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'Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.'
-Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist and renowned poet, said that, when we truly realize what we want, find it, and consciously live it, we find our truest life and are awake in our dreams. In the book Santiago also found his truest life. The dream played a great role in Santiago's life. The influence of dreams can be found even in the people whom he met on his journey like Melchizedek, the crystal merchant, the Englishman, Fatima, and the Alchemist. The dream brought him to his treasure in the pyramids. The mystery of his dream is solved, and it came true. The dreams he had were influenced by events in his life. Hence, he attempts to make it come true.
Reaching a dream can come through many steps. When Santiago finally realized that he found his legend, he understood that everything he went through was all worth it. Paulo Coelho uses Santiago to express the theme that following your dreams is the only way to achieve your ultimate goal. After dreaming about the treasure, it had sprouted new thoughts in Santiago's mind. The positive thoughts in his mind which he got from the dream made his journey a success. Santiago was one among very few of those who accomplished their dreams. Santiago learns that his treasure is where his heart is. Thus dreams played a pivotal role in Santiago's life. It was this recurring dream that made him an optimistic personality.
Santiago's journey might have had its fair share of trials, but he also had many positive experiences. He met incredible people, helped turn a struggling crystal merchant into a wealthy and successful small business owner, studied alchemy, fell in love, and discovered his power as a prophet and alchemist.
According to Freud, dreams represent unconscious desires, thoughts, wish fulfillment, and motivations. Here, when Santiago is having a conversation with his father, we see that he always wanted to be a traveler. But he learns from his father that, to be a traveler, he needs a lot of money. He became a traveler with what he had by being a shepherd. Even though as a shepherd he saw many castles and women, he wished to know other cities and other ways to be happy. He wanted to see the huge and inexhaustible world. This wish found its way through his dream. Because of this dream, what started as a journey to find material possessions turned into something that changed Santiago mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
The Alchemist is 'more self-help than literature.' The advice that was given to Santiago ('when you want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true') is the core of the novel's philosophy and a motif that plays throughout it. The Alchemist inspired us to discover our best selves no matter where we were.
For anyone who reads not only to escape reality but also to understand reality, The Alchemist can offer the best of both worlds. The events of the novel sit just on the borderline of miraculous and the ambience is simply just not that of our humdrum teenage World. However, The Alchemist also supplies insight and inspiration that extends beyond Santiago's Sahara and into all lives, whether young, old, or teenage.
When Santiago learns to control his fear and continue his adventures despite it, things start going right for him. When we rise above our fears, however, and stay open to the guiding signs of the universe, we can become anything., even the wind.
While Santiago receives help that seems downright mystical, this belief still holds in real life. When we want something badly enough, we'll do whatever it takes to get it. This effort can often mold itself into a self-fulfilling prophecy, fuelled by our belief and our drive. The Alchemist reminds us it's the easy path, the lighted and well-worn path that has been traversed by so many souls is the far more dangerous path than the mysterious path. Alchemist expresses the belief that easily relates to people around the world since at one point or another everybody suffers from confusion about their hearts. Coelho beautifully constructed a novel that contains remarkable truths, such as the secrets to suffering, love, and the heart. It consists of numerous pieces of advice dealing with universal wisdom.
We fear failure, rejection, fear, and the unknown. It's much easier to stick with a comfortable if unfulfilling life because it's familiar and safe. Breaking free of everything we know and stepping outside our comfort zone is terrifying. We can't use our knowledge and experiences to predict what will happen. But that is what Santiago did, he took that leap of faith, and he succeeded in achieving his dreams.
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