The Alchemist

Thoughts on "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Coelho's "The Alchemist" is a book I can wholeheartedly recommend to most people who believe that a big part of life is realizing our dreams. The primary message of the book is that the happiest people are the people who aren't afraid to chase their dream. Our dream is obvious when we are very young, but as we age we prioritize other things. It eventually becomes painful to remember our unrealized dream, so we forget it.

It's a book appropriate for most ages (12+), and a quick read. If you liked "The Little Prince" you'll probably like "The Alchemist": both books have the same innocence, and both books have a quality that make them appealing to children and adults. The rest of this post will be some personal observations or insights made in relation to specific passages or themes in the book. It probably won't be very interesting unless you've read the book, and even then I can't guarantee anything.

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting". -Santiago
Santiago says this very early in the book, and it's very revealing of his idealistic and innocent lifeview. I think, for someone who truly wants to realize a dream, it might even have some truth. For most of us, life is not about realizing our dreams (which might be a lot of hard work) it's about choosing a path in life that might make us happy. It's funny how easy it is to be lazy - but can we ever be happy if we're lazy? It's counterintuitive, but happiness doesn't come with leisure, it comes with the hard work of working hard for something you believe in. I don't think you can be happy unless you're satisfied with yourself and the path you've chosen.

We know our life dreams as children or at a very young age, but we forget them as we grow older and integrate as an acceptable citizen of society.
Why is there always an idea that we know what our life goal is at birth? How would we ever know our Personal Legend before we understood life? I think this idea merely sounds appealing - much like the idea of karma. It sounds so simple and we want it to be true because of how wondrous it would be...but that doesn't make it true. Perhaps the values we discover/create at a very young age will have a large bearing on our "Personal Legend", but I think that as children we might not have the necessary knowledge to deduct what our legend will be.

While I'm talking about Personal Legends, why can't we choose one? Why can't we decide upon a dream?

"The closer we get to our Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes our reason for being." -Santiago
Whether or not you can make a choice or not about your Personal Legend, this statement had a lot of truth for me. As you work harder and harder to achieve something, the other things in life become less important and the achievement's importance is amplified.

I am left with questions though. For the sake of simplicity the Personal Legend of Santiago was something so simple and something so obviously achieved: finding treasure. I don't think that everyone will have a life goal that can be achieved in such a cut and dry manner. Coelho tended to simplify life goals into a single achievement: for example, the crystal seller who wanted to travel to Mecca, but feared that if he ever reached Mecca his life would lack meaning.

Is a personal legend ever a simple black and white achievement? I think we could say that Mother Teresa lived a life very close to her personal legend, but was she ever actually done? I think most Personal Legends are unreachable goals - it's not something simple like owning a house, making a trip, or even becoming rich. It's something undefinable or unreachable: helping the poor, enlightenment, a happy life. We work towards these ideals by setting concrete goals: I will donate this much money, I will...well, you get the idea.

Maybe I'm overcomplicating things. Coelho would say so: Santiago's wisdom and personal strength came from his ability to see the simplicity in life, and this was encouraged by The Alchemist.

Simplicity
Coelho's focus on simplicity over complexity is probably most apparent in the contrast between the Englishman and Santiago. There is a clear recognition that both are working diligently towards reaching their Personal Legend...but there's also a clear bias towards the methods of Santiago. The Englishman is presented as inferior to Santiago, mostly because of his inability to recognize simplicity and his inability to learn from personal experience. His inability to recognize simplicity is most apparent when, after Santiago has read all of his books, he is greatly disappointed when Santiago merely states a few simple facts that are the basis for all alchemy. The reader is left feeling that Santiago is the wise one because he has left with the universally important truths, and pitying the Englishman for not recognizing Santiago's wisdom. His inability to learn from personal experience is also highlighted at the same point: he tells Santiago that after days of watching the caravan travel through the desert he has learned nothing. While Santiago has a talent for recognizing the unity of all existence, the Englishman has a strong desire to view everything as a separate entity. This difference is one of the primary reasons Santiago is approached by the Alchemist.

Santiago and Fatima
This is probably one of my least favorite parts of the book for one reason: Coelho puts a strong focus on love at first sight. I believe this is a dangerous idea to teach to children and even adults - it puts emphasis not only on appearance but also on initial impressions. Isn't the divorce rate high enough?

