Novel "The Alchemist"

ABOUT NOVEL

The Alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho first published in the year 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it’s one of the international books. It has been translated into at least 56 languages as of September 2012 and has sold 23 million books.  It's easy to see why. This is charming, easy to understand, and more comfort to read. It has been translated into English in Indonesia on 1993. 

It’s the Original Cover

It’s the cover

of  translated novel

Into English

MAJOR CHARACTERS

1.  Santiago :

He’s the strong, believe so much in dream and not easy to give up.

2.  The Alchemist :

  he’s is wise man, not much to talk, much to acts.

3.  Fatima :

     She’s patient, loyal, kind woman.

MINOR CHARACTERS

  4.  Englishman :

       Individualism, loves reading, serious man.

 5.   Melchizedek :

       Kind man, love helping someone. 

 6.   Crystal Merchant : 

        Humble man, likes helping.

Gypsy :

        Kind. An old women living in Tarifa who interprets dreams. She reads palms and uses black-magic iconography, but she also keeps images of Christ.

        8.   Camel Driver : 

  A friendly. He’s devout Muslim and lives his life in service of omens from God. He accompanies the Englishman and Santiago to Oasis.

9. Merchant :

Wise man. A merchant who buys wool from Santiago on a yearly basis. He worries about being cheated so he demands that any wool he buys be sheared from the sheep in his presence.

Protagonist

1.Santiago, He gave sheep to Melchizedek and one-tenth of his treasure to Gyps as he had promised.

2.The alchemist, He taught Santiago not to give up easily.

3.Fatima, She was loyal with Santiago, she would waiting for his coming back.

4.  Melchizedek,  helped Santiago in his traveling.

5.  Crystal merchant, He gave job to Santiago. Until he could buy many sheep.

6.  Santiago’s father, He gave blessing for his son to search treasure in his dreams.

Antagonist

  The thief in Tangier who steals all Santiago’s money. He pretends for helping Santiago, but eventually he robs all Santiago’s money.

PLOT

vThe main plot : Santiago searched his treasure and had extraordinary experience that makes the novel more interesting.

vThe subordinate plot : The Englishman and Santiago went travelling together but they had different purposes. The Englishman wanted to meet the alchemist and Santiago searched for the treasure.

The conflicts are

1. When Santiago continued his traveling, he met the young man in Tangier bar. He could say in Spain and he obliged Santiago to go to Pyramid. But eventually he’s thief. He brought away all Santiago’s money. So Santiago didn’t know what should he do.

2. When Santiago comes to the pyramids, he dug on the spot, and he was beaten by some Arabs who were interested in his treasure. It was only at the point that he realized where his treasure actually was.

THEME

The moral value or human significance of the novel is :

qDont be easy to give up

qTrust in our God Almighty

qTrust if every problems have a thousand ways to solve

qTo be faithful with our partner

STYLE

  The words used in the novel motivate us. For example:

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”  

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The interesting scenes

  when the boy turned himself into the wind as the alchemist to rescue from the tribesman. It’s not easy to find this scene in reality life.

  the boy as the shepherd followed his dream could find treasure such as precious stone, gold masks adorned with the red and white feathers, and stone statue embedded with jewels. He attempted to pursuit and believed in his dream that could come true. Because it can courage our spirit to achieve our dreams and it shows everything’s possible.

The place hold in the total’s work

  In Spain, because Santiago was the shepherd in religion of Andalusia, Spain. And he met the daughter’s merchant, She was Fatima. Then Santiago fell in love with her. Then in the Africa, he traveled to look for the treasure. Then in the Egypt he dug the ground of pyramid to find the treasure.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE NOVEL

The novel belongs to fiction novel.

Santiago could turn himself into wind, he also could speak with the desert, the wind, and the sun.

BY :

Aini Musfiroh

Delvi AR

Lisca Anastasya

Lisdiana Savira

Pasuryan Dewi