Please post your response to a review found on Mouthshut.com regarding The Alchemist. You can find a link to this site on the portal if you do not already have it.
I appreciate your argument and I see where you are coming from. Though you presented your opinion very articulately, I have to disagree with some of your points.
I would like to address your statement that the story was not as gripping as it’s been written to be. In fact, I do agree that the plot line is not suspenseful or even very original, as it follows other stories, specifically the classic hero’s journey. It is also, I agree, a comforting and pleasant read and easy to understand. Perhaps this simplicity is essential to the message of the book. The plot does follow the age-old hero journey, which has proved an effective and interesting format for stories such as Jason and the Argonauts or The Odyssey. I would also argue that though the book supports the idea that everyone has a personal legend that may be achieved, it does not argue that everyone is destined to achieve everything. After all, though one may set out on a journey for their personal legend, their ultimate goal may change along the way as they grow and learn about the world and about themselves. Also, even if everyone were destined to achieve monumental things, I would argue that Coelho, in The Alchemist, does not imply that everyone will achieve monumental things. Coehlo’s point, in my opinion, is that everyone has the potential to achieve great things. This is supported by a quote from the text, spoken by the King of Salem to Santiago: “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of” (23).
I agree that some people in fact most people, though capably, will probably not complete a journey to accomplish their personal legend, if out of sheer laziness and stupidity, as you mentioned. However, I don’t think that Coelho meant to say that anyone and everyone will accomplish their set goal or personal legend. Although there is a strong focus on fate, conveyed through the idea of “maktub” (meaning it has been written), it is to be considered who is the writer. Although for some, and certainly for most of the characters in the book, the writer is Allah, I believe that the writer could also be the same person following their personal legend. In other words, each person is in charge of his or her fate. I don’t believe that the references to God in The Alchemist were meant to convince readers to believe in a fate decided for them by a god, but instead were written to cause the reader to think about who is actually in charge of their destiny. In fact, if you look at another quote made by the King of Salem to Santiago, it would appear that Coelho does believe that each person I in charge of their fate: “At a certain point in our lives, we lost control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie” (18).
I don’t think that Coelho expects or believes that everyone will or can achieve “everything” as you say. I think that the book is about achieving the personal legend, whatever that may be, as it is different for every person. And if someone believes their personal legend is to achieve something great, monumental, or seemingly unrealistic, perhaps they will find out along their way to that goal that their personal legend actually involves something else, perhaps something simpler. I think the personal legend is less about the end goal and more about the process, which, if not rushed, can lead to even greater things in the end, even if they are not as grandiose as initially planned. Sometimes these simpler things we discover about ourselves are more consequential.
I would recommend this book enthusiastically, as it can provoke valuable and interesting discussion. More importantly, in my opinion this book is more than a fairy tale and if taken literally, can lead to false ideas of destiny and the difficulty of accomplishing goals. But, I believe that if someone is willing to read this book and look deeper into the meaning of Coelho’s insight, they will be rewarded and challenged with the ideas they find.
Link to article I responded to: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-53114-1.html
First, I would like to start with the fact that you think this is a self-help book, and I would have to agree. It does tell the story of a young hero who is able to follow his OWN dreams and in the process learns a lot about himself and the world that surrounds him. However I would disagree with you when you say that this is a bad thing. Many people, myself included, draw inspiration and motivation from books, movies, music or anything that could potentially help us reach our own Personal Legend and I don’t believe it’s a negative thing. Throughout the book, I believe, Santiago is sharing his experiences in the world and his own mental and emotional experiences. We, as the reader are more than capable of learning from his mistakes to help our own lives.
I don’t agree with you when you say that the book is too simple and “exceedingly puerile.” I believe Coelho wrote the book with the idea of keeping it simple. I do not believe it makes the book come off as childish at all. I think it’s the message and meaning of the story that truly matters. On page 15, Coelho does say “It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.” From this, we should understand that the book is designed to be simple however complex at the same time, only the people who spend the time to read carefully and want to understand will absorb the true meaning of the story. I also believe you contradict yourself a few times, when you stopped talking about how you wished the book were more complex so it would present you with a challenge, you went on to say “One of the tired clichés which self-help authors trot out is the narration of a parable which meanders along like a river in spate, seeking convoluted means of narrating a moral which could have been explained with greater clarity in a few words.” This is a total contradiction of what you had previously said. You wished the book were complex yet you wish the meaning and moral of the story were more simply stated?
The next argument I have is about Santiago finding his Personal Legend and destiny. You said that “So Santiago who wants to search for his destiny has to go out to a faraway land. Apparently, one cannot search for his destiny in their hometown. It must be quite heartening for tour operators to hear this. Santiago undergoes a lot of hardship in realizing his destiny. So all you lazy fellows don’t go searching for your destiny; it is a lot of hard work.” I believe this is a big generalization to make. Everyone’s destiny is going to differ so why does it matter where one finds it, whether its in is hometown or half way across the world. The fact should be that the person finds there destiny not where they find it. Also finding ones destiny, including Santiago’s is a lot of work. I feel as though you are mocking Coelho for making it a struggle for him to find it. He should have to work to find it, can you imagine what the world would be like it people didn’t have to try and fight for what they wanted?
I do agree with you when you say it was well written and do think that whoever reads the book will be presently surprised of how inspiring and motivating it is.
i tried to send an email to you with my essay topic, but it was sent back to me saying i had the wrong email address, so i though i might as well just post it on the blog.
I was thinking of doing my essay on The Universal Language and tracing it throughout the book with Santiago's travels and experiences. Also how the UL aids him along the way and poses as a mentor such as the omens, the king and the gypsy woman do. In the back of the book in the Questions for Discussions, I found a question that goes along these lines but goes in the Englishman’s direction. I would rather talk about Santiago and how it affects him.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate to your devil’s advocate. I would agree that The Alchemist isn't the book that changed my life, but I think its simplicity is also its genius.
I’m a high school senior, and I just finished reading this book for my World Lit elective. We had just finished “Notes from the Underground” (which is dense and mind-boggling and I highly recommend it) when we started The Alchemist. It definitely read like a breeze after pages and pages of Dostoyevsky’s loaded streams of consciousness, but I found the messages of both books to be equally powerful when observed with a keen eye.
