The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

4/19/2005

The boy is a shepherd in the Andalusia region of Spain. He is returning to a town he visited the year before. He hopes to see the merchant's daughter again. But before he gets there, he spends the night at a new spot on his route. There under the tree in a field by an old church, he dreams of Egyptian pyramids. He had had the dream before.

He stops in another town along the way to visit a fortune telling gypsy. The old woman sees him finding a treasure near the base of Egyptian pyramids. She won't allow him to pay her now, but rather one tenth of the treasure. He's skeptical, thinking the prophesy was false. He sat in the town to read his new book. There an old man sits beside him.

This man claims to be an old king who can interpret dreams. So the boy repeats his story. The old man says that the fortune is the boy's personal legend. He is at a fork in his life right now. The boy can seek his personal legend and go to Africa to find the fortune, or he can continue on to the town where he met the merchant's daughter. If he follows the second path, the boy will never realize his own personal legend.

The old king gives the boy two stones for making decisions. The boy uses the stones and decides to sell his sheep and take a ship to Tangiers. Tangiers is two hours away, but completely different than anything the boy has ever experienced. Here he learns more about the ways of the world. He also has to find passage across the desert to the pyramids. If he quits, he will never achieve his personal legend.

This is a simple, short tale of following your dream. The boy is sidetracked along his way to achieve his legend. At times he feels beaten down and lost. At other times he is able to see how he has grown as a person with his experiences. He meets thieves, robbers, camel drivers, an Englishman, shop owners, the Alchemist, and a desert woman. Each of these encounters shape his next moves. Every experience contributes to his personal inner wealth.

Search for your dream. Don't give up. But don't ignore everything else in the pursuit. All the experiences you have make you a better person. Coelho gives us the readers a satisfying story that is rich in imagery to remind us of what we can be or do.

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