Reaction Essay: The Alchemist

In Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”, the author tells readers a story about how to confront dreams or follow Personal Legend which means the dreams people always want to accomplish. Through a shepherd boy whose name is Santiago, the author shows us the process of pursuing our own dreams: having a dream, understanding it, wanting to give up, insisting again, seeking for it, losing it, and finally fulfilling it.

For Santiago, he has a strong desire to know the world so that he becomes a shepherd. During his trip, he met the king of Salem who told Santiago his Personal Legend and asked him to pursue the dream of finding the treasure. In order to follow his dream, he began his adventure to the Pyramid. He wanted to go back when a thief stole all his money. Fortunately, he insisted on finding the treasure, and then found a job in a crystal store. After he had earned enough money, he continued to pursue his dream. With the help of the alchemist, Santiago reached the Pyramid.

However, he did not find the treasure, and even worse, he was robbed. He lost his all money, but the robbers told him that the treasure he was looking for was in the place he came from and not in the Pyramid. During his path to realizing his dream, he became matured and knew to listen to his heart, which was the most important treasure he got.

 

After reading “The Alchemist”, I know the reason why this book is one of the most bestselling books all over the world. I think it is well worth reading because listening to our hearts is vitally important to help us to realize our dreams. We all desire to fulfill our dreams, but few people know how to pursue dreams. According to the book, however, we have already known the way to realize dreams.

 

The fact is we give up our dreams because we are afraid to lose things we have owned when pursuing dreams. As a consequence, we no longer listen to our hearts. However, our hearts know everything. It is helpless to avoid listening to our hearts because we are the owner of hearts. When we listen to and understand our hearts, we will know how to deal with our dreams. Therefore, from “The Alchemist”, we can learn that the only thing we need to do to realize our dreams is just to try instead of the escape.

 

It is a fascinating story that tells me that no troubles will be permanent if you can control your own heart, and anyone can fulfill own dream as long as we can keep pursuing and never give up the initial dream.