I had a different view of the simple sentence structure which you criticized. Santiago spends a long time learning to speak the Language of the World, and finds that it is much simpler in its construct than he imagined it would be. This book is written similarly; it speaks to the masses. One doesn’t need to be a scholar to understand the way Coelho writes, but his message is rather profound. He wants to make the reader see that individual happiness and success come from within, that being flexible to great change is crucial to one’s happiness, and that following one’s heart through risky times can lead to safety and prosperity. Sure, these values seem a bit obvious and trite, but that’s Coelho’s point. The key to happiness and to finding one’s own “personal legend” doesn’t need to require massive turmoil and self-loathing. All one has to do is listen to what they want, and act on that desire.
Society throws many, many complications at this idea and has a habit of thwarting the path of the honest heart-follower, but Coelho addresses this too. When Santiago is traveling across the desert, the camel herder helps him to see that “no matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved toward the same compass point” (75). In other words, no matter how many obstacles are in the way, one can still reach one’s Personal Legend if they want it badly enough. Though I am slightly more religious than yourself (I at least believe in Faith, if not God), I do agree that “The truth is, the world does not strive to help mankind, the world is a senseless emotionless rock and does not care”. That was well-put. This book, however, was not written for the world to read. It was written for the individual. The universe might not come together and grant me an ivy league acceptance, but Coelho isn’t suggesting that it should. By writing this book, he wasn’t trying to say that the world can grant wishes, but instead that one who takes action can manipulate the world and use it to their advantage in order to make such wishes come true. Yes, terrible things are happening across the globe every second, but this book isn’t a recipe for world peace. It merely suggests ways for individuals to find inner-peace in the hopes that outer-peace will follow.
I found your summery of the plot to be kind of amusing as well, because it perfectly illustrates the classic hero journey. As you said, “Boy decides he is upset with his life, man tells him what to do, he does it, he experiences hardships, he overcomes them, he ultimately wins more than he ever intended to win, and lives happily ever after making out with the wind”. This is a perfect depiction of the following steps, in exact order: separation, call to adventure, initiation, abyss, transformation, master of two worlds, and return with gift. In your summery, you outlined the precise path traveled by every hero from Odysseus to Batman. The outline of the hero journey is the skeleton of every quest and life-changing experience. Each scenario is different, of course, but the summary you provided could sum up multitudes of stories. Nearly every major literary character (comedic, tragic, or otherwise) goes through this cycle in some way. It is easy to criticize, but you have probably taken some form of this road yourself. That is another spark of Coelho’s genius. By constructing Santiago’s story in such a basic way, he has made it applicable to the life of most living creatures. Santiago is a sheepherder from Spain who travels to the pyramids, but we know little else about him. His thoughts and actions are the only description of him that we really receive, and they’re thoughts that most people can relate to. He is insecure, he is naïve, he longs for love, he wants to be successful and happy. Sound familiar?
Yes, this book was an easy read and can at times seem simple and even has moments where it is perhaps a bit dull, but overall it is a surprisingly poignant story because it is relatable and applicable to life. You made some excellent points, but it is not up to this book to solve the world’s problems. It is up to the individual. This book did not change my life, but it did somewhat improve my outlook, and I respect any piece of writing that can do that.
I am responding to the following link: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-141511-1.html
Laine, I understand the points you have made about this novel and I have to say, I do agree with most of them. This book by far was not the best book I have ever read either. In fact on the literal and symbolic level, I agree it is to simplistic. Although the book is simplistic, I do think that may be purposeful by Coelho. In the sense it is very simplistic to peruse one’s dreams. I cannot be anymore simple to follow a dream, because a dream comes from one’s heart. The key is to discover the Language of the World, and be able to communicate with the heart. Some of these messages like I mentioned above can be covered for some due to the bad grammar you have mentioned. The reason for this bad grammar is because it is a translation from Portuguese. Some languages such as Arabic, this book supposedly translates well, unfortunately English does not seem to be one of those languages. I want to touch on one of you main points about fate. Fate has been a topic that has come up many times in my class discussion. I personally believe in fate. I believe everything happens for a reason. Although, those who are to wrapped up in their lives, or who do not pay attention to the small details in life miss this key concept. If you reflect on one experience, one thing that happened to you in your life, you could simply say it happened because of your own free will, but what provoked this free will? What provoked the circumstances to happen the way they did? One could say simply luck of the draw, but luck is still a matter of fate. Why do we meet certain “gurus” in our lives? Why does someone who we love enter our lives at that time; matter of randomness or matter of fate? Fate and omens are real. They are just simply overlooked by all. Simply like all the things we forget to be thankful for, and just simply take for granted. For example, our rights, our freedom, our liberties. These are all omens, and it is only a matter of fate that one gets to experience these privileges that some mistake for rights. Laine, you mention that God, faith, the Bible are all matters of “fool’s paradise”. I would argue that God, the Bible, and faith provide strength for some to get through the lives we live which are not always paradise. Strength is not a fool’s paradise; it is a necessity for some to face the lives they live. Overall, I agree this book was to simplistic, and does not challenge the reader enough. But Coelho brings up valid points that are overlooked in everyday life.
I have a read your review as well as The Alchemist. What you speak of regarding the book I find true. While this book does speak to people about not settling for their current situation and following their dreams, this book is not the bible. Nor is it a Dickens or Hemingway or Thoreau book that was masterfully and carefully crafted. Coelho is a good writer. This is fact. But he is not a linguistic God able to create perfect pieces.
I mean not to be harsh with Coelho although I am but The Alchemist does have its limitations as you said. The book is surprisingly simple. I had heard of raving reviews in response to this book and, as you suggest, my hopes were dashed to some extent as I read further and further into the novel. The story is classic: Boy lives simple life, boys receives supernatural help, boy goes on adventure, falls in love, and gets the treasure (but not without setbacks). Coelho’s strength in The Alchemist is the messages he portrays through his words. His language is simple yet inspirational. He makes less sophisticated readers able to understand all his messages, as they are not subtle. Coelho picks one theme and repeats the idea numerous times to ensure understanding from the reader. This simple repetitiveness ruins the piece for me. I desire more depth of thought, further exploration into topics rather than a simple overview, as Coelho appears to give. He touches upon ideas such as listening to one’s heart and pursuing dream yet he provides no practical method to do so. Not everyone has people able to turn lead into gold that can help them reach their personal legend. Coelho writes well and this “gentle read”, as you describe it, provides a form of entertainment and serves as inspirational tale like that in Disney movies. The Alchemist falls short though when a person picks up the book to learn in greater depth of the importance of their existence.
