Summary
Melchizedek explains the concept of the Personal Legend to Santiago. A
person’s Personal Legend, he says, represents what that person most desires to
accomplish in his or her life. Everyone knows their Personal Legend when they are
young, but as time passes, a mysterious force makes them feel they will never
achieve their Personal Legend.
Melchizedek asks Santiago why he lives as a shepherd. When Santiago says he
likes to travel, Melchizedek points to a baker working nearby. The baker likes to
travel, but became a baker because people consider them more important than
shepherds. Melchizedek worries that Santiago is about to give up on his own Personal
Legend and says he appears to everyone who is about to quit pursuing his or her
dream. He usually appears as a solution to a problem or an idea, and once appeared
as an emerald to a miner. He says he will help Santiago if Santiago hands over
one-tenth of his flock.
The meeting upsets Santiago, and he begins wandering through the city. He buys
bread from the baker Melchizedek mentioned. He then stops at a booth selling tickets
for the boat to Africa, but decides to keep being a shepherd. Then, an intense wind
called the levanter picks up. Santiago envies the wind’s freedom, and decides the
merchant’s daughter and his sheep are only steps on the way toward his Personal
Legend.
Santiago finds Melchizedek the next day and brings six sheep. He tells
Melchizedek he sold the rest of his sheep the day before. Melchizedek says Santiago
can find his treasure in Egypt by the pyramids. Initially, Santiago feels annoyed
that Melchizedek does not give a more exact location, but then a butterfly appears.
Melchizedek explains the butterfly is Santiago’s first omen and opens his cape to
reveal a jeweled breastplate. Melchizedek gives Santiago two stones from the
breastplate. He says the stones are called Urim and Thummim and they represent “yes”
and “no.” They will help Santiago to read omens.
Before Melchizedek leaves, he tells Santiago the story of a shopkeeper who
sends his son to learn the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The
boy finds the man in a beautiful castle in the desert. The wise man tells the boy to
spend time looking around while balancing a spoonful of oil. When the boy returns,
he says he didn’t pay attention to any of the castle’s splendor because he
concentrated on the oil. The wise man sends him out again to see the castle, and the
boy returns having seen the castle but having also spilled the oil. The wise man
tells him he must admire the castle without forgetting the oil. The story reminds
Santiago of a shepherd always needing to remember his flock.
As Melchizedek watches Santiago’s ship pull out of port towards Africa, he
remembers making the same bargain with Abraham that he made with
Santiago.
Analysis
Santiago’s meeting with Melchizedek, which teaches him about Personal Legends
and their importance to anyone who wants to live a fulfilling life, essentially
marks the point when Santiago decides to embark on his journey to Egypt.
Subsequently, the book’s plot largely focuses on Santiago following his dream and
trying to live out his Personal Legend. The Alchemist subsequently
resembles other “follow your dream narratives,” though Melchizedek’s lesson differs
from the lessons in those narrative in a few important ways. For one, Melchizedek
insists that everyone knows their Personal Legend when they are young. Personal
Legends do not become clear to people only in later in life. In addition, the
baker’s story illustrates that society works as an enemy of Personal Legends. When
the baker adopts society’s traditional expectation of success, he forgets his true
Personal Legend. But as Melchizedek explains, the force that age and society exert
against anyone pursuing their Personal Legend plays a vital role in preparing a
person to achieve her or his goal.
Santiago’s sheep exemplify the ways in which material possessions can help or
hinder a person in his quest to reach his Personal Legend. Without his flock, for
instance, Santiago would not have had anything to trade with Melchizedek to get the
clue about the next step in his Personal Legend. On the other hand, Santiago’s flock
provided him with material wealth and personal satisfaction, both of which tempted
him to disregard his Personal Legend and remain in Spain. When Santiago watches the
strong “levanter “ wind, he realizes that he must move freely as well. Once Santiago
recognizes his flock as just one step in a quest towards an ultimate goal, as
opposed to an end in and of itself, he becomes as free as the wind. This
realization, that one must be free to move and develop without remaining tied down
by material possessions, as well as the image of wind will resurface several times
as the story progresses.
Coelho employs several stylistic strategies in this section that give
The Alchemist a mythic quality. He introduces phrases and
concepts such as The Soul of the World, the Personal Legend, and the Warriors of the
Light that continue to appear throughout the book. These phrases resonate by their
repetition and because they often appear in capital letters. By echoing Biblical and
Koranic phrases, such as the Lamb of God or Inshallah (“if Allah wills”), they make
The Alchemist resemble a spiritual text. They also give the
reader a sense of a higher power in the book guiding the material world we see.
Another strategy Coelho uses to give the book a mythic tone involves using stories
as moral lessons. Specifically, Melchizedek’s stories of the baker, the miner, and
shopkeeper’s son recall moral allegories in spiritual texts. As a result, the novel
comes across as a fable, more akin to the Bible or Koran than a work of
realism.
