, but he ultimately makes the decisions himself, just as we do everyday.
Personally, I cannot take credit for 100% making myself who I am today. If I did that, I would act on impulse; I would not care what others thought of me. Many people like to say that they "don't care," when we are all much more self-conscious and dependent than we may think. Likewise, Santiago often second-guesses himself and his decisions regarding continuing on in his journey, whether he should turn back, or be patient and wait for some sort of omen in hopes of support and motivation. We, too, face these forking paths everyday, and more often than not, in such a difficult situation, we make a decision influenced by advice from others. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. It is not to say that we are marionettes controlled 24/7 by some higher-force puppeteer, but we create our third world through combining both experiences.
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