I must disagree with you, however, about your statement “that there are limits” to a person’s dream. I try not to sound like a dying preacher but a person’s only existing limits are those created by themselves. True, a kid might dream of going to one college in particular, or a woman might want to become the president, or some guy might want to become a monk in India. But these are not impossibilities. If one’s personal legend is truly to go to that college or become president or a monk, that person has the potential to achieve their dreams. Gurus and mentors along the way, like the Alchemist, facilitate the journey towards the person’s personal legend like Santiago’s.
Although many do not achieve their personal legends, this is simply do to the fact that they have not risked all else like Santiago to reach that dream. To die “in the midst of try to realize your Personal Legend…[is] a lot better than dying like millions of other people, who never even knew what their Personal Legends were.” (Alchemist 142) Never give up on reaching your Personal Legend and you shall never fail in life. Life is simply a means to reach you Personal Legend. Enjoy the present as the leader of the caravan does in The Alchemist and understand you have a Personal Legend that, if you wholly desire, you can achieve even in the presence of obstacles.
In response to this review of the Alchemist (http://www.mouthshut.com/review/readreview.php?cname=Alchemist__The_-_Paulo_Coelho&rid=98032&r=1) on mouthshut.com.
Though poorly written and confusing at times, some of the points you’ve presented in your review are accurate but perhaps could to be expanded upon. Also your review seemed to be ill edited, containing incorrect information, and contradictory at times.
You begin your review by stating the pros and cons of the novel. Cons being “not captivating enough” though you go on to say in that when you “begun reading it in the morning and could not stop reading untill my mother dragged me out of it. It created a real hypnotic effect.” If the book is hypnotic to you then I believe you would also be captivated while reading. Furthermore saying “I even got bored for a few pages but in the end I fell for it.” With the constant back and forth in the review it makes it hard for the reader to understand how you really felt about the book and weather or not it was captivating to you.
Another con you presented was “too much patience required”. Though contradict yourself in saying “the author’s writing style is very very simple.” I agree that the writing style and plot of Coelho is very simple but in order to understand some underlying meanings of Personal Legend, Soul of the World, and Universal Language there may be a little extra patience required. Just clarifying between these two ideas will make your review much more understandable and help the reader distinguish the readability of plot from underlying meaning.
You placed emphasis on how “most of the characters do not have names” and how this makes the “story less captivating”. I would disagree with saying that because the author does not give these characters official names but rather “referred to as the boy or the alchemist or the girl” makes it more applicable to the people in our lives. I think that Coelho does not give these people specific names because he wants us to place ourselves in the role of the boy and figure out who the king, the girl, the alchemist, the Crystal Merchant etc. are in our live. You also wrongly say that that “author does not reveal the name of the main character”. Where in reality the first sentence of part one states, “the boy’s name was Santiago.”
The grammatical errors as well as spelling made your review hard to read; those errors could have easily been fixed with a simple revision. Though I do think some of your ideas are solid but would be enhanced if elaborated upon. Along with you I have learned from this book to follow your Personal Legend, whatever and wherever that may be. Don’t be swayed by how others feel about your decisions. Also to listen to your heart, “because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find you treasure.” (p.128)
Although I personally enjoyed the book, I recognize that you are entitled to your own opinion. However, I agree with those who said that you did a poor job backing up your arguments. I do not accuse you of empty phrases and I understand your level of frustration with the book, I have felt similar hatred towards a few books in the past as well. In retrospect, my contempt towards books such as The Catcher and the Rye and Lord of the Flies was a result of timing, it was not the right time for me to read such loaded books, being only a freshman in high school. Perhaps someday down the road I will take another look at them and read them with new eyes. When you read The Alchemist it might not have been the right time. Your past, present, and future may not have been aligned just right. Whatever stage of life you were at, whatever was facing you in the future, and whatever you had already accomplished stopped you from connecting with a tale that can be applied to every individual, weather it be the entire journey, or just bits and pieces. It was not your time to read it, but it was mine. I am a high school senior, on the threshold of college, questioning my personal legend, and deciding what truly makes me happy and whether or not I should remain a Shepard, or a treasure hunter. The Alchemist has served as my guru during my “call to adventure”, which would be the equivalent of Santiago’s dream, his potential. With that said, I hope you would reinvestigate this text in your future, perhaps when you are in the abyss, or caught between the transformation of a dream into reality, this is when you will need the help of the alchemist and Santiago. I think that then you will see that what is written is always “taken seriously,” for that is the purpose of writing. I have quoted you with the hopes of you recognizing the seriousness of maktub (what is written), for Coelho knows it, his readers know it, and the readers of your comments know it. Don’t write it if you are not willing to own it, because as you can see it is tied to your fate, for I am responding to these four years later. I question your approach to your statement about the “packaged product”, although I don’t think I completely disagree, I do see it in a different way however. Labeling Coelho’s writing as a “ready-made mix” is true, but at a distance. It is in no way generic but the journey of Santiago is designed for the masses, it can be applied to anyone in the world who is following their personal legend. Your comment about “instant gratification” is rather baffling and completely discredits your knowledge of the story and perception of reality in relation to your statement; I have never known anyone who has received instant rewards with no effort involved. Coelho is not condescending; I would challenge you to provide me with examples to justify your own condescension. He absolutely challenges his readers, provokes the imagination, and forces a reevaluation of his readers’ choices, whether or not they choose to take action is up to them. I respect that you have visions of your own, perhaps you have already discovered your personal legend and are well on your way to your treasure, if you haven’t found it already, but I am curious as to what drew you to this book and what compelled you to see it to the end when it seems as though you were not in need of guidance (I say this with no sarcasm). I found Coelho’s writing cathartic and applicable to everyone, I would not place him in the category of “the idiot box”. In fact, the entire point of the book is to go against the “right” way to do things, he doesn’t want you to mainstream your identity, he is asking everyone to search within yourself and guide yourself out. I hope you can return to the book someday and maybe enjoy it, they may not, however, be in your personal legend, so I hope that your future leads you to a book that you can use as your guru.
