Topic : AL-CHEMISTBy: Paulo Coelho

Group Members:

Adil Gondal Owais chughtai Abdul Basit Maqsood

About The Book:

The Alchemist is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. The Alchemist was originally written in Portuguese. It has sold more than 65 million copies in more than 150 countries, becoming one of the best-selling books in history

Theme:

“This book has a central theme that if you do not follow your dreams then you will be wasting your life afraid of taking a chance, when you could be encountering an emotional, spiritual, and life changing experience.”

Characters:

Santiago

Gypsy

Melchizedek

The Shopkeeper

The Englishman

Fatima

The Alchemist

Santiago:

Santiago, a boy from the Andalusia region of Spain, chooses to become a shepherd because he wants to travel far from his land. He has a recurring dream that tells him to go to Egyptian Pyramids because a treasure awaits him. He follows this dream and comes across various experiences including meeting an old king who inspires him to follow his dream and The Alchemist who guides him to treasure. In the process there is a huge transformation in this boy

Experiences:

In the following slides, we have just pick up some key experiences of this shepard boy and highlight them, along with the lovely learning in each one of them.

Left Home

His father tries to discourage him from his burning desire to become a sheperd and travel with his sheep. Finally when he finds him pretty made up in his mind, he gives him money to buy sheep and blesses him.

While blessing him on his way the father tells his boy, “Take to the fields and someday you will learn our countryside is the best and our women the most beautiful”

Gypsy’s interpretation:

A gypsy interprets his recurring dream as a sign that he should travel to Egyptian Pyramids and that a treasure awaits him there.

He does not give much importance to that and was back on his travel for tourism and for girl that he meet in his last visit.

Old King:

At first the boy is irritated at this Old Man trying to strike a conversation with him. But then he is startled to find that this Old Man knows everything about his past and that he is a King. The boy asks, “Why would a King be willing to speak to a shepherd boy.

”The Old King says “Because you have succeeded in discovering you destiny”

Then he inspired him to achieve his dream and tried to encourage him that he should complete hi personal legend. He also give him two stones and buy his sheeps. He also advised him to use omens that God has made for him.

Destiny refers to the course of events that we may choose to follow in order to achieve a goal.

Shopkeeper:

In Tangier,a city in which a man meets that stole all his money. In desperate need of money, Santiago is hired by a crystal merchant,

who tells him that even a year's wages would not pay his way to Egypt, which is thousands of kilometers distant. The crystal merchant offers to give Santiago enough money to return to Andalusia. But Santiago declines the offer, telling the crystal merchant that he'll work for him to earn money with which to buy sheep.With his skills he made his much profitable.

After making enough money,he joins a caravan that was travelling to Egypt.

Englishman:

In the caravan Santiago meets an Englishman who is in search of a particular Alchemist known to live in the desert to learn the science of alchemy which converts any metal into gold.

Both were on the way of their destiny. The boy tells himself, “Everyone has his or her own way of learning things. His way is not same as mine nor mine as his. But we are both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that”

Lessons in The Desert:

Fatima:

In oasis, he met to a girl Fatima which came to the well daily. One day he ask her about the alchemist for English friend but he

Alchemist

It is the Englishman with his books and formulae who is searching for The Alchemist in the desert but The Alchemist identifies the boy as his student that God has sent to him.

When the boy asks The Alchemist whether he is going to help him towards his destiny, The Alchemist says, “No. You already know what you need to know. I am only going to point you in the direction of your treasure”.

“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You have got to find that treasure,so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense”–The Alchemist

Quotes From Alchemist:

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And everysearch ends with the victor being severely tested”

“The world is only the visible aspect of God. What the alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into contact with material plane”