The Alchemist

The Alchemist is one of Paulo Coelho’s most popular books. It is well known for its deep, meaningful and inspirational messages. Like many of Coelho’s novels, this one has been on the top of the bestselling list. Coelho’s writings have been published in more than 150 countries, translated into more than 60 languages and sold more than 65 million copies. 

Part One:

The first part of The Alchemist tells the story of a young boy who loved travelling, so became a shepherded. Santiago, the young shepherd, undertakes an adventure, travelling to Egypt, to find a treasure hidden near the Pyramids.

Santiago doesn’t portray the image on an ordinary Andalusian guy at that area. Growing up, he always fantasized about travelling. Although his father wanted him to become a priest, his passion for travelling surpassed his father’s wishes, as he decided to become a shepherd because they were the only ones who got to see the world.

Peculiarly enough for his area, Santiago was literate. As this young and ambitious Shepherd loved reading, he would rent books to read and then use them as pillows, as he slept in a dark, old and empty church. He had a very particularly close relationship with his sheep, so as he thought they could understand him, he always read to them parts of his books and talked to them about his life.

Almost a year before these events, Santiago had met a merchant’s daughter in whom he was deeply interested. As he was supposed to go sell the sheep’s wool to that merchant a year from that date, he used to tell his sheep about her. Santiago had spent several hours with this girl, whom he shared with many of his experiences in life. This young girl was astonished by the fact that Santiago knew how to read and only settled for being a shepherd, making him believe no one would ever understand where he comes from barring this idea.

On a different note, Santiago used to have a dream about a hidden treasure near the pyramids, as he saw a young boy telling him about where to find it, but he would always wake up, all three times, right before the boy actually shows him where to find the treasure. As it was time for him to go to Tarifa to sell the wool, he stopped by a gypsy who interprets dream in exchange for money, helping people understand the enigmas of their dreams. All the gypsy woman told Santiago was that the treasure actually existed, demanding one tenth of its value for this little piece of information.

Later, as Santiago was sitting on the plaza, reading his new book and drinking his wine, a man came up to him, irritatingly determined to start a conversation with him. This man introduced himself as Malchizedek, the king of Salem, confirming that he was a psychic, telling Santiago things about him, he had never told anyone. This man underlined the fact that everyone has their own dreams and personal legends to follow or achieve. Consequently, Santiago expressed proudly the fact that he had accomplished his dream by becoming a shepherd, although his father wanted him to become a priest, to travel around the world and see every different aspect of life. Malchizedek promised Santiago valuable information about the treasure, only if he gave him one tenth of his sheep.

After receiving one tenth of Santiago’s sheep, Malchizedek offered him two stones. The first stone was black, named Urim, which signified “yes,” while the second was white and called Thummim, which signified “no.” And right before letting him go, the king told him a story, that reminded him of the importance of his sheep and whether he ever finds the treasure or not, or to whatever extent he gets caught up in his adventure, he shall never forget his flock.

Finally, after Santiago’s arrival to Tangier, he met a young man in a bar, who told him about thieves and thugs all around town, offering him help, to get him to the pyramids. After pointing out the necessity of camels, Santiago naively gave him all his money to buy the camels, only so the guy could take the money and disappear. Consequently, Santiago felt helpless and thought about giving up on his dream, but remembered Malchizedek’s words. He then found a crystal shop, helped clean up it’s fallen pieces, scoring a job at the shop.