Title: The Alchemist

Setting :
Time - Set in an indistinct time in the past. It is a pre-modern time, before automobiles
and most modern technology existed.
Place- Takes place in the Spanish pastures, the Spanish town of Tarifa, the city of
Tangier in North Africa, and the Sahara desert.
Characters:
Santiago- He is the book’s protagonist, a young Andalusian Shepherd that traveled to
fulfill his legend and that is to find his buried treasure in Egypt.
Melchizedek- He is the king of Salem that helps others pursue their legends as he also
seems to have magical powers, and he gives great help to Santiago in fulfilling his
legend.
Crystal Merchant- A struggling crystal merchant who owns a crystal shop, but as
Santiago works for him, his shop was brought back to business.
Englishman- A smart science student that always carries his books and is determined
to learn the secrets of alchemy from a true alchemist. He seems like a friend of
Santiago since they are both finding the Alchemist.
Alchemist- A 200-year-old, powerful Alchemist who rides in a white horse, dressed in
black and carries a scimitar, the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Elixir of Life. He knows
the soul of the world and the importance of legends. He helps Santiago reach his
treasure, turn to lead to gold understand things of the world, and become the wind.
Fatima- A beautiful and virtuous young woman who lives in the Al-Fayoum Oasis,
whom Santiago fell in love with and maybe the reason why Santiago would stop finding
his treasure, but Fatima understands that Santiago must follow his dream, for he
traveled for the treasure and not for her.
Plot:
Exposition:
In the first ten pages, the reader meets a young shepherd named Santiago. Santiago
finds haven in an abandoned church, and see that he has a book and a jacket. Santiago
has an occurring dream. We learn that he attended school because his family wanted
him to be a priest and in the countryside of Spain. In the opening pages, we also learn
that his father did not agree with his decision to leave his hometown,
Rising action:
Santiago consults with a gypsy woman to interpret his dream and to his surprise, she
tells him to go to Egypt. A strange, magical old man named Melchizedek, who claims to
be the King of Salem, advice Santiago that it is his Personal Legend to go to the
pyramids. He convinces Santiago to sell his flock and set off to Tangier. When Santiago
arrives in Tangier, a thief robs him, forcing him to find work with a local crystal
merchant. The struggling merchant teaches Santiago several lessons, and Santiago
encourages the merchant to take risks with his business. The risks pay off, and
Santiago becomes a rich man in just a year.
Climax:
The alchemist and Santiago continue through the desert, the alchemist shares much of
his wisdom about the Soul of the World. They are days away from the pyramids when a
tribe of Arab soldiers captures them. In exchange for their lives, the alchemist
surrenders to the tribe all of Santiago’s money and tells the soldiers that Santiago is a
powerful alchemist who will turn into wind within three days. Santiago feels alarmed
because he has no idea how to turn into the wind, and over the next three days he
contemplates the desert. On the third day, he interacts with the wind and the sun and
coaxes them to help him create a tremendous sandstorm. He prays to the Hand That
Wrote All and at the height of the storm he disappears.
Falling action:
Santiago starts digging his treasure, but two men find him and think he’s burying gold so
they make him dig deeper, but seeing how nothing was found, they beat him, and
finally, Santiago says he was digging for treasure. Before leaving, one of the men tries
to illustrate the worthlessness of dreams by telling Santiago his dream. It concerns a
treasure buried in an abandoned church in Spain.
Conclusion:
He realizes the church was the one in his hometown, the place where he stayed from
the start. He goes back to Spain and finds a chest of jewels and gold buried under a
sycamore tree and plans to return to Fatima.
Conflict:
Man vs man:
 Santiago disagrees with his father about the role that travel should play in
one's life
 Santiago argues with the shop owner about the best way to make more
money.
 When two ruffians beat Santiago in the pyramids
Man vs nature:
 He fights the desert nights on his way across the Sahara
 When Santiago is trying to convene with the Wind and Sun to become the wind
Man vs himself.
 When he has to choose to leave the oasis or stay with Fatima. His subconscious
tries to convince him to stay because Santiago loves Fatima
 His heart wants him to do things the way it wants, but Santiago refuses to follow
it. This tension creates conflict between Santiago and his heart. His heart leads
him one way, while he wishes to go another way. "'My heart is a traitor,' the boy
said to the alchemist when they had paused to rest the horses. 'It doesn't want
me to go on”
Man vs society
 He sees an omen in the desert that he believes indicates the approach of war,
even though the oasis is a "neutral zone." Santiago approaches the leaders of
the oasis to tell them what he has seen and that he believes in danger
approaches. Santiago is told that if he is wrong, he will be killed, but that they will
act on his advice and prepare...and war does come to the oasis.
Theme:
The Danger of Fear, Fear persistently comes up throughout Santiago’s journey as the
primary obstacle to Santiago’s successfully achieving his Personal Legend. S
experiences several forms of fear: a childhood fear of having the gypsy woman interpret
his dream; a material fear of losing his wealth by departing to Tangier or by joining the
desert caravan; the physical fear of dying in the battle at Al-Fayoum; and the spiritual
fear that he will fail to turn himself into the wind when the alchemist forces him to try.
If you let fear dominate you and let it become an obstacle for you to fulfill you legend,
you will be unhappy, so take risks, just like Santiago, who took risks, even if he feared
of things to happen to him, is now happy because fearing to do things is a great danger
to the life you are to follow and lead. We learn the danger of fears does, it makes you
unhappy and an obstacle to a fulfilled life
Question:
If you were going to change the ending, how will you end it?
If I were to change the ending, it would be Fatima waited for Santiago not even sure if
he’ll come back or he will become part of the clouds, and the animals and the water of
the dessert. Santiago travels again back to Al-Fayoum to be with Fatima, the love of his
life. He brings with him the treasure, to have enough money to buy camels and sheep,
marry Fatima, be the counselor of the oasis and know every one of the fifty thousand
palms an watch them grow and love the dessert, but most importantly of all love Fatima,
a woman of the dessert that lets her man pursue his legend, because they love each
other, the love that speaks the language of the world.
Vocabulary
Moor, noun, one of the Muslim people of north Africa,The wind began to pick up, He knew that
wind: people called it the levanter, because on it the Moors had come from the Levant at the
eastern end of the Mediterranean.
Centurion, noun, leader of soldiers in ancient Rome, “‘Your son went to serve at a distant
place, and became a centurion.
Conquistador, noun, an adventurer,The spoils of a conquest that the country had long ago
forgotten, and that some conquistador had failed to tell his children about.
Ewe, noun, female sheep, In two years he had learned everything about shepherding: he knew
how to shear sheep ,how to care for pregnant ewes, and how to protect the sheep from wolves.
Prognostication ,noun, a sign of something about to happen, “Be careful with your
prognostications,” said the stranger.