Laine, I first wanted to tell you that you have articulated and delivered some exceptional points. I would have agreed with most of your points but I have a different interpretation of the Alchemist. I believe that the simplicity of the story is why the book is a truly exceptional piece of work. I found that by having the plot of the book simpler the symbols have a much greater weight and resonate with me stronger. When Santiago reaches the pyramids only to discover his treasure is buried back in Spain, was a brilliant example of how many people have what they truly want in life right in front of them. You say that this world is an emotionless rock, well then I would have to say that it is emotionless because that is how you are making it. If you surround yourself with people who are cruel and don’t care about you or your dreams then chances are you will never reach your ambitions. I am a senior in high school, and am surrounded by teachers, friends and peers all of them truly care about one another and would help anyone with a problem. With these people around me I have learned that I can rely on all of them when my journey gets tough and I no that they will attest to the same belief. I believe this world is filled with emotion because that is how I make it. I believe that this world wants people who understand what they aspire towards to achieve their goals. So I would say that maybe you should start seeing the world as I do and start to focus less on how cruel the world is and more about how you will achieve your own personal legend. I would agree with you full heartedly that the book has a fairy tale like feel but that is how Coelho made it. By making this book like a fairy tale it forced the reader to become engaged in the messages, plot and story line. It forces people, myself included, to understand the big picture of what why he wrote which symbol. I know that by reading this book I have become fascinated with discovering my own personal legend, I can tell you that Harry Potter never gave me this awakening. Lastly I want to say that every person is in fact destined to achieve something. This destiny can differ from person to person. Someone might want to become a carpenter and someone might want to cure cancer, both these scenarios the people are destined to become what they aspire to be. I would disagree with you when you say laziness and stupidity keeps people back. That statement just seems ignorant; if someone is stupid do you think that they plan on curing cancer? I would say that their destiny is more on the lines of become what ever career they think is fit, who has the right to determine if someone is not smart enough to achieve their dream. I no personally I would never consider telling anyone they can not be what they aspire to be because their grades aren’t fit for that career. And laziness, sure that is a contributor for some people to not achieve their dreams. But some people’s dreams might be to just sit in a recliner all day watching television. My point is that people all have different destinies and even though everyone has a different destiny that does not mean that they can not achieve there dreams. I hope that I have in no way offended you that is not why I wrote this. I simply just wanted to give you my perspective on what I believed was right and wrong with your arguments. And I hope that you don’t take this too lightly because the overall message of the Alchemist is not something to be taken lightly.
Suyog, First, I appreciate your honesty in critiquing this book; reading through some of the other reviews, I get the feeling that some people are simply rewriting what other people are saying about The Alchemist. I don’t however agree with everything you have said about The Alchemist. I apologize in advance if it seems like I am attacking your opinion; I tend to become very argumentative and will try to refrain from doing so. The first point you make is that, “The problem with The Alchemist it tries vainly in the later half of the book to be come something grandiose and just falls flat on itself.” Although I did find that it would have ended better with a different epilogue or no epilogue at all, I think the second half of the book gained some momentum and, excluding the epilogue, had a pretty powerful message behind it. When having to “morph” into the wind to save his life, Santiago finally learns that the science of alchemy is not actually about turning things into gold or trying to make something change into what it is not. He learns that alchemy is based on the idea that all things in the universe are part of one soul, the Soul of the Universe. This is where he realizes that although he is on a quest to find a physical treasure, the fact that all things in the universe are of one soul or of one unit makes it so that everything in his world is just as much of a treasure as a chest full of gold. I struggled for a while with the idea that a physical treasure actually existed for Santiago; I would have been much happier if the treasure for him had just been to understand the Universal Language and find the treasure within his heart. The next topic that you mentioned that I don’t entirely agree with is when you say, “Things go downhill when the Soul of the World and such philosophies are introduced with some bizarre things happening within the book. The dreamer’s ultimate realization of the soul of the world, that is the soul of God was his own soul, doesn’t even sound satisfactory. His path to realization that God was probably his perfect self does not come across strongly enough for us to justify with the dreamer’s dream.” I think you got this conclusion because you may have taken some of the ideas too literally. When Santiago sees that his own soul is the soul of god, Coelho’s message is that everything in the world is part of one system, the Soul of the Universe. This idea is the same idea that allows Santiago, a shepherd, to become a crystal merchant, or an alchemist, or, eventually, a husband. I see where you get this idea, but I think you missed the point on this topic. I do agree with you that the prose of this book may have been too simple. I think that such complex and thoughtful ideas deserve a more complex and maybe even cryptic explanation. I think the ideas that Coelho puts forth are good ones, but they deserve to be written in a way that is as difficult to understand as the ideas themselves are, because this book could easily come off as a child’s book as it is written now.
This is my respondse to "A fairytale and not the gospel"
I disagree with your crictisms on Coelho’s The alchemist. With all do respect , I think you were too broad and you didn’t defend your argument with examples. Why isn’t Coelho as revered as Hemmimgway and Dickins? That is a matter of opinion. Take Hemmingway’s Old man and the Sea, that is a short and simple book. The only way I reader can appreciate the book though is through their additude towards it. J.D Salinger is another example of a classic aurthor whose writing is simple but great. For example, The catcher in the Rye is about Holden, a struggling boy, who is stuck between innocence and growing up. Some people may read the book and over look the symbols in the story such as the lake freezing over (hell freezing over) and the birds flying away in the winter (where do you go when things get rough in life). The same can be said for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsbey. Some readers simply see the tale as a romatic tradjety between Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. They neglect to see the deeper meaning, how loving someone unconditionally has its flaws, how society damages eachother. What I am trying to say is everything is a matter of opinion. It is too bad that you couldn’t rise above the fairytale and see the true magnitude of the story. It is more diffult then you realize to weave a tale of such simplicty that encourages us to find our greater legened. I could write a wordy and complicated tale preaching the same lesson. But would you be able to understand it? No, then why bother? And this book does not tell you to follow your dreams. Nobody can tell you how to follow your dreams. The point of the Alchemist is to find your personal ledgened and the role of fate. Not how to follow your dreams. If anything it in encourages you to find your dreams. Lastly, shame on the people that were dissappointed by the book because they had such great expectations. You should never come into reading a book with great expectations. Instead, I would encourage an open mind. Nobody, not even Hemmingway , wrote the perfect book. What is the perfect book..?
14 comments:
The following is the link to the review I responded to:
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-141511-1.html
The following is my response to the review:
I appreciate your argument and I see where you are coming from. Though you presented your opinion very articulately, I have to disagree with some of your points.
