In chapter six of The Alchemist, the camel driver tells Santiago his story as the caravan crosses the Sahara. He had been a prosperous farmer and had even earned enough to make the Muslim's required pilgrimage to Mecca. He thought he had his life in order and that it would run smoothly until he died. Instead, one day the earth began to "tremble" and a Nile flood destroyed his trees. He had to become a camel driver. However, rather than despair and grow bitter, the camel driver learned that he shouldn't be afraid of losing material possessions. He learned from Allah that he doesn't need to fear uncertainty as long as he is capable of making enough to meet his wants and needs. Further, he states the following:
"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."
The advantage of this perspective is that the camel driver is not driven by fear. He has the confidence that he lives within a universe run by a higher power. He has peace of mind. I think it is a wise philosophy because it gives him freedom from anxiety and because he sees a larger picture than the merely material. The disadvantage is that he might lose the ambition to strive; he might become content to do less and be less in life than he otherwise might have.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
What do you think about the camel driver's philosophy of life in The Alchemist? What are the advantages and disadvantages of his perspective?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
Lionel Wallace is the subject of most of "The Door in the Wall" by H.G. Wells. The narrator, Redmond, tells about Wallace's li...
-
Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe, is a novel. A novel is a genre defined as a long imaginative work of literature written in prose. ...
-
"The Wife's Story" by Ursula Le Guin presents a compelling tale that is not what it initially seems. The reader begins the sto...
-
In Celie's tenth letter to God, she describes seeing her daughter in a store with a woman. She had not seen her daughter since the night...
No comments:
Post a Comment