The Alchemist: My Favorite Character Santiago

December 9, 2021 by Essay Writer

The Alchemist is a novel written by Paulo Coelho which illustrates a young man traveling from his motherland of Spain to Egypt in hopes to locate a treasure which will give himself prosperity. His travel is consequently related to a reoccurring dream he has of obtaining and finding the treasure. Therefore, he consults with a gypsy who pushes Santiago to travel to fulfill his dream. Santiago is his name, and on his trip, he is faced with tough challenges and obstacles which he encounters. Additionally, he meets a variety of people including a king, a gypsy woman, and an alchemist who is promising of turning lead into gold. Most importantly, Santiago is perseverant with his dream and doesn’t let anything stop him from obtaining it. Furthermore, anything that happens such as attacks or misfortunes lead to him figuring out what to do next. Furthering him to his goal and dream.

Santiago is my favorite character in the Alchemist because of he enough courage to follow his dream, so he gives up everything. Furthermore, every bad situation and circumstance that happens to him and the people he met he doesn’t let it sway him from his dream and goal of finding treasure in Egypt. His attitude and perseverance in life are similar to mine which makes him my favorite character.

In the first part of the story exemplifies Santiago’s perseverant nature by continuing with his dream right after being robbed on his first day to travel to the pyramids. Even though he is robbed of all of his money he finds a job at a local glass shop that springs board his adventure from the saving of money to help fund his travels. His story is similar to mine because I’ve had a comparable situation occur to me. I had gotten my first job to help save for a car. I was paid every two weeks and worked a busy month fulltime. I had enough money to buy the car I’d been looking to purchase, however; my mother became ill and decided to use the money to help her. Although this isn’t exactly what happened to Santiago it is a similar circumstance because his dream was cut short from a robbery, but this didn’t stop him. Likewise, I was able to help my mother which made us both happy, although it did set me back financially, I still continued to save for my car which eventually I was able to purchase. Santiago’s perseverant attitude towards life and the bad things that happen to him doesn’t stop him on his journey. It actually makes him stronger each step of the way and I admire him because of this. In a similar fashion, I am able to see myself in Santiago which makes him my favorite character.

Another reason why Santiago is my favorite character is from his courage to give up everything he has to follow his dream. This is demonstrated in his ability to sell all of his flock, which is his life’s work, to travel to Egypt. This is not something easy to do taking into consideration of lifestyle and way of life his flock was to him. He is able to see past this and continues with his decision to sell his flock to fund his dream of finding treasure in Egypt. This is very similar to my decision to have a job and follow through with my goal of buying a car because I had to essentially give up my life of hanging out with friends and afterschool activities to pursue my dream of owning a car. Even though my journey of buying a car was hard and felt lonely at times I continued to pursue with my goal. Santiago sold all of his livelihood and way of life to jumpstart and fund his dream of traveling to Egypt to find treasure. His courage and action of doing so are comparable to my life of deciding to work a job to follow my dream of owning a car. This resulted in giving up my time to hang out with my friends or any activities which I did before having a job. I was certain of obtaining my goal that I did everything to do so. In a similar fashion, I observe this with Santiago and completely respect his courage and willpower to give up everything to follow his dream of going to Egypt thus, becoming my favorite character in The Alchemist.

In the novel, The Alchemist, Santiago is my favorite character because of his attitude of being perseverant of his dream and giving up everything to obtain his dream. His actions and attitude are admired by me and I can see myself in Santiago from my personal anecdotes. Santiago’s perseverant attitude is honorably illustrated when he was robbed of all of his money but still continued to carry on with his dream. Furthermore, Santiago gave up everything and his livelihood to pursue his dream. Santiago is my favorite character because of his perseverant manner of continuing his dream even after every shortcoming. Santiago best illustrates success as not just one path without failure but embracing every failure to follow through with dreams and goals.

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