I would like to address your statement that the story was not as gripping as it’s been written to be. In fact, I do agree that the plot line is not suspenseful or even very original, as it follows other stories, specifically the classic hero’s journey. It is also, I agree, a comforting and pleasant read and easy to understand. Perhaps this simplicity is essential to the message of the book. The plot does follow the age-old hero journey, which has proved an effective and interesting format for stories such as Jason and the Argonauts or The Odyssey. I would also argue that though the book supports the idea that everyone has a personal legend that may be achieved, it does not argue that everyone is destined to achieve everything. After all, though one may set out on a journey for their personal legend, their ultimate goal may change along the way as they grow and learn about the world and about themselves. Also, even if everyone were destined to achieve monumental things, I would argue that Coelho, in The Alchemist, does not imply that everyone will achieve monumental things. Coehlo’s point, in my opinion, is that everyone has the potential to achieve great things. This is supported by a quote from the text, spoken by the King of Salem to Santiago: “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of” (23).
I agree that some people in fact most people, though capably, will probably not complete a journey to accomplish their personal legend, if out of sheer laziness and stupidity, as you mentioned. However, I don’t think that Coelho meant to say that anyone and everyone will accomplish their set goal or personal legend. Although there is a strong focus on fate, conveyed through the idea of “maktub” (meaning it has been written), it is to be considered who is the writer. Although for some, and certainly for most of the characters in the book, the writer is Allah, I believe that the writer could also be the same person following their personal legend. In other words, each person is in charge of his or her fate. I don’t believe that the references to God in The Alchemist were meant to convince readers to believe in a fate decided for them by a god, but instead were written to cause the reader to think about who is actually in charge of their destiny. In fact, if you look at another quote made by the King of Salem to Santiago, it would appear that Coelho does believe that each person I in charge of their fate: “At a certain point in our lives, we lost control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie” (18).
I don’t think that Coelho expects or believes that everyone will or can achieve “everything” as you say. I think that the book is about achieving the personal legend, whatever that may be, as it is different for every person. And if someone believes their personal legend is to achieve something great, monumental, or seemingly unrealistic, perhaps they will find out along their way to that goal that their personal legend actually involves something else, perhaps something simpler. I think the personal legend is less about the end goal and more about the process, which, if not rushed, can lead to even greater things in the end, even if they are not as grandiose as initially planned. Sometimes these simpler things we discover about ourselves are more consequential.
I would recommend this book enthusiastically, as it can provoke valuable and interesting discussion. More importantly, in my opinion this book is more than a fairy tale and if taken literally, can lead to false ideas of destiny and the difficulty of accomplishing goals. But, I believe that if someone is willing to read this book and look deeper into the meaning of Coelho’s insight, they will be rewarded and challenged with the ideas they find.
Link to article I responded to:
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-53114-1.html
First, I would like to start with the fact that you think this is a self-help book, and I would have to agree. It does tell the story of a young hero who is able to follow his OWN dreams and in the process learns a lot about himself and the world that surrounds him. However I would disagree with you when you say that this is a bad thing. Many people, myself included, draw inspiration and motivation from books, movies, music or anything that could potentially help us reach our own Personal Legend and I don’t believe it’s a negative thing. Throughout the book, I believe, Santiago is sharing his experiences in the world and his own mental and emotional experiences. We, as the reader are more than capable of learning from his mistakes to help our own lives.
I don’t agree with you when you say that the book is too simple and “exceedingly puerile.” I believe Coelho wrote the book with the idea of keeping it simple. I do not believe it makes the book come off as childish at all. I think it’s the message and meaning of the story that truly matters. On page 15, Coelho does say “It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.” From this, we should understand that the book is designed to be simple however complex at the same time, only the people who spend the time to read carefully and want to understand will absorb the true meaning of the story. I also believe you contradict yourself a few times, when you stopped talking about how you wished the book were more complex so it would present you with a challenge, you went on to say “One of the tired clichés which self-help authors trot out is the narration of a parable which meanders along like a river in spate, seeking convoluted means of narrating a moral which could have been explained with greater clarity in a few words.” This is a total contradiction of what you had previously said. You wished the book were complex yet you wish the meaning and moral of the story were more simply stated?
The next argument I have is about Santiago finding his Personal Legend and destiny. You said that “So Santiago who wants to search for his destiny has to go out to a faraway land. Apparently, one cannot search for his destiny in their hometown. It must be quite heartening for tour operators to hear this. Santiago undergoes a lot of hardship in realizing his destiny. So all you lazy fellows don’t go searching for your destiny; it is a lot of hard work.” I believe this is a big generalization to make. Everyone’s destiny is going to differ so why does it matter where one finds it, whether its in is hometown or half way across the world. The fact should be that the person finds there destiny not where they find it. Also finding ones destiny, including Santiago’s is a lot of work. I feel as though you are mocking Coelho for making it a struggle for him to find it. He should have to work to find it, can you imagine what the world would be like it people didn’t have to try and fight for what they wanted?
I do agree with you when you say it was well written and do think that whoever reads the book will be presently surprised of how inspiring and motivating it is.
Frankie and Claire--nice work. I think you both did a nice job on this assignment.
i tried to send an email to you with my essay topic, but it was sent back to me saying i had the wrong email address, so i though i might as well just post it on the blog.
I was thinking of doing my essay on The Universal Language and tracing it throughout the book with Santiago's travels and experiences. Also how the UL aids him along the way and poses as a mentor such as the omens, the king and the gypsy woman do. In the back of the book in the Questions for Discussions, I found a question that goes along these lines but goes in the Englishman’s direction. I would rather talk about Santiago and how it affects him.
I replied to the following review. I believe Frankie responded to the same post.
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-141511-1.html
I’m going to play devil’s advocate to your devil’s advocate. I would agree that The Alchemist isn't the book that changed my life, but I think its simplicity is also its genius.
I’m a high school senior, and I just finished reading this book for my World Lit elective. We had just finished “Notes from the Underground” (which is dense and mind-boggling and I highly recommend it) when we started The Alchemist. It definitely read like a breeze after pages and pages of Dostoyevsky’s loaded streams of consciousness, but I found the messages of both books to be equally powerful when observed with a keen eye.
