Moreover, it explains that Santiago still needs the community, the individual who shares and supports the same idea, in his decision-making process.
Santiago’s choice to be a shepherd illustrates that Santiago has the freedom to choose. The freedom is entailed by his responsibility, to enjoy his days as a shepherd. However, this decision sets him apart from his family. This joy is experienced by Santiago since he could pursue his dream as he uttered that “it’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.... (11).” As a result of his choice to be a shepherd, Santiago accepts all the responsibility. Being separated from his family is a situation that he must overcome. Being a shepherd also means that he has to be alone, his sheep are the only friends he has. But still able to meet other people when he arrives in a town and spends most of his time in the field with his flock. Those did not let him experience solitude.
Being a shepherd, Santiago had a temporary shelter. When the day is hot, Santiago must feel hot and when the night is cold, Santiago feels the cold. He only has a jacket which warms him when the cold night comes. But when he does not need it, the weight of the jacket sometimes irritates him. At times, he is annoyed by the jacket’s weight but Santiago tries to remember how helpful, the jacket is to warm him (8). He also has a book that he reads during the day and he uses it as a pillow when he sleeps (3). Those illustrate that Santiago is aware of the consequences of his choice to be a shepherd. Moreover, his acceptance of the obstacle is proof of his responsibility toward his decision. His acceptance of his choice also leads him to enjoy his life as a shepherd.
Seeking Treasure in Africa: Another dilemma occurs after he becomes a shepherd. In the following dilemma, he has to choose whether to be a shepherd to meet the merchant’s daughter or to leave his job as a shepherd to seek the hidden treasure in Africa. In Santiago’s dream, he is in a field where a child appears and begins to play with his sheep. After playing for a while, suddenly the child takes both his hands and transports him to the Egyptian pyramids. The child said to him if he came to the Egyptian pyramids, he would find a hidden treasure. He wakes up when the child shows him the exact location (13-14). This dream happens when it is only four days until he meets the merchant’s daughter he admires (6). Santiago is very enthusiastic about the meeting because the last meeting with her mesmerized him. But he doubts whether the merchant’s daughter still remembers him or not:
And now it was only four days before he would be back in that same village. He was excited, and at the same time uneasy: maybe the girl had already forgotten him. Lots of shepherds passed through, selling their wool. (6)
Santiago worries about his future meeting with the merchant’s daughter because he is afraid that it would make him stop traveling, as he said
“...like seamen and like traveling salesmen, always found a town where there was someone who could make them forget the joys of carefree wandering (6-7).”
Those choices puzzled him. Both, the merchant’s daughter and the hidden treasure are unsure matters. It means that both choices do not promise certain results. Santiago doubts whether he should pursue one of the choices or not; going to Africa and sacrificing all his sixty sheep for something he knows nothing about or meeting the merchant daughter whom he is not sure that she still remembers him. It is a complicated choice. This circumstance illustrates that Santiago thinks very carefully of all the possibilities and the consequences of each choice he makes.
After a day of thinking about the options, Santiago decides to accomplish his dream, looking for the hidden treasure (28). Before it, Santiago asks a Gypsy woman to interpret his dream but he is very disappointed since there is no precious good fortune he gets from the fortune teller. Despite this, the Gypsy even wants one-tenth of his treasure as payment if he can find it (15). This meeting makes him feel cheated and discourages his plan for the hidden treasure. This event illustrates that Santiago is a skeptic person. It is caused by the fact that his perspective, his subjectivity, is his basic reason for deciding. Shortly after he meets with the Gypsy, he has a conversation with Melchizedek, the King of Salem. Although at the first time of their meeting, he does not care about Melchizedek but in the following meeting Melchizedek gains Santiago’s spirit of finding the treasure. In this dilemma, Melchizedek has a function as the community because Melchizedek supports Santiago’s decision.
Melchizedek tells Santiago about many things such as about the world’s greatest lie (18), Personal Legend (20), and the omens (29). Melchizedek also tempts Santiago’s will to travel by telling Santiago about a baker who wants to travel. The baker once thinks of becoming a shepherd, but he decides to buy his bakery and put some money aside because bakers are considered to be more important people than shepherds, as Melchizedek said “...bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds (23).”
The statement above drives a distinction between Santiago and the crowd, when Santiago already has sixty sheep he does not think to put his money aside to have his own business, because he enjoys traveling. On the other hand, the baker, like the crowd, prefers having any other businesses that are considered important in their society.
Even though Melchizedek seems to impress and challenge him, but Santiago does not trust him immediately. In the last moment of the first meeting, Melchizedek says that he will show Santiago how to find the treasure but he asks for one-tenth of Santiago’s sheep (20). He gives Santiago a day to think about the choices (25). Although all the subject of his conversation provokes Santiago it is Santiago himself who has full authority because Melchizedek leaves him when Santiago makes a decision. Melchizedek has the same function as Santiago’s father in the first dilemma. Melchizedek’s presence is to give him guidance to his dream. In the time when Santiago makes the consideration, Melchizedek does not meet him to avoid influencing too much. Santiago decides to go to Africa to find the hidden treasure. After Santiago makes a decision, and he meets Melchizedek for the second time. Here the function of Melchizedek is to help Santiago to firm up his decision. He gives Santiago two stones called Urim and Thummim. Urim is the black stone and it signifies ‘yes’, while the white stone is Thummim which signifies ‘no’. Those stones will help Santiago to read the omens if he is unable to (30). But Melchizedek suggests Santiago make his decisions if he can. This point shows that Melchizedek teaches Santiago to trust himself because it is only he who has full authority over himself, not the stones or the crowd. Santiago’s second meeting with Melchizedek intends to firm Santiago’s decision. The second meeting occurs after he does the decision-making. This explains that Melchizedek takes a part in supporting Santiago’s decision. Melchizedek does not influence Santiago in the process of decision-making because the decision is chosen by Santiago. In the next dilemma, all statements and messages said by Melchizedek later have a significant influence on Santiago. The occurrence above shows that Santiago still has a relationship with other who empowers and supports him.
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Essay on Archetypes in ‘The Alchemist’.
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