The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: A Review
A Novel About the Chasing of Dreams, the Realization of Fate
In the Spanish plains of Andalusia, a shepherd boy named Santiago dreams while sleeping in a barren church that a boy carries him to the pyramids before telling him that a great treasure lies waiting for him in Egypt. With him are his sheep, which rely on him for direction, food, water, safety. He carries few items, a jacket and a book. In a village he meets a man claiming to be the King of Salem, who tells Santiago of the "Personal Legend," the one thing a person is called upon by the world to achieve. The old man gives him special stones, tells him to read the omens he sees, and walks away. So begins Santiago's journey, which aims him across the Gibraltar Strait through the Sahara, to the Egyptian pyramids.
Style
The Alchemist (HarperCollins2003) is a fable, efficiently written, minus the character-animals that comprise the genre by definition. Coelho's writing style here is simple, written linearly, and sprinkled with flashbacks of Santiago's days in Andalusia and the omens he reads as his journey unfolds. The author spends little time with with scene-setting, and gives readers only the minute, necessary details, concentrating more on his story's message. Dialog is what one would expect from characters in a mystic/inspirational fable: anecdotal exchanges, abstract ideologies that readers must interpret, just as Santiago must interpret the omens of the world.
The novel reads quickly, does not suffer from a slow start, and by no means is epic in its expanse. Coelho gets it done in just shy of 170 pages; readers could finish the book in a day or two.
Fate and Free Will
Coelho's protagonist walks the line between fate and free will. On his journey he encounters many signs: an old crystal seller's failing business, hawks in the desert, the stones he carries. He can decide whether to read the omens, to follow them, to listen to his heart as it speaks to him "the language of the world." However, the mystic nuance in this little novel is this: that Santiago has the free will to follow the omens that fate presents him. To do so, he must relinquish his sheep, his life as a shepherd, and realize that what he leaves behind is also what keeps him from realizing the fate the world holds in store for him. Coelho's premise is that each person has one "personal legend," and that the world will aid in a person's realization of that legend.
Inspiration
The Alchemist is an inspirational fable, enchanting, and meant to motivate readers to analyze their own lives, to weigh the past against the future, to listen for a calling. Santiago is an unassuming and humble character, and has dreams beyond the Andalusian plains. He is simple, and readers will identify with him, with what he has to lose and what he has to gain. Coelho's inspiration is this: that if people can identify the unnecessary things and relinquish them, they will realize what the world truly has in store.
The Alchemist (ISBN-13: 978-0-06-112241-5, ISBN-10: 0-06-112241-6, 167 pages)
The Alchemist
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The Alchemist
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