This book has taught me so much, and I think that was the purpose of the author. He wanted to share his mistakes with all his readers so that we could be able to learn from them. He taught me to never give up because anything is possible if you really want it. Luis is a caring person who all he wants in life I to be a better person and make life worth it. He knew he wouldn’t get anywhere if he kept living the bad life he did of drugs and violence. He decided to make a change for himself and found happiness in his…
The lesson “life is what you make it” was a big part of the novel. But also this lesson was reflective. When Edwin asked Cole to go to the freezing pond, he gave him a stick and says that the right end of the stick represented happiness while the left end represented anger. Cole broke the anger side of the stick, until he recognized that everytime he broke…
I feel that two things that he learned was that he realized he was never truly living until he had gone on his own into nature and that there are many things in life that you don’t really need.…
Continuing, the result of Santiago’s journey might not be the same if the obstacles that were in his way were not there. It’s kind of like the saying “One step back, two steps forward”, the obstacles that may have momentarily been bad or got in his way, actually ended up helping him in the long run or making him stronger. For example when Santiago lost all his money and had to work in the shop for a year or so, he ended up making money and learning to speak Arabic which was very useful for him.…
“Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path” (Coelho 2). Once he arrives in Tangier, Santiago is robbed and gives up on his dream. Because he is so afraid that something worse than being robbed will happen to him, he decides to be a shepherd again. He begins working for a crystal merchant to save enough money to return home to Spain and buy more sheep. Santiago overcomes this obstacle after the merchant and the stones Urim and Thummin, which were given to him by the old king, give him hope and renew his will to find his treasure.…
The constant struggle makes Santiago realize that he is no longer as young as he thinks he is and…
He had a lot of life lessons that really caught my attention but I did narrowed it down to three of them so I was able to write about them. To conclude, this book really brought out the inner self in me because it made think about life in a different way I’ve never imagined…
quite different for everyone. What I feel is that the lesson is to prepare yourself to die, to…
Foreshadowing or first obstacle helps to identify, or gives a hint (idea) of what the problem of the story is. Paolo Coelho has several foreshadowing events in the Alchemist; for example, the scene in which Santiago relates his dream to the gypsy, regarding the Egyptian pyramids. The dream itself is an indication of a foreshadowing event. It indicates the events that eventually will occur through the book, ‘’gives a taste of the problem ‘’.…
And as in most books, the main character develops throughout the book, learning from his or hers mistakes and whatever else they might have come across. "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" is a saying that many live by, or turn to in bad times. What it means is basically that it is impossible to know which roads to take in life. You might experience a rough time once in a while, but life is about learning, and this is what you learn from. Secondly you will learn that if you choose one that is a blind alley you should probably consider an alternative the next time you have to a similar decision.…
One emotion affecting Santiago on his journey is fear. Quoting the novel, literary critic Anna Hassapi brings out “fear of failure seems to be the greatest obstacle to happiness. As the old crystal-seller tragically confesses: "I am afraid that great disappointment awaits me, and so I prefer to dream".” This passage illustrates the impact that fear can have on one’s journey. When it comes to reaching success on a mission or quest, there is either success or failure. In the novel, Coelho brings out that the fear of failure can be very strong in some, causing them to give up and just “prefer to dream” (Coelho). On his journey, Santiago learns to embrace his fears, and he doesn’t allow them to prevent him from reaching his goals. This is a key lesson for him to learn. As Coelho himself mentions in the novel, “We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property”. This goes along with the fear that Santiago would have if someone were to come along and take his sheep away. This constant fear needs to be overcome by Santiago if he is ever going to complete his mission.…
There are several life lessons being taught in the film. Personally, among these lessons, the most important are the pursuit of excellence through passion and not just the pursuit of success, the importance of life and its beauty, and the significance of hard work as well as the danger of living a mediocre life. These three lessons, if inculcated, will not only lead to a successful life but will also lead to a life that is worth living.…
If we look back at Santiago’s magical travel, we can find that it is not the treasure that counts the most precious thing in his life, but is what he met and experienced that makes him mature and aware of the life philosophy, which I think is an important theme of this novel. For example, in Tangier, Santiago was cheated of almost all he has (35-39), he learns about what is outside of him are not his true properties, and that the one he should rely on is himself (41). Another example is, when he works for the crystal merchant, they talk about dreams. The merchant told Santiago that he dreams to go to Mecca one day but he knows that he will never realize this dream, for he is afraid that it would all be a disappointment (55) and he dare not to change his way of life (57). The merchant’s thought and success in business unwittingly lead Santiago to a conflict in mind about whether to continue this journey or earn enough money to lead a comfortable life back home. This episode, which can be juxtaposed with the allegory of a boy and a wise man about the secret of happiness and the image of Fatima, can be conceived as “distractions” in Santiago’s way to his Personal Legend. So I think this is the reason for the reoccurrence of the important motif…
Santiago’s die or die trying attitude and it’s correlation to his pursuit of pride & praise is a direct representation of Hemmingway’s life code as D’Agostino describes it, “a solitary struggle … conscious of having no sense or reason beyond itself.” Santiago often discards logic in the pursuit of success. He no longer believes in himself, considering himself to be ‘unlucky.’ Santiago even denies the help of the young boy who looks up to him for his unusual strength in his old age and his undying determination. When the boy asks to go fish with Santiago he replies, “no… you’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them”(10). Immediately, Santiago puts himself down when Manolin tries to commend him on his fisherman’s abilities. Santiago shows us through this action that similarly to Hemmingway, he desires to conquer life as a “solitary struggle.” Hemmingway alludes to his beliefs about…
I truly enjoyed reading the novel A Lesson before Dying. I loved how this book pretty much teaches you a lesson by trying not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time or hanging out with the wrong kind of people. The quote below is from the book and it was one of my favorites. “I probably would not have noticed it at all had a butterfly, a yellow butterfly with dark spots like ink dots on its wings,…