The Alchemist Essay (Revised)

I hope this looks much better then before... I know there's a lack of quotes, and most of the changes are only th emistakes I made, but honestly, I couldn't find more that needed to be changed otherwise... "Blandness" cannot be changed, unfortunately:

Brian Monahan

Mr. George

World Lit. Honors

5 January 2011

Comparison of our Journeys: Me vs. Santiago

            Everyone experiences some kind of life-changing journey in his or her lifetime; maybe even multiple times in a life. These kinds of journeys may be something as simple as picking out a career to follow, or looking for a treasure in the Pyramids. Though each journey followed may be different, the one thing every journey has in common is that there is a beginning, middle, and an end. For Santiago, his journey began with the gypsy and Melchizedek’s push, continued with the caravan and the Alchemist, and ended when he found his treasure. My journey began when I realized I wanted to be a writer, will continue through college, and end once I’ve written my first novel.

            Every journey starts with the beginning, the time where you must decide what it is you are doing within your journey. For Santiago, his journey began after meeting both the gypsy woman and Melchizedek. The gypsy interpreted Santiago’s dream and told him that he must go to Egypt to find his treasure, yet Santiago does not believe he can make it to Egypt. Melchizedek visits Santiago and defines what a Personal Legend is to him: “It’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is” (Coelho 21). Melchizedek explains that Santiago has always wanted to travel and find some kind of treasure, and so the Pyramids are his source of treasure. He convinces Santiago to travel to the Pyramids and fulfill his Personal Legend. Both the gypsy and Melchizedek gave Santiago the push he needed to begin his journey towards his Personal Legend, and they allowed him to follow his dreams.

            My journey began when I realized that I liked to write, and I had a vivid imagination. I came up with many ideas for possible novels, but never thought much of them. In my junior year of high school, I began to write down one of these ideas, and continued to write about it in senior year, where I decided that I would create a novel out of what I’d written. It was in senior year that I realized my Personal Legend and began my journey as a writer. I just needed to push myself towards my dreams, and once I did so, I could begin my journey. Santiago and I both needed a small push to begin our journeys, and once we were pushed, we began the undertaking of our life-changing adventures.

            The middle portion of the journey is where one travels and progresses through life to reach the end goal. The middle of Santiago’s journey consisted of his travels in the caravan and meeting the Alchemist. Santiago travels through the desert on the caravan to reach an oasis. There, he meets Fatima, the love of his life, and becomes high counselor of the oasis after predicting that a group of soldiers would raid the oasis. Once Santiago has all of this, he begins to walk away from his Personal Legend; this is one of the reasons the Alchemist comes to him. The alchemist, an omen reader like Santiago, knows Santiago is thinking of settling down and forgetting about the treasure. The alchemist persuades Santiago to continue by giving him a description of his legend-less future: “You’ll be the counselor of the oasis, marry Fatima and be happy for a year. Sometime during the second year, you’ll remember about the treasure and the omens will speak of it. You’ll ultimately ignore them. During the third year, the omens will continue to speak of your treasure and your Personal Legend.  Eventually, the omens will abandon you, because you’ve stopped listening to them” (Coehlo 119-120). Santiago could never be fully satisfied with life because he had never fulfilled his Personal Legend, and would live the rest of his life wondering why he never did. The alchemist’s word rekindles the fire in Santiago and keeps him moving to find his treasure. The middle of Santiago’s journey is very trying and almost deters him from his goal, and in my journey, I hope to never encounter a time where I begin to lose that desire to fulfill my Personal Legend.

            The middle of my journey will be college and majoring in writing. In college, I will be working on improving on my writing skills and becoming more descriptive and fluent in my writing. For four years, I will be following my Personal Legend by becoming a better writer, and eventually, I will graduate college with a degree in writing. If I do begin to lose the desire to write, like Santiago and his desire to find his treasure, I’m sure I will have an “Alchemist” who will guide me through the tough times. In the end, like Santiago, I will continue in my journey to become a writer, like Santiago continued his journey to find treasure. When the middle of the journey is finished, we finally reach the end.

            In the end of a journey, the person undertaking the journey finds what he is looking for and finally realizes his Personal Legend. Santiago ends his journey by reaching the Pyramids. Once there, he began to dig in a sand dune for his treasure; however, a band of refugees find him and attack him, forcing Santiago to scream out, “I’m digging for treasure!” (Coelho 162). The refugees leave him, but the leader turns back and reveals to Santiago, “Two years ago, right here on this spot, I had a recurrent dream, too. I dreamed that I should travel to the fields of Spain and look for a ruined church where shepherds and their sheep slept. In my dreams, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins of the sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore, I would find a hidden treasure” (Coehlo 163).  This revelation allows Santiago to realize that his treasure had been in Andalusia all along, but by going to the Pyramids, he had seen the treasure of the Pyramids themselves, and had been able to travel like he always wanted. In the end, Santiago realized that his Personal Legend was not only about the treasure itself, but the ability to travel farther than he ever imagined. His journey ended with  him reaching his goal and finding his treasure; I expect my journey to end the same way.

            My journey shall end after college, and I will continue to write my first novel until it is finished. Once finished, I will have it edited and published for the world to enjoy. Once the first novel is out, I will have reached the end of my journey to become a writer, but that end will become the beginning of the next journey: writing more novels for the world to enjoy. Both Santiago and I realize that we have a treasure to find and a goal to reach, and no matter what, we will work to find that treasure.

            Everyone experiences a journey in their life; everyone’s journey has a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is where it all starts, when the gypsy and Melchizedek help Santiago realize his Personal Legend, and when I realize it on my own. The middle is the huge travel, where Santiago goes on the caravan, finds Fatima, and has the Alchemist help him continue to search for treasure. The middle is where I go to college and work towards graduation. The end is when both Santiago and I reach our goal and find our treasure. Both of these journeys are a life-changing adventure, and through the good times and the bad times, both Santiago and I will reach the end with success.