I had a different view of the simple sentence structure which you criticized. Santiago spends a long time learning to speak the Language of the World, and finds that it is much simpler in its construct than he imagined it would be. This book is written similarly; it speaks to the masses. One doesn’t need to be a scholar to understand the way Coelho writes, but his message is rather profound. He wants to make the reader see that individual happiness and success come from within, that being flexible to great change is crucial to one’s happiness, and that following one’s heart through risky times can lead to safety and prosperity. Sure, these values seem a bit obvious and trite, but that’s Coelho’s point. The key to happiness and to finding one’s own “personal legend” doesn’t need to require massive turmoil and self-loathing. All one has to do is listen to what they want, and act on that desire.
Society throws many, many complications at this idea and has a habit of thwarting the path of the honest heart-follower, but Coelho addresses this too. When Santiago is traveling across the desert, the camel herder helps him to see that “no matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved toward the same compass point” (75). In other words, no matter how many obstacles are in the way, one can still reach one’s Personal Legend if they want it badly enough. Though I am slightly more religious than yourself (I at least believe in Faith, if not God), I do agree that “The truth is, the world does not strive to help mankind, the world is a senseless emotionless rock and does not care”. That was well-put. This book, however, was not written for the world to read. It was written for the individual. The universe might not come together and grant me an ivy league acceptance, but Coelho isn’t suggesting that it should. By writing this book, he wasn’t trying to say that the world can grant wishes, but instead that one who takes action can manipulate the world and use it to their advantage in order to make such wishes come true. Yes, terrible things are happening across the globe every second, but this book isn’t a recipe for world peace. It merely suggests ways for individuals to find inner-peace in the hopes that outer-peace will follow.
I found your summery of the plot to be kind of amusing as well, because it perfectly illustrates the classic hero journey. As you said, “Boy decides he is upset with his life, man tells him what to do, he does it, he experiences hardships, he overcomes them, he ultimately wins more than he ever intended to win, and lives happily ever after making out with the wind”. This is a perfect depiction of the following steps, in exact order: separation, call to adventure, initiation, abyss, transformation, master of two worlds, and return with gift. In your summery, you outlined the precise path traveled by every hero from Odysseus to Batman. The outline of the hero journey is the skeleton of every quest and life-changing experience. Each scenario is different, of course, but the summary you provided could sum up multitudes of stories. Nearly every major literary character (comedic, tragic, or otherwise) goes through this cycle in some way. It is easy to criticize, but you have probably taken some form of this road yourself. That is another spark of Coelho’s genius. By constructing Santiago’s story in such a basic way, he has made it applicable to the life of most living creatures. Santiago is a sheepherder from Spain who travels to the pyramids, but we know little else about him. His thoughts and actions are the only description of him that we really receive, and they’re thoughts that most people can relate to. He is insecure, he is naïve, he longs for love, he wants to be successful and happy. Sound familiar?
Yes, this book was an easy read and can at times seem simple and even has moments where it is perhaps a bit dull, but overall it is a surprisingly poignant story because it is relatable and applicable to life. You made some excellent points, but it is not up to this book to solve the world’s problems. It is up to the individual. This book did not change my life, but it did somewhat improve my outlook, and I respect any piece of writing that can do that.
I am responding to the following link:
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-141511-1.html
Laine,
I understand the points you have made about this novel and I have to say, I do agree with most of them. This book by far was not the best book I have ever read either. In fact on the literal and symbolic level, I agree it is to simplistic. Although the book is simplistic, I do think that may be purposeful by Coelho. In the sense it is very simplistic to peruse one’s dreams. I cannot be anymore simple to follow a dream, because a dream comes from one’s heart. The key is to discover the Language of the World, and be able to communicate with the heart.
Some of these messages like I mentioned above can be covered for some due to the bad grammar you have mentioned. The reason for this bad grammar is because it is a translation from Portuguese. Some languages such as Arabic, this book supposedly translates well, unfortunately English does not seem to be one of those languages.
I want to touch on one of you main points about fate. Fate has been a topic that has come up many times in my class discussion. I personally believe in fate. I believe everything happens for a reason. Although, those who are to wrapped up in their lives, or who do not pay attention to the small details in life miss this key concept. If you reflect on one experience, one thing that happened to you in your life, you could simply say it happened because of your own free will, but what provoked this free will? What provoked the circumstances to happen the way they did? One could say simply luck of the draw, but luck is still a matter of fate. Why do we meet certain “gurus” in our lives? Why does someone who we love enter our lives at that time; matter of randomness or matter of fate? Fate and omens are real. They are just simply overlooked by all. Simply like all the things we forget to be thankful for, and just simply take for granted. For example, our rights, our freedom, our liberties. These are all omens, and it is only a matter of fate that one gets to experience these privileges that some mistake for rights.
Laine, you mention that God, faith, the Bible are all matters of “fool’s paradise”. I would argue that God, the Bible, and faith provide strength for some to get through the lives we live which are not always paradise. Strength is not a fool’s paradise; it is a necessity for some to face the lives they live.
Overall, I agree this book was to simplistic, and does not challenge the reader enough. But Coelho brings up valid points that are overlooked in everyday life.
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-119699-1.html
Hi Devendra,
I have a read your review as well as The Alchemist. What you speak of regarding the book I find true. While this book does speak to people about not settling for their current situation and following their dreams, this book is not the bible. Nor is it a Dickens or Hemingway or Thoreau book that was masterfully and carefully crafted. Coelho is a good writer. This is fact. But he is not a linguistic God able to create perfect pieces.
I mean not to be harsh with Coelho although I am but The Alchemist does have its limitations as you said. The book is surprisingly simple. I had heard of raving reviews in response to this book and, as you suggest, my hopes were dashed to some extent as I read further and further into the novel. The story is classic: Boy lives simple life, boys receives supernatural help, boy goes on adventure, falls in love, and gets the treasure (but not without setbacks). Coelho’s strength in The Alchemist is the messages he portrays through his words. His language is simple yet inspirational. He makes less sophisticated readers able to understand all his messages, as they are not subtle. Coelho picks one theme and repeats the idea numerous times to ensure understanding from the reader. This simple repetitiveness ruins the piece for me. I desire more depth of thought, further exploration into topics rather than a simple overview, as Coelho appears to give. He touches upon ideas such as listening to one’s heart and pursuing dream yet he provides no practical method to do so. Not everyone has people able to turn lead into gold that can help them reach their personal legend. Coelho writes well and this “gentle read”, as you describe it, provides a form of entertainment and serves as inspirational tale like that in Disney movies. The Alchemist falls short though when a person picks up the book to learn in greater depth of the importance of their existence.
