Introduction
Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” is a fascinating story of the journey to self-discovery, which resonates with every individual’s life in pursuit of success and destiny. Santiago is the novel’s protagonist whose journey to self-discovery unravels numerous challenges as they search for their hidden treasure. Throughout Santiago’s navigation to find the hidden treasure in Egypt, he encounters mentors and other people who assist him in fulfilling his life’s desires.
The theme of personal legend becomes clear and indicates how a person will be able to overcome the challenges. Personal legend in the context of the novel is the deep desire a person wishes to fulfill and, therefore, read to do anything to make the desire successful. A personal legend is the prerequisite to understanding a person’s destiny, transformative journey, and self-discovery needed to fulfill one’s unique purpose in life.
The personal legend serves as an initial point for a person’s success. Santiago, a shepherd from Spain, had a unique dream of finding some treasure in Egypt. Driven by the deep desire to obtain the hidden treasure, he leaves everything behind and moves into the new location, where he faces numerous challenges in the desert. Along the way, Santiago met different people, such as Melchizedek, Fatima, the desert woman, and the English man studying alchemy.
One compelling question in the novel is how the author conveys the importance of personal legend as a person seeks to attain a unique purpose and succeed in life. This research paper dissects the concept of personal legend through the lens of Santiago and his journey (Coelho 21). It will include five key subtopics: the philosophical underpinning of the theme, the role of mentorship, diversity, its impacts, the relationship between dreams and reality, and, finally, how the theme is universal across all cultures.
Coelho’s Biography and Rationale for the Selected Topic
The topic of personal legend is selected because the “Alchemist” is Coelho’s personal reflection of the search for life’s purpose in the form of a hidden treasure. It reflects his family’s life, personalCoelhos, and the decisions he had to make in pursuit of his dreams. Paulo Coelho was born in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 1947.
Although his family wanted him to be a celebrated lawyer, Coelho had a deep desire to write and be different from the traditionally distinguished professions. His personal legend was writing, and he overcame all hurdles to be a celebrated writer and gained life’s fulfillment. He is a celebrated author and has published other books such as Eleven Minutes, Veronica Decides to Die, and many more.
Before his authorship, he was a theater director and a spiritual explorer to understand religion and how it affects people’s lives. The type of work presented by the author is narrative form and shows that literature may be used for spiritual enlightenment, self-discovery, and finding a person’s destiny. It can generally represent transformative literature where people can overcome their challenges through personal legend and mentorship.
The Philosophical Foundation of Personal Legend
Santiago’s life journey depicts an inner desire that propels him to overcome the challenges. The quest for his legend is not only rooted in the physical realm but also in spiritual and philosophical traditions that direct the protagonist’s actions (Kumari 3). The author uses ancient wisdom and existential philosophy to explore and explain the personal legend that made Santiago overcome all the challenges he encountered along the desert to find the hidden treasure in Egypt.
Existential philosophy underscores that people can create a purpose and meaning in life. According to this viewpoint, no separate entity, such as government, friends, or gods, gives one a purpose in life but is instead a personal choice. In the novel, the protagonist desires to shape his identity by abandoning his familiar life to seek a treasure and a new milestone (Coelho 9). The decision taken by Santiago to leave Spain, his home, and his family to pursue a purpose exemplifies the theme of personal legend and its unique force in making people undertake challenging decisions.
The author utilizes mystical traditions to show that the personal legend is connected to a divine plan. The theme makes a person overcome the different challenges to achieve happiness and the joy of success. Usually, people can achieve what they can comprehend. However, the personal legend offers an opportunity for people to undertake a journey to a destiny that is beyond a person’s imagination (Sebastian 5). Along the path to destiny, the divine journey introduces new mentors who will likely help achieve a set of rules. For example, Santiago met the king of Salem, Melchizedek, who assisted him in understanding the concept of personal legend and imparted wisdom, which inspired him to perform better in the long run.
The mystical tradition is cascaded with ancient wisdom that is part of fulfilling personal destiny. Melchizedek, for example, gave Santiago two precious stones, thummim, and urim, that were symbolic of daily decisions in life. The stones generally represented the incorporation of the spiritual and physical worlds in the journey of life to fulfill one’s destiny (El Aroud 430). As he traversed through the desert and encountered different challenges, the personal legend appears to transcend both the spiritual and physical order, where a person is supposed to understand the connection for a better outcome.
Role of Mentorship in Realizing Personal Legend
Mentorship plays a pivotal role in making people attain their goals and mission in life. In Santiago’s journey to attain destiny, mentors were placed strategically to help them chart the way forward. Mentorship empowered Santiago to complete the journey without hurdles and helped him develop his character and personality. Mentorship offers a guide for a person on the journey to their destiny (Coelho 23).
For example, Melchizedek played a significant role in Santiago’s life by giving him stones that assisted him in decision-making. In the contemporary world, mentorship helps people understand and pursue their legend, such as career guidance to help learners choose careers aligned with their passion and their abilities (Nurhidayanti et al. 109). Similarly, Melchizedek counseled counsel that he should sell his sheep to get resources for his journey.
Mentorship further offers wisdom to navigate the path that has been selected. For example, the need for counsel continues after a person has been advised to select a career in a particular field. Instead, there needs to be a continuous development of a person in their pursuit of the personal legend (Al-Shammari 49). The advice provided to Santiago proved that success depends on the physical realm and spirituality, such as the lesson that people must always listen to their hearts when making important decisions regarding their goals and personal legend (Junot 26). It is also important to note that Melchizedek’s mentorship helped foster Santiago’s life journey and spiritual growth and his ability to view challenges from multiple perspectives.
