Richard Pho
Mr. George
Honors World Literature
5 January 2011
Topic: Explain the correlation between the prologue and the overarching theme of personal legends
Inner Reflections
The fictional novel, The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, focuses on Santiago’s journey of unraveling his Personal Legend. Along his exploration, Santiago displays selfishness and greed, characteristics acquainted with the prologue. Shifting from the fable of Narcissus to the journey of a shepherd, Paulo Coelho demonstrates a parallelism between these two works of literature. Uniquely, Coelho does not commence the book describing Santiago, rather introducing the novel with the fable. Coelho intentionally initiates the novel with the fable to explain how the two stories correlate, revealing Santiago’s vicissitude in maturity and his recognition of his Personal Legend.
Beginning the novel with two different stories foreshadows Santiago’s maturity and pursuit of his Personal Legend. With the first few words of the prologue, the fable conveys powerful elements that coincide with the whole novel. Simplistically, “[An] alchemist picked up a book … leafing through the pages, [when] he found a story about Narcissus” (Coelho xiii). The fact that an alchemist opens a book demonstrates an aspect from the beginning of the story changing at the end. That aspect is Santiago. The definition of an alchemist is someone who converts a common substance into a substance of greater value. The prologue presages Santiago gradually changing as the book progresses. At the start of the actual novel, Coelho introduces the setting to further adumbrate Santiago’s life: “An enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood” (3). The syntax demonstrates the actions of the sacristy and the sycamore in the past tense. Symbolically, Santiago’s desire for religion is in his past. Now, he can flourish like a sycamore, going through life to determine what he truly desires. Coelho’s descriptive diction of the sycamore shows that Santiago will change immensely. The sycamore represents life and a new beginning; it first starts off as a seed, slowly growing upwards and then branching out. Santiago resembles a seed. He still needs to grow and move forward, following his Personal Legend. Not until he branches out to see the many aspects of life will he be able to determine his true desires. As Santiago quits his former passion of religion, he explores life, going through its ups and downs, to determine what his purpose is. Both stories begin the novel with a sense of what will eventually happen to the protagonist.
Both stories display a sense of arrogance and selfishness, demonstrating Santiago’s clouded beliefs about his true aspirations. Even though he was very audacious, Narcissus is described to be this prodigious, ideal human being: “He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned” (xiii). Narcissus’ egotistical and pompous personality allows the lake to discover its own image and individuality. Because of Narcissus’ beauty, everyone aspires to have a certain thing. Thing is subjective to the owner. In the fable, everyone desires Narcissus’ beauty. In the novel, Santiago searches for that desire. In a sense, the lake displays its selfishness. The lake opposes the traditional views of selfishness because, when Narcissus drowned, the lake contained his essence. The lake took his beauty, an aspect the goddess of the forest craved. The lake’s selfishness allowed it to self-reflect, to determine its identity. Santiago becomes selfish once he is free from his sixteen years of religious studies: “Here I am, between my flock and my treasure … There was also the merchant’s daughter, but she wasn’t as important as his flock because she didn’t depend on him” (27). Santiago desires three things: women, money, and traveling. Santiago’s father gives him three gold coins to travel and discover his Personal Legend. Santiago is distracted by these materialistic items, simply depending on them, when he should be depending on himself. The whole point of a Personal Legend is to determine one’s identity. At this point, Santiago has a juvenile mindset, not looking at what life has to offer, rather yearning for his current desires.
As the novel progresses, Santiago becomes more engulfed with his narcissistic lifestyle, disregarding the purpose in discovering his Personal Legend. Just like the fable, the goddess of the forest converses with the lake about Narcissus’ excellence: “For though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand” (xiii). The goddess of the forest has been trying to obtain Narcissus for the longest time. His beauty represents a certain ambition, paralleling Santiago’s pilgrimage of receiving the pyramids’ treasure. Throughout the book, Santiago has always wanted the treasure. Loitering in the desert, Santiago converses with the alchemist about his belongings: “I have a camel, I have my money from the crystal shop, and I have fifty gold pieces. In my own country, I would be a rich man” (115). Even though Santiago is at the highest point of his life, he is compelled to continue his journey and achieve more. At this point, Santiago’s greed administers his decisions. Instead of the self-rewarding gifts, Santiago’s quest for tangible items, such as gold, perseveres. His maturity resembles a child wishing for toys. Children expect certain rewards, rather than working for the satisfaction of accomplishment.
