The Alchemist

Sign Post: Part Four

Word of the wiser- Santiago was on his way to pursue his personal legend, and on his way, he earned many wise advices from the alchemist. Specifically in the last few pages of the novel, the alchemist tells a story about the Emperor Tiberius of Rome, and this was something very significant he told the boy before them separating apart on their different ways. The story was mainly about the angel telling the emperor that how his son's poetry will be very well known for generations; however, when the emperor dies, he meets the angel again and thanks him for making his son's poetry immortal. The angel says, "The words you're hearing right now are those of your son in the military", and his son went on for looking a cure for his servant. This is very significant because it provides Santiago with lesson of even if one does not have a destiny, they can truly have a desire and work hard in accordance to their desire which can lead them to achieve their desire or personal legend in their life. This is one of the most important piece of advice that Santiago receives, because it is likely to help him in future when he is doubting himself after coming all the way to the Egypt, and being unsure about the path he decided to choose.

Aha Moment- One of the most important yet very surprising aha moment occurred at the end of the novel. When Santiago decides to dig up the specific place where he thought he might be able to find the treasure from, he confronted some refugees. The refugees "As the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy...", and the reason for that was mainly because Santiago was not able to find any gold. The refugees atlas decided to leave Santiago alone, but before leaving, the leader of the group told the Santiago about how similarly he often had dreams about the finding the treasure in Spain, where the shepherds and their sheep sleep near the church. This was a very big aha moment for the boys as well as the readers, because all the journey he did from all the way from Spain to Egypt was only hearing to this. However, this gives the idea of how the universal language works, like how all the elements of the world, for example: people, wind, sun, desert etc., helped Santiago to achieve his personal legend. So overall, the universal language as well as the strong desire of Santiago played a huge role in him achieving his personal legend.

 

Reflection:

I was surprised how the author added numerous different religions which all connected internally throughout his novel. During the beginning of the novel, I saw many religions being represented in many ways, but near the end of the novel when Santiago was asking the wind and the sun to change himself into a wind; I saw the representation of the religion of Hinduism. More specifically when the boy was having conversation with the Sun about him changing into the wind, and the sun wasn't able to do it, the wind "Was listening and wanting to tell every corner of the world that the sun's wisdom had its limitations...". In Hinduism, there are actually many deities, and there is one which represents the sun called "Surya", and the other one which represents wind "Vayu". This two deities are known for having a very tensed relationship due to many conflicts happening between them, and the Surya god, sun, is considered on of the major influential figure over the other deities. But due to some incidents, Vayu god, wind, always tend to go against his ideas in general, and we can see that representation being shown in The Alchemist, with the wind being the very gossiping towards the sun.

Questions:

1. Do you think that Santiago will reach safely back to Fatima?
2. What do you think will after when Santiago meets Fatima?