Synopsis: The Alchemist is a book centering on the spiritual journey of a man. The author uses symbolism to explain deep and profound ideas with the audience. The spiritual journey of the main character is illustrated through his physical journey to achieve his "Personal Legend".
The book begins with the main character wondering about the meaning of a recurring dream and so he seeks out council with a reader who is able to interpret the dream. The interpreter says that the dream is asking him to go on a journey to the Egyptian Pyramids because their is some treasure buried beside them. The Woman asks for 1/4 of the treasure the boy finds as payment. After contemplating the boy decides to sell all of his belongings in order to go find his treasure, this is symbolic of how monks give away all of their belongings in the search for enlightenment. After selling all of his belongings he buys a ticket to Egypt. Upon entering Egypt he notices that the people are all different and strange, they worship a different god and the main character even goes as far as to call the people "infidels" for worshiping a false God.
After spending time with nothing he begins to ponder deeply about life, meaning, and his journey, soon he begins to see a connection between all living beings, and the balance of the world, he grows a person and spiritually.
Symbolism: It would take anyone an entire year to go over every symbolic meaning packed into this, honestly very short, book. Possibly the most profound symbolic revelation is at the very end of the book. The boy is so close to finding is treasure, though while digging a group of soldiers begin to beat him looking for money. The boy decides to tell the truth, that he has no money and had a dream treasure would be buried in the spot, to which the soldier replies But before they left, he came back to the boy and said, “You’re not going to die. You’ll live, and you’ll learn that a man shouldn’t be so stupid. Two years ago, right here on this spot, I had a recurrent dream, too. I dreamed that I should travel to the fields of Spain and look for a ruined church where shepherds and their sheep slept. In my dream, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins of the sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore, I would find a hidden treasure. But I’m not so stupid as to cross an entire desert just because of a recurrent dream.” and the boy then reacts with "The boy stood up shakily, and looked once more at the Pyramids. They seemed to laugh at him, and he laughed back, his heart bursting with joy. Because now he knew where his treasure was." His treasure was home all along, he never had to leave, he never had to go to the desert, but he did. He did all of that work to end up in the same place he started. Similar to the fact all of us go through life in order to attain the same end.
This book is for people who enjoy picking apart stories for deeper and more meaningful revelations than a surface level story. You will find yourself thinking about "the bug questions" long after you close the book.
Kommentare