Due to his ignorance, Santiago begins to grieve over not noticing the significance of his journey. The lake’s response to Narcissus’ beauty parallels Santiago’s bewilderment. In the lake’s perspective, “I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful” (xiv). Even though Narcissus visits the lake everyday, the lake has never noticed his beauty. With the lake’s selfishness, the lake is one-minded. By only looking at one perspective, other perspectives are not perceived. Both the lake and Santiago share this characteristic. Santiago worries too much about discovering his treasure; he disregards all of the obstacles he faced in the process. Similar to the wise man’s proverb: “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon” (32). The wise man enlightens the boy about his surroundings. Some people spend their lives not looking at others' perspectives, resulting in one view of life. Santiago has been focusing on one aspect the whole time, treasure, which is tangible. Instead, Santiago should recognize the bigger picture, looking at the experience of his journey and his accomplishments. The second time bandits stole from Santiago; he shows that his maturity increases by recognizing the value of his journey.
At the end of the novel, Santiago reminiscences about his travels, determining his true Personal Legend to be dependant on one’s self. Looking back at the prologue, the lake consoles itself: “I weep because … ,in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected” (xiv). The lake recognizes its beauty because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The lake can only see its splendor reflected in Narcissus’ eyes because he was beautiful. The lake possesses inner beauty. This parallels Santiago discovering the beauty of life. Even when times are rough, life will continue to be great. The lake relies on itself because it can only see itself. This highlights Santiago forgetting his selfishness and seeing that the actual journey of his Personal Legend is just as good as achieving it. He looks back at the pyramids to see that “they seemed to laugh at him, and he laughed back, his heart bursting with joy. Because now his heart was bursting with joy” (163). He looks back at the situation and sees that he was foolish to not realize that his journey was a success because even though he did not acquire the treasure of the pyramids, he learns to appreciate life. His gratitude displays maturity. No matter the current circumstances, he is proud of his accomplishment in discovering that he recognizes who he is as a person, and no longer needs to depend on others.
At the end of the novel, Santiago reminiscences about his travels, determining his true Personal Legend to be dependant on one’s self. Looking back at the prologue, the lake consoles itself: “I weep because … ,in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected” (xiv). The lake recognizes its beauty because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The lake can only see its splendor reflected in Narcissus’ eyes because he was beautiful. The lake possesses inner beauty. This parallels Santiago discovering the beauty of life. Even when times are rough, life will continue to be great. The lake relies on itself because it can only see itself. This highlights Santiago forgetting his selfishness and seeing that the actual journey of his Personal Legend is just as good as achieving it. He looks back at the pyramids to see that “they seemed to laugh at him, and he laughed back, his heart bursting with joy. Because now his heart was bursting with joy” (163). He looks back at the situation and sees that he was foolish to not realize that his journey was a success because even though he did not acquire the treasure of the pyramids, he learns to appreciate life. His gratitude displays maturity. No matter the current circumstances, he is proud of his accomplishment in discovering that he recognizes who he is as a person, and no longer needs to depend on others.
The parallelism between the fable and the novel depicts the progressive alteration of Santiago’s maturity, as he embarks upon his Personal Legend. Looking at the fable, the lake never recognizes the beauty of Narcissus. Until he drowns within the lake, the lake is able to utilize selfishness to its advantage. Throughout the novel, Santiago displays his selfishness by embarking on a journey and desiring a supposed treasure. Through his selfishness, he is able to part from depending on others. He becomes one with himself, showing his mental maturity augment throughout his journey. A Personal Legend can only be achieved by one’s self. Only until one is fully mature will the universe conspire to help.
