The Alchemist: Book of Simplicity and Inspiring Wisdom

November 24, 2019August 19, 2023 Tietler

The Alchemist

The Alchemist is the story of each of us. Anyone can relate this story to their own life. It is one part novel, and nine parts live-your-dream-self-help guide, which guides us to follow our dreams by listening to our hearts. As you read, you live and inhale the story. It really makes you believe in dreams and destiny, the two magic words that we all want to experience in our life. You start leaning for the boy and the boy starts sinking in you. And in the end, You start believing in magic.

The journey of a shepherd boy Santiago, who does not know what he should do when he is dared to his dream. While in the journey to his destiny, he experiences love, friendship, heartbreak, attacks, success, failures, the meaning of life and the magic of it. But by the end, he completely trusts his heart to guide him through life. The man realizes the treasure was with him the entire time. The story of one person is the story of everyone, and one man’s quest is the quest of all of humanity.

There are too many things one can learn from “The Alchemist”. Its all about following your dream and about taking the risk of following your dreams, which is actually so difficult to do and there are very few people in this world who actually do, I mean risk it all, just to follow your heart and your dream. Beauty is, the author is so right in saying that when you decide to follow your dreams the entire universe conspires in your favor which he called as the “beginners luck” and we all have been witness to this beginners luck at one or other point in our lives.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Story-Plot:

A recurring dream troubles Santiago and so he consults a gypsy woman to interpret his dream. The lady tells him to go to Egypt. A bag of treasure is the final destination, hidden miles away across the desert of Sahara. Once the journey begins, he unlocked his mind to learn lessons from every conflict that he encountered on the way. The king of Salem, who tells him to sell his sheep, so that can travel to Egypt, and introduces the idea of a Personal Legend.

Your Personal Legend “is what you have always wanted to accomplish. The king convinces him to sell his flock and set off to Tangier. When Santiago arrives in Tangier, a thief robs him, forcing him to find work with a local crystal merchant. The merchant with Santiago’s risky tricks and business planings makes good money to the businessman. The risks and labor pay off, and Santiago becomes a rich man in just a year.

Now, Santiago decides to continue his Personal Legend: to find treasure at the pyramids. He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert toward Egypt. Along the way, the boy meets an Englishman who has come in search of an alchemist. When they reach a Saharan oasis of Al-Fayoum, where a powerful, 200-year-old alchemist resides.

Next, during a walk in the desert, Santiago witnesses an indication that warns an attack on the oasis. He warns the tribal chief of the attack, and as a result, Al-Fayoum successfully defends itself against the attack. In oasis, Santiago meets and falls in love with an Arabian girl named Fatima, to whom he proposes marriage. She promises to do so only after he completes his journey. Disappointed at first, he later learns that true love will not stop nor must one sacrifice to it one’s personal destiny.

200-year-old alchemist offers to accompany him on the next leg of his trip to pyramids…

While the alchemist and Santiago continue through the desert, the alchemist shares much of his wisdom about the Soul of the World. Just before reaching to pyramids a tribe of Arab soldiers captures them. In exchange for his life and the life of Santiago, tells the soldiers that Santiago is so powerful that he will turn into wind within three days.

Santiago feels terrified because of his inability to do so. On the third day, he communicates with the wind and the sun and urges them to help him create a sandstorm. He prays to the Hand That Wrote All and at the height of the storm he disappears. The tribesmen, afraid by the power of the storm and by Santiago’s ability, made them free.

The alchemist continues to travel for the pyramids. Santiago begins digging for the treasure at the foot of the pyramids, but two men attacked him for money. But once they knew about his dream, they decide he must have no money and let him free. While leaving, one of the men mocks the worthlessness of dreams by telling Santiago about his own dream. It concerns a treasure buried in an abandoned church in Spain where a sycamore tree grows. The church is the same one in which Santiago had his original dream, and he finally understands where his treasure is.

The author tells us, through the struggles of Santiago, that the real treasure is not the bag of gold coins, but the knowledge that he acquired on the way to get it. It is not the destination but the journey that matters in the end.

The Alchemist affirms that the best thing you can do for yourself is to follow your impulses for your dreams. To develop useful skills and knowledge is actual learning. Skills and knowledge give you the ability to create things.

THE DREAM is the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary. Life offers a lot of choices in every decision there is to make, and every decision might have a valid reason to decide upon and the decision defines the purpose of life, your identity. Through the journey, the author depicts the ups and downs in one’s life and when a person loses everything, he has nothing left to lose. So, he can do anything and everything.

And dreams are the language of God. When he speaks our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand.

According to the woman, our dreams are a form of communication with the divine. She divides dreams into “our language” and “the language of the soul.” It seems that everyone has their own individual language of the soul, which God uses to tell them a secret, but that it’s also possible to dream in a collective language that others can understand. So … wonder what she’d make about our dream that all of our books suddenly developed thick pelts of fur?

“Why don’t people’s heart tell them to continue to follow dreams? ” The boy asked the alchemist.
” Because that’s why makes a heart suffer most, and heart don’t like to suffer” alchemist replied.

In the process, one discovers more about himself as well as about the world. He realizes that even though there could be obstacles, “when you really want something to happen, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it”.

People in this world like to dream, like to see their dreams come true and celebrate others’ dreams.
Dream big but be ready to fail. If things don’t go well, be optimistic and keep working towards achieving it.

Personal legends are not only a big part of, The Alchemist, but also a big part of people’s everyday lives. The book teaches you that everyone has a personal legend, but many people will live their lives never knowing theirs. If you come to know yours and pursue it, such as Santiago did, the world will help you achieve your legend.

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure

You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.”

“You came so that you could learn about your dreams, And dreams are the language of God. When he speaks in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand”.

The entire book revolves around this idea where it is established how we can achieve anything if we try as hard as possible without giving a shit about self-doubt, social criticism or falling prey to under-confidence.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

Theme of love through Santiago and Fatima’s clear expressions of love for each other. Santiago’s expression is shown in his early confession and request for Fatima’s hand in marriage. Fatima’s expression is through selflessness, in encouraging Santiago to follow and chase his dream.

True love will not stop nor must one sacrifice to it one’s personal destiny.

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.

Destiny and Free Will Destiny, a predetermined course of events, plays a very large role in the novel, as it is the driving force that guides Santiago on a journey to find treasure. While Santiago is initially motivated to go on this journey by a subconscious dream about a treasure, it is Melchizedek’s words about destiny that send him on his way.

Same soul: Everyone and everything is alive and has a soul; the same soul because we were all made by the same hand. Everything on earth is being continuously transformed because the earth is alive…and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us.

Secret of Happiness Story

Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times
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.
You must endure some hardship before you are rewarded for your efforts.

No matter what you do, make sure that you do it because it is what your heart and soul desire.
Everyone has a personal legend in his life
True love doesn’t make you sacrifice your dreams
The treasure is where you are but you need to go out to know it.
Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

When you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.
The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.
People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
There is only one way to learn. It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.

It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
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.
When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.