The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

 What makes a literary work attain excellence and what factors define its success, might never meet its fair answer. Is it to make a great sale, to make one feel, or to reignite passion; humans as the sole consumers of literary works never fully agree on a certain set of standards. Despite its uncertainty, there are a few books that are considered good books, great even, and one of them is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. 

The Alchemist tells a story about a young boy named Santiago searching for his ‘Personal Legend.’ Santiago was a boy who chose to be a shepherd because of his desire to travel, refusing to be a priest like his parents planned him to be. With time, his knowledge of sheep increased and he ended up with relatively large flocks. Although he favored having no tie to any place, one day he met a young girl who almost made him forget this enjoyment. That was when the King of Salem appeared and reminded him of his ‘Personal Legend.’

“It (Personal Legend) is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.”

According to this book, everyone has their own Personal Legend, but only some decide to pursue it.  Santiago aspired to aim at it and left his comfortable life as a shepherd after the King of Salem came to him. He realized that he was tied to his land because of his flocks which he began to herd for his desire to be free. Santiago did not want to end up like his father, or the baker, who both lost their Personal Legend to comfortable lives therefore he sold his flocks and crossed the continent to go on his journey. On his journey, he met several men who helped him realize his Personal Legend and a woman named Fatima whom he ended up falling in love.

The Alchemist was written beautifully. It did not start strong with an exaggerated hook opening, which is usually found in books to captivate readers to continue to the second page. It almost put the book at a disadvantage, because the mundanity of the opening barely flickers any excitement. However, once the readers manage to pass the opening, the storytelling of this book pampers imaginations with Santiago’s adventure. The adventure could be described as one of a spiritual journey because he slowly learned things along the way; The Soul of The World, The Language of The Universe, and how everything even lead, and copper has their own Personal Legend. The tragedy of this beauty, however, is its promotion of rugged individualism and its portrayal of women. 

Rugged individualism came from The American Dream, which makes people believe that their success fully depends on themselves and that outside factors almost have zero impact on it. It glorifies the idea of striking alone an impossible goal with great risks that most people are not ready to take. 

“And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

The book itself blatantly expresses its romanticization of struggling alone, complimenting men who do so as courageous, and convincing them as long as they strive the world will give them their Personal Legend. It creates an illusion that everyone has the same chance to pursue whatever they have been dreaming about or in its term, their Personal Legend, only some of them decide not to take the risk and end up regretting it for the rest of their lives. The individualism of this book praised Santiago for leaving his loved ones, especially the woman who was dear to him.

“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandon that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love..”

If Fatima had asked him to stay with her then, according to this book, it was not a true love between them. But Fatima let him go, for she is a woman of the desert and women of the desert know their men need to wander in pursuit of their goal, and they will wait for their men’s return patiently. Then what about these women? What are their Personal Goal?

To conclude that, according to this book, women have no Personal Legend of their own, was a terrible realization as a reader, but it is inevitable because of the portrayal of its female characters, which are not much. There are several major male characters and role models in this book, but the only impactful female character is Fatima, who unfortunately is only defined by her loyalty and relationship to Santiago. If the book had not been constantly and earnestly praising women for their stillness while waiting for their men, one might considered it a jest, because it mentioned even minerals, the wind, and the desert, have their own Personal Legend, but a woman does not? 

“It’s true that everything has its Personal Legend, but one day that Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new Personal Legend, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.”

The Alchemist with its concept of Personal Legend has inspired people to pursue their own dreams. It motivated its readers to not give up and stay in their comfort zone because they have dreams to chase. The delivery of this message is also beautiful and unique. The writing quality of this book is not altered by its content which rather whets the irony for how such brilliance is used to assert a type of false consciousness.