Hi there!
Welcome to our August Intermission for Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. This is a short piece of introspection and internal treasure, that leads the young Santiago on a mythic journey into Egypt. This is a novella that Brieanna has read before, and Ceraya has not.
Trigger Warning: Religion, Philosophy, Magic
Overall
This novel is short, but deep, to put it simply. It reads like a folktale, but can come across almost as a cross between a cautionary tale and a self-help motivational piece while reading it. Easy to finish in a day, this novella focuses on the young Santiago, a Spanish Shephard in the Andalusian Fields, who treks to Egypt in search of a treasure that is plaguing his dreams, which, as a King explains to him, does exist and is his life's purpose to uncover.
Ceraya thought the first half, overall, is so incredibly boring. She feels like it is very much like a book that's on a summer reading list; it's not edgy enough. It makes one or two good points about life and life lessons, but they were non-stop repetitive and it got super annoying. Every other word was a metaphor for life, and this was never-ending. Characters talked about omens a lot, but Ceraya thinks it was pointless to bring them up so much. So much happened in such a short amount of time, but because it was so boring, it felt like nothing was happening.
Santiago
Santiago is very human - and is moved by human emotion very easily in the first half of this novel. At first he is skeptical of the fortune teller, then is suddenly believing of the prophetic dreams after meeting Melchizedek. Then, much later on, after a thief takes his earnings, he gives up on the dream and works for a Merchant and gains his earnings back, slowly, over time, and suddenly is ready to pursue the dream again. He is very clearly meant to be "everyone," or "the reader." With very human and swaying emotions that reflect how any of us would feel, Santiago is the parable of the human race.
Ceraya thinks he's also boring. He just wants to be a shepherd and nothing entertaining happens to him - then he throws away everything for a fake treasure in Egypt - which is ridiculous to Ceraya - he gave up everything that mattered to him. She doesn't understand the point of that. Brieanna also didn't understand the point of this, other than Santiago's inexperience taking him on a journey that might end in mystical success.
The King of Salem
Melchizedek is God. Literally. By claiming that he changes shape and presents himself to others however and when they need him the most- he is clearly admitting to being the Universe, or God. Brieanna likes this because the author does not come out and explicitly state "Melchizedek is God and we should all listen to what he says." Instead, Melchizedek represents himself as a flawed old man who is just trying to help, but the person who he may be trying to help still has their own choice in the matter, and is not shunned for choosing their own separate path.
This means, even though the universe is all around us and may present itself to us in different ways to help us out, "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true."
The King was the embodiment of everything Ceraya didn't like about this book. He was so cryptic and a pious character - he was insinuating that he was powerful, and that others needed him, or couldn't succeed without him. This, and everything the King said, irked Ceraya - he was a self-righteous old man who was only there to talk down to Santiago.
The Englishman
This character represents the Western approach to religion - ritualistic formulas for salvation, instead of an internal spiritual, and sometimes physical journey to a treasure of some kind. The Englishman is very clear - he learns nothing from the Caravan of people traveling to Egypt, but he learns much from the studies of others about Alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Life. Santiago and the Englishman differ greatly in that one learns very internally, and the other externally.
Ceraya thinks that this man is so pretentious, and that he is obsessed with money. Ceraya didn't like when he asked Santiago what did he learn - and he said the world has a soul, and then you understand everything. He makes a comment about over-simplifying, but the Englishman makes things complicated for no reason - everything you need to know about Alchemy is simple and written on an emerald. You could even say this is about this book - why is it this complicated? Brieanna thought of a saying - if you can't explain something in ten minutes, then you don't really understand it yourself. We began to wonder about the author of this book and why Paulo wrote it in the first place. What was he getting at?
The Love of the Universe
This novella speaks a lot about the love of the Universe around us. It might sound like a bunch of baloney, but the entire point of this book is that the Universe will help us achieve our goals, no matter how great or difficult the journey is to those goals. And that doesn't discount all of the hard work we do on our end either, it simply means the energy in the universe conspires for us to succeed.
Both of us kind of rolled our eyes at the concept of beginner's luck - neither of us saw it as realistic - sometimes you fail over and over again until a sudden success - but sometimes that takes years to figure out. It is certainly comforting to tell people that the universe will help you, but what happens when something bad happens? Is that our fault, or the universe choosing to not help us?
Personal Legend
Another concept this book talks about is Personal Legend, or, frankly, the crazy journey we're here to complete, if we really want to. Sometimes the personal legend is owning your own business, or even starting a family. For others it is internal, learning to love one's self, or learning another language and travel. We all have one, and I dare say we get to choose it.
Ceraya's thoughts - I guess people are on a journey - you can say you're on a journey- but you can only say you're on a journey if you know what your destination is. But somehow you're always supposed to make the right decision to meet that destination. Destiny and Fate only suits your purpose if it's what you want to do. Do we have free will? Are we fated to a certain destination? These are the big questions.
Where We Are Now
Santiago and the Englishman are travelling with the Caravan across the Saharan Desert in order to get to Egypt, and are sharing ways of learning, and information about the different journeys they are on, and their goals for the trip. Santiago has just saved up money from working for the Merchant and used it to buy a Camel, and the Caravan is hearing tell of Tribal Wars happening around them in the Desert while they travel.
Conclusion
So far, this book is not very fitting for us and may not be on the top of our reading lists from here on out, but we are hoping the second half has more to give and will lead us to a strong conclusion.
With love, see you soon!
Ceraya & Brieanna
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