I must disagree with you, however, about your statement “that there are limits” to a person’s dream. I try not to sound like a dying preacher but a person’s only existing limits are those created by themselves. True, a kid might dream of going to one college in particular, or a woman might want to become the president, or some guy might want to become a monk in India. But these are not impossibilities. If one’s personal legend is truly to go to that college or become president or a monk, that person has the potential to achieve their dreams. Gurus and mentors along the way, like the Alchemist, facilitate the journey towards the person’s personal legend like Santiago’s.
Although many do not achieve their personal legends, this is simply do to the fact that they have not risked all else like Santiago to reach that dream. To die “in the midst of try to realize your Personal Legend…[is] a lot better than dying like millions of other people, who never even knew what their Personal Legends were.” (Alchemist 142) Never give up on reaching your Personal Legend and you shall never fail in life. Life is simply a means to reach you Personal Legend. Enjoy the present as the leader of the caravan does in The Alchemist and understand you have a Personal Legend that, if you wholly desire, you can achieve even in the presence of obstacles.
In response to this review of the Alchemist (http://www.mouthshut.com/review/readreview.php?cname=Alchemist__The_-_Paulo_Coelho&rid=98032&r=1) on mouthshut.com.
Though poorly written and confusing at times, some of the points you’ve presented in your review are accurate but perhaps could to be expanded upon. Also your review seemed to be ill edited, containing incorrect information, and contradictory at times.
You begin your review by stating the pros and cons of the novel. Cons being “not captivating enough” though you go on to say in that when you “begun reading it in the morning and could not stop reading untill my mother dragged me out of it. It created a real hypnotic effect.” If the book is hypnotic to you then I believe you would also be captivated while reading. Furthermore saying “I even got bored for a few pages but in the end I fell for it.” With the constant back and forth in the review it makes it hard for the reader to understand how you really felt about the book and weather or not it was captivating to you.
Another con you presented was “too much patience required”. Though contradict yourself in saying “the author’s writing style is very very simple.” I agree that the writing style and plot of Coelho is very simple but in order to understand some underlying meanings of Personal Legend, Soul of the World, and Universal Language there may be a little extra patience required. Just clarifying between these two ideas will make your review much more understandable and help the reader distinguish the readability of plot from underlying meaning.
You placed emphasis on how “most of the characters do not have names” and how this makes the “story less captivating”. I would disagree with saying that because the author does not give these characters official names but rather “referred to as the boy or the alchemist or the girl” makes it more applicable to the people in our lives. I think that Coelho does not give these people specific names because he wants us to place ourselves in the role of the boy and figure out who the king, the girl, the alchemist, the Crystal Merchant etc. are in our live. You also wrongly say that that “author does not reveal the name of the main character”. Where in reality the first sentence of part one states, “the boy’s name was Santiago.”
The grammatical errors as well as spelling made your review hard to read; those errors could have easily been fixed with a simple revision. Though I do think some of your ideas are solid but would be enhanced if elaborated upon. Along with you I have learned from this book to follow your Personal Legend, whatever and wherever that may be. Don’t be swayed by how others feel about your decisions. Also to listen to your heart, “because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find you treasure.” (p.128)
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-50209-1.html
smookherjee,
Although I personally enjoyed the book, I recognize that you are entitled to your own opinion. However, I agree with those who said that you did a poor job backing up your arguments. I do not accuse you of empty phrases and I understand your level of frustration with the book, I have felt similar hatred towards a few books in the past as well. In retrospect, my contempt towards books such as The Catcher and the Rye and Lord of the Flies was a result of timing, it was not the right time for me to read such loaded books, being only a freshman in high school. Perhaps someday down the road I will take another look at them and read them with new eyes. When you read The Alchemist it might not have been the right time. Your past, present, and future may not have been aligned just right. Whatever stage of life you were at, whatever was facing you in the future, and whatever you had already accomplished stopped you from connecting with a tale that can be applied to every individual, weather it be the entire journey, or just bits and pieces. It was not your time to read it, but it was mine. I am a high school senior, on the threshold of college, questioning my personal legend, and deciding what truly makes me happy and whether or not I should remain a Shepard, or a treasure hunter. The Alchemist has served as my guru during my “call to adventure”, which would be the equivalent of Santiago’s dream, his potential.
With that said, I hope you would reinvestigate this text in your future, perhaps when you are in the abyss, or caught between the transformation of a dream into reality, this is when you will need the help of the alchemist and Santiago. I think that then you will see that what is written is always “taken seriously,” for that is the purpose of writing. I have quoted you with the hopes of you recognizing the seriousness of maktub (what is written), for Coelho knows it, his readers know it, and the readers of your comments know it. Don’t write it if you are not willing to own it, because as you can see it is tied to your fate, for I am responding to these four years later.
I question your approach to your statement about the “packaged product”, although I don’t think I completely disagree, I do see it in a different way however. Labeling Coelho’s writing as a “ready-made mix” is true, but at a distance. It is in no way generic but the journey of Santiago is designed for the masses, it can be applied to anyone in the world who is following their personal legend. Your comment about “instant gratification” is rather baffling and completely discredits your knowledge of the story and perception of reality in relation to your statement; I have never known anyone who has received instant rewards with no effort involved.
Coelho is not condescending; I would challenge you to provide me with examples to justify your own condescension. He absolutely challenges his readers, provokes the imagination, and forces a reevaluation of his readers’ choices, whether or not they choose to take action is up to them. I respect that you have visions of your own, perhaps you have already discovered your personal legend and are well on your way to your treasure, if you haven’t found it already, but I am curious as to what drew you to this book and what compelled you to see it to the end when it seems as though you were not in need of guidance (I say this with no sarcasm).
I found Coelho’s writing cathartic and applicable to everyone, I would not place him in the category of “the idiot box”. In fact, the entire point of the book is to go against the “right” way to do things, he doesn’t want you to mainstream your identity, he is asking everyone to search within yourself and guide yourself out.
I hope you can return to the book someday and maybe enjoy it, they may not, however, be in your personal legend, so I hope that your future leads you to a book that you can use as your guru.
Laine,
I first wanted to tell you that you have articulated and delivered some exceptional points. I would have agreed with most of your points but I have a different interpretation of the Alchemist.
