Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. 197 pp. $13.95. (Front Pages, Introduction, Prologue, Part One, Part Two, Epilogue.)The Alchemist tells the story of a young shepherd boy who is heeding his calling in life; Coelho poses and answers the most pressing questions in life - our purpose, love, and God (among others) - in the story's due time and profound simplicity. Organized chronologically, the 197-page novel reaches great heights in meaning unexpectedly; the shepherd, Santiago, learns from and teaches those he meets on his quest in humility and childlike persistence until he reaches his goal. In this story often likened to a fable, we follow Santiago through his own personal discovery and purification process and glimpse the secret of alchemy at the climax of the story.
My sister gave me this book years ago and I read it then; I decided it would be the perfect quest book for me to revisit at this point in my life. I read The Alchemist the same way I did the first time: all in one sitting. Completely enveloped in the story, I found many questions and some answers I had forgotten were at the root of my current confusion; one of these was why so many people fail to follow their dreams. We face, generally speaking, four obstacles in realizing our dreams: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want is impossible, and then if we allow ourselves our dreams we are prevented by a fear of hurting those we love, then by fear of failure, and then by impatience and doubts. Succinctly put, the largest take-away message from this book is that "the secret of life... is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." Personally, I feel motivated to follow a combination of my dreams when I was younger - going into international development and accepting the path that will follow rather than taking the cautious route. After a discussion of the four main things that prevent us from reaching our goals, Coelho writes:
So, why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?
Because, once we have overcome the defeats - and we always do - we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.
The italicized part of the quote struck me as did many parts of the text - The Alchemist invites you to make an honest assessment of the path you are choosing in life, especially as many college students have to weigh the options of a more lucrative or more fulfilling career. Again, Coelho's humble, folksy writing voice draws attention to the purpose of the story rather than itself. His choice of overt parable as a means for bringing the reader through an alchemy of the soul works well. His characters are believable, lending further credibility to the story and enabling the reader to put themselves mentally in their own quest as they follow in Santiago's steps.
I'll never understand quite why Paulo Coelho's Alchemist lands itself in the occult section of the bookstore. Certainly the title itself is not reason enough to stock it next to tales of the living dead, texts on Wicken, and how-to Harry Potter books. Alchemy is a natural thing for humans, especially any that understand the gospel. The idea that lead could be turned from lowly plubonium to gold isn't so far-fetched to a people that believe that the natural man, our mortal selves, can go through a process of refinement so thorough that it would render us into a state parallel with that of God. If it was possible to make a book required reading and even re-reading for everyone, The Alchemist would be on my list of recommendations shortly after the standard works and the communist manifesto. More specifically, anybody looking for encouragement and even direction on finding the most satisfying route in life should pick up The Alchemist; the writing is simple enough to be understood at a fifth grade level.
4 comments:
Received on time! Comments coming soon. Thanks for loaning this book to me for my quest text this semester.
Thanks for sharing with us your thoughts about The Alchemist. The review is in general well done and it expresses quite well about the story and your personal insights about it.
You are right when you say that there are obstacles that we face in achieving our dreams, and you are right about those specific points you mentioned, but there is more to it. The system in which we live has been set up to work in that way, to take away the dreams of most people and allow only to a very few ones to reach and stay at the top of the pyramid of life and and achieve their dreams. Since we are taught in our early childhood until we die that this is the only way, we live and die in this system.
However, there are still people like Coelho, that are still giving the right message.
The Alchemist was always in the back of my mind but never I gave myself a chance to read it. After your review, I decided that it will be the next book I am going to read.
I have to read this book! The quotes that you and others have shared have certainly sparked my curiosity. You do a good job of evaluating the text from different perspectives, and you discuss the novel's quest in relation to your own quest very eloquently. Good job!
Charla,"The Alchemist" is not "in the back of my mind" anymore, I just read it and found as many people, some connections to the story of the shepherd boy. Even though I was not impressed because of the story itself, however there were some moments in which I was struck to read in black and white some things that were connected deeply to my life, things that probably I knew but I was not awared I knew them until I read them. In a few words Coelho did a very good job internalizing in the deep character of human soul and nature.
Thanks again for the review of this book and now I want to formally invite you to read "The Greatest Salesman In The World" by Og Mandino. Do not be misled by the title. This is not a book about sales techniques or marketing. It is a book about self improvement and how to achieve peace and success in life. This book has sold millions of copies worldwide and has been translated in several languages since its first edition in 1974.
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