Summary: Prologue
The alchemist reads a book containing the story of Narcissus. According to
legend, Narcissus kneeled every day beside a lake to admire his reflection, until
one day he became so fascinated with his own beauty that he fell into the lake and
drowned. The goddess of the forest appeared at the lake and found the water
transformed into salty tears. She asked the lake why it cried for Narcissus,
assuming it had admired Narcissus’s beauty. The lake replies that it was enjoying
its own beauty reflected in Narcissus’s eyes.
Summary: Section One
The third-person narrator describes a shepherd named Santiago arriving with
his flock at an abandoned Church. Santiago decides to sleep there. A giant sycamore
tree grows in the spot where a sacristy once stood. While Santiago sleeps, he has a
disturbing dream (we do not learn exactly what the dream was). When he wakes, his
flock begins to stir, and Santiago talks to the sheep about a girl he met the year
prior. She is the daughter of a merchant who Santiago is visiting to sell some
wool.
When Santiago arrives, the merchant asks him to wait until afternoon to sell
him wool. While Santiago reads, he meets the merchant’s daughter and talks to her
about life in the village. She asks why he chooses to be a shepherd even though he
can read. Santiago avoids the question, preferring instead to talk about his
travels. Santiago finds the merchant’s daughter’s Moorish eyes and raven-colored
hair entrancing. He experiences for the first time a desire to stay in one place for
the rest of his life. When the merchant finally appears, he asks Santiago for the
wool of four sheep and tells him to return the next year.
The story jumps forward in time almost a year, to four days before Santiago’s
next visit to the village. He stays in the abandoned church and daydreams about the
merchant’s daughter. As he urges his sheep along, he admires their loyalty. Santiago
imagines he could kill his sheep one by one, and each one would be none the wiser
until he killed it. He feels troubled by his thought, and that night has the same
troubling dream he had the year before.
Santiago recalls the day he told his father he wanted to travel instead of
becoming a priest. His father told him that travelers see other lands, but do not
change as a result. They just end up being nostalgic for the past. His father said
the only people of their class who travel are shepherds. The next day, Santiago’s
father gave him three gold coins to purchase a flock of sheep. He encouraged
Santiago to travel, but said Santiago would learn that their own countryside is
best. As he recalls the scene, Santiago senses that his father also would have liked
to travel, but could not afford to while raising a family. Santiago wonders if his
sheep enjoy discovering new roads and sights each day, but decides they only care
about eating. He compares the flock’s single-mindedness to his own preoccupation
with the merchant’s daughter. Suddenly, Santiago remembers that an old woman in the
nearby village of Tarifa interprets dreams. He decides to visit her.
Analysis
The prologue of the Alchemist runs only a little more than one page, but it
gives the reader several clues about what to expect in the story. The alchemist says
the book containing the story of Narcissus belonged to someone in “the caravan,”
hinting that a journey may occur during the course of the tale. The alchemist also
expresses surprise that the author of the book extended the popular legend of
Narcissus past its traditional conclusion. The usual version of the legend ends as
Narcissus dies looking into a lake, illustrating the danger of vanity. In the
version Santiago reads, however, we learn that the lake felt upset that Narcissus
had drowned, because it enjoyed feeding its own vanity while looking into
Narcissus’s eyes. This idea, that vanity can serve a good cause despite its perils,
will become an important theme of the book. The Narcissus story also readies the
reader for the magical, mythic quality of The Alchemist. It
introduces us to a world where a lake can speak, goddesses roam the countryside, and
magic is a fact of life.
Almost as soon as we meet Santiago, we learn that he is not an ordinary
shepherd. Most notably, he reads regularly, which surprises the merchant’s daughter.
Shepherding presents an unusual career path for an educated young man, but Santiago
clearly feels comfortable with his choice. We also see that Santiago’s bearing has
quickly made him successful at his job. He has regular customers, purchases books as
he pleases, and appears to be content with his lifestyle. Only his attraction to the
merchant’s daughter, who the narrator says acts as the first signal that Santiago’s
life will never be the same, makes him question his choice to be a traveling
shepherd. The other signal is Santiago’s troubling dream, which is not initially
explained but always occurs while he sleeps under the sycamore tree growing in the
sacristy of the abandoned church. This mysterious dream repeats in two consecutive
passages a year apart, and it serves as an important piece of
foreshadowing.
Santiago enjoys his life as a shepherd not only because it allows him to
travel, but also because he loves his sheep. Santiago notices his flock’s ability to
find contentment through food and water alone, and he almost envies the fact that
they never have to make any decisions. Happiness for a human being, he thinks, seems
much more complicated. On the other hand, Santiago feels frustrated by the fact that
his sheep can’t share his appreciation of travel. He imagines that he could kill his
sheep one by one and the flock would not even notice. The unexpectedly violent image
shows us that the sheep live blind to important truths, and that they are not to be
emulated. Santiago wonders if all humans are like his sheep: looking only for
physical contentment and living without ever appreciating life. Later, this tension
becomes very important to Santiago: even though he has travelled throughout Spain,
he still feels limited. He wonders if his relatively local travels, comforting
stacks of books, and obedient flock play the same role in his life that food and
water play in the lives of his sheep. Santiago’s thoughts imply that he must seek
out a higher purpose if he wants to be truly happy.