I believe that the simplicity of the story is why the book is a truly exceptional piece of work. I found that by having the plot of the book simpler the symbols have a much greater weight and resonate with me stronger. When Santiago reaches the pyramids only to discover his treasure is buried back in Spain, was a brilliant example of how many people have what they truly want in life right in front of them.
You say that this world is an emotionless rock, well then I would have to say that it is emotionless because that is how you are making it. If you surround yourself with people who are cruel and don’t care about you or your dreams then chances are you will never reach your ambitions. I am a senior in high school, and am surrounded by teachers, friends and peers all of them truly care about one another and would help anyone with a problem. With these people around me I have learned that I can rely on all of them when my journey gets tough and I no that they will attest to the same belief. I believe this world is filled with emotion because that is how I make it. I believe that this world wants people who understand what they aspire towards to achieve their goals. So I would say that maybe you should start seeing the world as I do and start to focus less on how cruel the world is and more about how you will achieve your own personal legend.
I would agree with you full heartedly that the book has a fairy tale like feel but that is how Coelho made it. By making this book like a fairy tale it forced the reader to become engaged in the messages, plot and story line. It forces people, myself included, to understand the big picture of what why he wrote which symbol. I know that by reading this book I have become fascinated with discovering my own personal legend, I can tell you that Harry Potter never gave me this awakening.
Lastly I want to say that every person is in fact destined to achieve something. This destiny can differ from person to person. Someone might want to become a carpenter and someone might want to cure cancer, both these scenarios the people are destined to become what they aspire to be. I would disagree with you when you say laziness and stupidity keeps people back. That statement just seems ignorant; if someone is stupid do you think that they plan on curing cancer? I would say that their destiny is more on the lines of become what ever career they think is fit, who has the right to determine if someone is not smart enough to achieve their dream. I no personally I would never consider telling anyone they can not be what they aspire to be because their grades aren’t fit for that career. And laziness, sure that is a contributor for some people to not achieve their dreams. But some people’s dreams might be to just sit in a recliner all day watching television. My point is that people all have different destinies and even though everyone has a different destiny that does not mean that they can not achieve there dreams.
I hope that I have in no way offended you that is not why I wrote this. I simply just wanted to give you my perspective on what I believed was right and wrong with your arguments. And I hope that you don’t take this too lightly because the overall message of the Alchemist is not something to be taken lightly.
Hey sorry here is my link to my post http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Alchemist___The_-_Paulo_Coelho-925035707.html
http://www.mouthshut.com/Comment/readcomment.php?rid=48474&c=1&r=1
Suyog,
First, I appreciate your honesty in critiquing this book; reading through some of the other reviews, I get the feeling that some people are simply rewriting what other people are saying about The Alchemist. I don’t however agree with everything you have said about The Alchemist. I apologize in advance if it seems like I am attacking your opinion; I tend to become very argumentative and will try to refrain from doing so.
The first point you make is that, “The problem with The Alchemist it tries vainly in the later half of the book to be come something grandiose and just falls flat on itself.” Although I did find that it would have ended better with a different epilogue or no epilogue at all, I think the second half of the book gained some momentum and, excluding the epilogue, had a pretty powerful message behind it. When having to “morph” into the wind to save his life, Santiago finally learns that the science of alchemy is not actually about turning things into gold or trying to make something change into what it is not. He learns that alchemy is based on the idea that all things in the universe are part of one soul, the Soul of the Universe. This is where he realizes that although he is on a quest to find a physical treasure, the fact that all things in the universe are of one soul or of one unit makes it so that everything in his world is just as much of a treasure as a chest full of gold. I struggled for a while with the idea that a physical treasure actually existed for Santiago; I would have been much happier if the treasure for him had just been to understand the Universal Language and find the treasure within his heart.
The next topic that you mentioned that I don’t entirely agree with is when you say, “Things go downhill when the Soul of the World and such philosophies are introduced with some bizarre things happening within the book. The dreamer’s ultimate realization of the soul of the world, that is the soul of God was his own soul, doesn’t even sound satisfactory. His path to realization that God was probably his perfect self does not come across strongly enough for us to justify with the dreamer’s dream.” I think you got this conclusion because you may have taken some of the ideas too literally. When Santiago sees that his own soul is the soul of god, Coelho’s message is that everything in the world is part of one system, the Soul of the Universe. This idea is the same idea that allows Santiago, a shepherd, to become a crystal merchant, or an alchemist, or, eventually, a husband. I see where you get this idea, but I think you missed the point on this topic.
I do agree with you that the prose of this book may have been too simple. I think that such complex and thoughtful ideas deserve a more complex and maybe even cryptic explanation. I think the ideas that Coelho puts forth are good ones, but they deserve to be written in a way that is as difficult to understand as the ideas themselves are, because this book could easily come off as a child’s book as it is written now.
This is my respondse to "A fairytale and not the gospel"
I disagree with your crictisms on Coelho’s The alchemist. With all do respect , I think you were too broad and you didn’t defend your argument with examples. Why isn’t Coelho as revered as Hemmimgway and Dickins? That is a matter of opinion. Take Hemmingway’s Old man and the Sea, that is a short and simple book. The only way I reader can appreciate the book though is through their additude towards it. J.D Salinger is another example of a classic aurthor whose writing is simple but great. For example, The catcher in the Rye is about Holden, a struggling boy, who is stuck between innocence and growing up. Some people may read the book and over look the symbols in the story such as the lake freezing over (hell freezing over) and the birds flying away in the winter (where do you go when things get rough in life). The same can be said for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsbey. Some readers simply see the tale as a romatic tradjety between Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. They neglect to see the deeper meaning, how loving someone unconditionally has its flaws, how society damages eachother.
What I am trying to say is everything is a matter of opinion. It is too bad that you couldn’t rise above the fairytale and see the true magnitude of the story. It is more diffult then you realize to weave a tale of such simplicty that encourages us to find our greater legened. I could write a wordy and complicated tale preaching the same lesson. But would you be able to understand it? No, then why bother?
And this book does not tell you to follow your dreams. Nobody can tell you how to follow your dreams. The point of the Alchemist is to find your personal ledgened and the role of fate. Not how to follow your dreams. If anything it in encourages you to find your dreams.
Lastly, shame on the people that were dissappointed by the book because they had such great expectations. You should never come into reading a book with great expectations. Instead, I would encourage an open mind. Nobody, not even Hemmingway , wrote the perfect book. What is the perfect book..?
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