Love
Despite my misgivings about how Santiago and Fatima "fall" in love, I love the mature view of love presented in the book. I love the very literal "setting free" that Fatima does for Santiago (If you love something, set it free...). Culturally, this idea is not always supported. There are a wide range of beliefs about the best way to find and keep love...sadly, I think there is a lot more emphasis placed on the latter. Don't get me wrong, I understand that love is difficult, but I think it's much more important to find someone we truly love than it is to keep a relationship with someone we thought we loved. Fatima's acceptance that Santiago had to live life before their relationship could truly begin is symbolic in many ways, but most noticably it allows Santiago the opportunity to realize that his love for Fatima is true.

This is a minor point, but I also like the idea that love should never hold us back from doing what we want to do or being who we want to be. As I've already made clear, we won't be happy unless we are who we want to be. If we aren't happy, we can't really love.

Fatalism
The word fatalism is never directly spoken in The Alchemist, but there is a brief section where it is brought up that the leaders of the tribesmen "do not want to hear their future because it is difficult to fight with all your valor if you know you will die". This is the same predicament many fatalists run into - why try when the future is already decided? The leaders of the tribesmen realize that whether or not fate (their future) exists or not is immaterial - knowing that the future is already decided should not affect your actions.

Journeys
The wisest characters in the book were very aware of their own mortality (save, of course, The Alchemist who wasn't mortal). Even if they lived a life seeking their Personal Legend, they recognized that they might die before they reached it. Seemingly in spite of this, they were ready to die on any day. The idea is "We should live lives striving to reach our Personal Legends, but we should be proud of the journey to reach them."

Perhaps the lack of wisdom is again best exemplified by the Englishman. Both the Englishman and Santiago worked very hard to achieve their goals, but Santiago worked hard and was happy. This important distinction allowed Santiago to face the sword of the Alchemist (and his own death) without fear or regret. Were the Englishman placed in the same situation, he would not have faced his death fearlessly - and if he knew he were going to die he would feel his life wasted as he had never reached his goal. "You cannot seek only the treasure of your personal legend, you must live it."-Alchemist

Fatima vs. Santiago: Goals
Fatima is not portrayed to have the same strength or drive as Santiago. She is portrayed as a wise character, but The Alchemist himself says that her Personal Legend is Santiago. She is pigeonholed into a traditional female role where she waits diligently at home while her love explores the world. I think the book would have been more effective if Fatima had already reached her Personal Legend, as it is, it comes off rather sexist. This isn't Coelho's intent and Fatima is presented with great respect, but on a second glance that respect seems unearned.

"One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving."-Fatima
This is not only Fatima's viewpoint, this is how love is presented in the book. I can't believe this is true. Overly romantic but lacking substance.

"Even though I complain sometimes, it's because I'm the heart of a person and people's hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren't, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly."-Santiago's Heart

"Our heart can never suffer if we are following our Personal Legend." -Alchemist
I like this part, and I like Coelho's explanation of why our heart might discourage us from following our dreams. That's all.

"When you possess great treasures within you, and you try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed."-Alchemist
It's funny, but this kind of reminds me of what Will Smith said in the preview for his most recent movie: "People will try to tell you that you can't do something because they couldn't do it themselves." Both statements are true, because it's easier for us to believe that if something is too difficult for us it will be too difficult for someone else...sometimes even though we never really tried.

"That is what Alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."-Alchemist
A fundamental tenet in many Buddhist belief systems and also a statement I believe in strongly. Good begets good.

Lingering Question
At the end of the book, a thief tells Santiago about a vision he had about his own Personal Legend. I wonder, how was that thief able to come so close to achieving his own Personal Legend? How could someone who almost achieved their Personal Legend ever become such a mean person?

A final complaint
I felt it was unneccessary for Coelho to give Santiago actual treasure. I suppose the entirety of the epilogue was unneccessary (it was basically just Santiago going to find his treasure, finding it, and then thinking of Fatima). The treasure is much more powerful as a figurative object than a literal, and the book loses a bit of symbolism by having Santiago find physical treasure. I suppose I can dismiss it as a necessary simplicity to make the book easier for children to relate to.