Thursday, October 11, 2018

In Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, what does Santiago learn about following his dreams and personal legend?

Santiago learns to connect with the Soul of the World, learns to read and communicate with the world around him. This ultimately leads him to the treasure he seeks and awakens his own supernatural consciousness. He also learns that the physical treasures we search for are often right in front of us, that a spiritual journey is not about becoming someone else, but rather about finding oneself.


I think that Santiago learns a variety of lessons during his journey to find his personal legend. 
One lesson that I think Santiago learns is that following your dreams is never an easy thing.  It's a long and difficult process that can, and does, have setback after setback.  Santiago is hit with multiple setbacks during the story, and some of them even leave him contemplating giving up completely.  
In conjunction with learning that following your dreams isn't easy, Santiago learns that in order to achieve his goals, he can't give up.  Despite the fact that he often feels like doing so, Santiago doesn't give up.  He continues to struggle forward, and he eventually succeeds.  Santiago is another version of the train from The Little Engine that Could.  I could also apply the "Never Give Up" lyrics from the band Common Sense to Santiago as well.  

Never give up.Things are gonna get rough.I've got to keep on movin.Never give up.

Santiago learns that achieving dreams is hard, but he has to keep on working hard at it to achieve them.  
A third thing that I think Santiago learns during the story is the importance of finding and accepting the help of other people.  Santiago benefits from the help of other characters in the book, and I don't believe Santiago achieves his personal legend without their help.  One of the people who helps Santiago is Melchizedek.  He starts Santiago off on the journey.  Probably the most important helper is the Alchemist.  He assists Santiago during the final part of his journey.

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