Mentorship plays a further role in determining a person’s path to achieve the personal legend. For example, Santiago’s legend was to be rich by discovering a treasure located in Egypt. Although he knew about the purpose and the goal to be achieved, he needed important insights to enable him to navigate the challenges and remain focused on the journey while developing independence in attaining personal success. It teaches him to make personal and independent decisions while trusting in intuition (Coelho 23).
In the contemporary world, people can overcome challenges when effectively mentored. The theme of personal legend is underscored as the main focus in the novel because it is responsible for the journey taken by the protagonist (Suwasono et al. 11). Through the interaction with the mentors at different levels of the journey, he reassessed his values and was able to align the value to the final goal expected.
Misfortunes as the Catalyst of the Personal Legend
Adversity happens in a person’s life in the form of setbacks, hardships, and troubles, which make people re-strategize on how to navigate their uncharted life to achieve their goals. The narrative created by Paul Coelho depicts the protagonist as a person whose misfortunes become part of their transformation (Al-Shammari 29). Hardship forms the basis for determination and resilience to achieve the personal legend.
Since personal legend may be accompanied by colossal responsibility, it is essential to test a person’s resilience for a smooth delivery of the duty when they finally achieve the personal legend (Coelho 12). For example, when a person is destined to be a ruler of the land, there is a need for tests so that the person may be vital to deal with challenges as a leader. Santiago’s path in the desert was marred with challenges, and the loss of money in Tangier was a way of strengthening him to remain focused on his journey to the personal legend.
Fear is a negative emotion that may hinder a person from achieving personal legend and success. In this case, Santiago’s fear was overcome by the challenges he experienced on the journey. The author presented features and stations that could evoke uncertainty in a person and, therefore, had to be overcome to eliminate the fear and ensure better outcomes. For example, Santiago had to encounter tribal wars in the desert, which appeared to be the end of his pursuit. However, the council made him view the challenges as catalysts to develop a greater desire to achieve personal legend (Junot 19). Courage and resilience are essential aspects that make people achieve all their desired outcomes.
The adversaries in the journey to personal legend are essential components that assist in refining the purpose of a person’s struggles. Research by Nurhidayanti et al. supports the claim that setbacks are critical to enforce determination and prepare a person to overcome different situations and attain positive outcomes (111). Difficulties must be perceived positively because they are prerequisites for catalyzing personal legend.
The Symbiotic Relationship between Dream and Reality
The novel presents Santiago’s journey to attain the personal legend through which he faced numerous challenges for effective outcomes. The journey is marred with interaction between dreams and reality, which helps in attaining the personal legend. As Santiago met the Alchemist, he was taught the transformative power of dreams and the ability of dreams to empower people. The Alchemist steered a connection between the people’s efforts and their dreams.
When the dream is vivid, a force in the physical realm will ensure that the personal legend has been achieved. The Englishman explained to Santiago that dreams have a transformative power (Coelho 9). In the contemporary world, therefore, people must always have dreams and be able to visualize them because of the power they have to transform the world. The author presents dreams and reality not as opposing forces but as intertwined factors determining each other’s existence.
Prophecies and dreams are understood as foreshadowing of what is set to happen. Throughout his journey, Santiago had a series of dreams, which were transformed into a roadmap to his journey to the personal legend. In his work, Coelho suggests that dreams help formulate a person’s unique way of perceiving difficulties and, therefore, being resilient to overcome the challenges that are likely to cause difficulty in the long run (Jothi 12).
As he navigated the challenges in the desert, Santiago was able to analyze the omens and evaluate his dreams to enhance better outcomes in the long run (Junot 12). The author further represents reality as the bare canvas for dreams and states that whenever a person has the required determination, they are likely to develop better outcomes in the long run. There is a transformative power in the pursuit, and a person must always get a symbiotic relationship between dreams and reality and will, therefore, be able to understand the different situations that affect people as they navigate life changes.
Personal Legend as a Universal Concept across Cultures
Personal legend is not confined by geographical location and people, regardless of their cultural or terrestrial position. Every person, regardless of cultural nuances, is affected by the pursuit of dreams and uses similar methods to attain the dream, such as seeking mentorship, especially from wiser people or those who have already experienced challenging situations in pursuing their legend (Junot 23). Santiago’s story has a universal view, and any person from different parts of the world could have left the comfort of their home to search for a treasure in Egypt, which may be metaphorical (Coelho 17).
For example, the interpretation of omens and signs exists in all traditions, and people can produce what is about to happen to them based on their feelings and dreams. In the contemporary domain, people have different cultures and traditions, but they all incorporate dreams that may be interpreted as part of pursuing life’s journey.
A person’s surroundings guide the desires, dreams, and aspirations a person gets. Although Santiago had a unique dream about the hidden treasure near the pyramids in Egypt, there may be other forms of revelation guiding people in different civilizations. Therefore, regardless of a person’s culture and place of origin, the personal legend is always revealed based on the person’s surroundings. Further, adaptability to adverse conditions has also been presented as a way of understanding people’s well-being in the long run (Arunachalam 25). Generally, personal legend is a universal concept that must be understood to ensure people pursue their dreams without relenting and with the required resilience and adaptability.
Conclusion
Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” is a fascinating story that depicts the protagonist’s physical journey, the spiritual realm, and the connection between the two in pursuit of personal legend. The theme of personal legend is evident and may be applied in the contemporary domain as people pursue personal gain and development. Difficulties are catalysts to achieving success in pursuing destiny and personal development, and mentorship helps one develop better ideas. Generally, the theme of personal legend is universal and may be practiced across cultures.
Works Cited
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