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So I have recently finished reading this book by Paulo Coelho for the third time in two months and thought I should write about it.

The book follows two main themes that speak about love and following your dreams. These themes will be expanded below.

About the book

Santiago is a young shepherd who loves his flock, though he can’t help but notice the limited nature of the sheep’s existence. He realizes that they are incapable of noticing the beauty around them, like the things he admires for example the sunset and the green hills. All they think about is food and water.

Santiago dreams of traveling the world and discovering treasures, he shows confidence in following the direction of his dreams. He decides to leave his home in Spain to go in search of his treasures through the markets of Tangiers to get to Egypt. While travelling in the desert, he realizes that his experience with the sheep could not possibly teach him the ways of human interaction. During his travels he learns to speak the Arabic language, experiences love, loss of money, meets new people. His journey proves to have a lot adventure and new lessons everyday that he was not learning from his sheep. He keeps reminding himself of what he was told by the old king ‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.’

Love and following your dreams

The theme of love is shown throughout the book, one can conclude that The Alchemist is a romantic novel, however Santiago faces a dilemma between the conflict of love and following his dreams. Wise men that he has met advised him about to choose to be independent from other people. It teaches readers about positivity. The theme of following your dream, the book does move away from the fact that following your dream costs a certain price. Coelho shows this by showing Santiago’s loss of time, loss of belongings.

The book shows great skill in story telling with impeccable use of word. The use of optimism and wisdom in the book shows the importance of following our dreams. The emphasis placed on hope, love and spirituality shows what one needs when following their dreams. This book caters for all readers because everyone has dreams. This book encourages the readers to take fearless actions to achieve their dreams.

My favourite quote in the book is:
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist