Paulo Coelhos The Alchemist Synthesis Essay - 1275 Words

There are many obstacles in everyday life, but none as detrimental to ones future as fear. Fear can cause people to not only avoid achieving their goals in life but it also forces them to think about it throughout every day. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist shows that those who wallow in fear will never achieve their personal legend, and those who conquer fear will achieve anything they strive for. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is a commonly analyzed and criticized piece of literature. One of these articles is Rejendra Kumar Dash’s â€Å"Alchemy of the Soul: A Comparative Study of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist†. Dash’s article is a literary criticism of the different parts of the character’s journey in The Alchemist.†¦show more content†¦Despite this knowledge he knows that the outcome is worth the risk. After taking this journey he soon reaches the oasis. After traveling through the desert for many days and nights, this place is a paradise for Santiago. He fits in well with the society at the oasis and begins to create a life for himself there. He meets a girl, gets a job interpreting omens, and becomes a wealthy man. When it comes time to leave he experiences a new kind of fear. Not a fear of danger or death, but a fear of loss. He fears that if he leaves he may not return to his life that he loves so much and holds so dearly. When he gets the option to leave he confronts the difficult decision with something his tour guide told him. The guide said, â€Å"Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man† (88). This allowed Santiago to continue with his journey knowing that he is responsible for fulfilling his personal legend and not staying out of fear of loss. The Arab tribal camp is Santiago’s next stop in his journey. He is cap tured along with the alchemist, who promises them that in three days Santiago will become the wind and destroy the camp. This causes him to panic out of fear for another time, even with all he has learned. He is now experiencing the most crippling fear yet, the fear of failure. This type of fear is so bad because it causes people to not