More about the Alchemist

More about the Alchemist

It has been interesting that I have received three comments on my initial blog about the Alchemist since I usually receive none.

I finished the book and immediately went back to the beginning to read it again, finding much that I missed the first time through. It is truly a marvelous work. I went looking for other of his writings at Borders Bookstore and was surprised to find nothing shelved under fiction/Coelho. I wondered why not and on a hunch went over to philosophy where I found six or seven titles on an end cap display. I bought The Fifth Mountain and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. to read on vacation (starting Saturday!!!)

A few gems from The Alchemist. “There is one great truth on this planet; whoever you are, or what ever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth…. The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness…. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.” The speaker is an old man who calls himself Melchizedek and ends up charging the boy Santiago one tenth of his flock of sheep in return for his help. He also gave him two divination stones that he called Urim and Thummin. (Biblical references keep recurring through out the book.)

A camel driver tells the boy the secret of happiness. “If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.” The camel driver also said: “To die tomorrow is no worse than dying on any other day.”

A seer also talks to the boy about the present: “How do I guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better."

The Alchemist several times echoes works we have heard from the lips of Jesus. “It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. …it’s what comes out of their mouths that is.” On the same page he says “Remember wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

At the end the boy can speak the Language of the World. He spoke to the wind, and to the sun and to the hand that wrote all. To the sun he said “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”

I am looking forward to the other books I bought and you may read more book reviews while I am on vacation, or when I return.