The Alchemist: Mid-Pt

This book is such a refreshing change of pace following The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, my last book. The language was so difficult to interpret, making the book tedious to read. Also it seemed that like in most “classic” books or ones we read for school, everything down to the pattern of the leaves on the trees in the background of a scene have some sort of underlying meaning to it that the reader has to decode. With The Alchemist, to this point the language has been very simple and easy to understand. The central meaning in the book is also simple to identify.

To this point, the story has been about a Brazilian shepherd finding meaning in his life. He has a recurring dream that he can’t find meaning in, so he goes to a Gypsy to have the dream interpreted. She says that he will find hidden treasure near the Egyptian pyramids. The shepherd is skeptical because his father warned him of gypsies being deceptive when he was a boy. However, a wise old man meets him later and also tells him that he should journey to Egypt to find the treasure.

I can predict that the boy (shepherd) will go on to Egypt and not find a treasure with diamonds and gold, but something will happen where he learns the meaning of his life. The whole story is centered around very philosophical ideas to this point. The old man tells the boy, “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie” (18). I think the whole story will revolve around the boy learning life lessons such as this. Also, in the beginning he falls in love with a girl, so I’m just speculating that they will get married in the end. Even though the book is so simple and even predictable, it’s a great change of pace for me following non-fiction and classic readings so I look forward to the second half.