This week I continued into the middle of The Alchemist. I was quite impressed with the beginning of the novel, and I enjoyed the middle as well. Alhough there is one particular aspect of the story that has me troubled- the character.
At the opening of the book, eighteen year old Santiago was a free spirited shepherd whose only mission in life was to lead his sheep to food and water. He was free to travel Spain as he wished, and he had nothing and no one to answer to. He was charismatic because of his courage to follow his dreams of traveling the world. While so many people ignore their dreams and follow a more practical path in life, Santiago was willing to give up his family and friends for a life of travel.
The problem is, over the course of a whopping five pages, Santiago completely turns his life around and ends up poor and lost. During another typical day of leading sheep around a field, Santiago dreams of a treasure in the pyramids. Santiago considers this to be an omen and decides to go try to find this treasure. To do this, he makes an impulse decision to sell all his sheep (his only posessions really) and use the money to buy a one way ticket to Africa. Really, that's not a very smart decision. Typically it is not wise to throw away your entire life in a spur of the moment decision you make because you had a dream about shiny gold coins.
Throughout the beginning of Santiago's journey, he makes many stupid decisions. For example, he did not stop for one moment to consider the fact that they do not speak Spanish in Africa. Also, from the place where the boat dropped him of in Africa, Santiago has to cross the entire Sahara Desert to reach the pyramids. After meeting a Spanish speaking person in Africa, Santiago hires him to be his guide and gives him all his money to hold on to "for safe keeping." You can probably guess what happens next. Now Santiago has no money, no friends, and no life. But hey, at least he's following his dream!
No comments:
Post a Comment