Explore the ways in which fate and destiny are factors in Santiago’s journey and how they contribute to the development of the plot. Hint at possible messages the author is conveying in each instance you discuss.
Fate and destiny are the powers beyond one’s will that settle ahead of time how things will unfold in one’s journey. Paulo Coelho depicts the message of fate and density in The Alchemist as the course a person’s life was meant to travel on; one couldn’t not strive from this course, and any attempt to do so always ended in advancing his fate rather than deterring it. True to the norm, our fate and destiny lead our journeys which is relayed through our dreams.
In the book The Alchemist, Santiago, searches for his personal legend by embarking on a journey. Santiago, is selling wool until one day at a plaza he meets a mysterious old man who convinces him to pursue his personal legend. The old man teaches him that every person has his/her own personal legend to achieve “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. With that in mind Santiago decides to sell his sheep and travel to find the treasure.
Paul Coelho provides the framework to teaches us to listen to our hearts and follow our own personal legends to find our hidden treasures. He speaks about the importance of seeking to fulfill our dreams for life. As we grow older, people begin to forget about all these wonderful aspirations that make being a child so magical. We lose sight of our hopes for the future. Every child has amazing fantasies of what they want to be when they grow up, and Coehlo calls this our “personal legend”, or a person’s purpose for living.
When your personal legend is revealed to you, nothing can stand in the way of achievement. By following his legend, Santiago learns from others that life is about the experiences we undergo, and these events lead us to our goals. In the “Alchemist”, the boy asked the old man what is the world’s greatest lie, the old man answered; “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.”
When we don’t succeed even after working hard and persevering to achieve our most cherished and coveted goal(s), we feel that the destiny does not want us to become what we wanted to become. There is then a shift of ambition and focus. We have a try at other things and when we finally do succeed and settle in something else, then we feel, perhaps this is what the destiny wanted to make me and wanted me to pursue.
Therefore, an understanding of our destiny is important to improve our stay here on Earth. Those who consider life as useless and senseless are the ones who do not believe in their destinies. All the life experiences and all the influences in a person’s life move in a certain direction that one is meant to go in. The meaning of life is inherent within the existence of the universe and the destiny in which God created it.
According to a religion, one must align their thoughts with the thoughts of God in order to experience the perfect meaning of everything. One must also go with the flow of things and accept what comes. Experience shows one that while some things are destined, more mundane things are left to choice. Although destiny is a god given entity, a person still has free will, giving them the ability to choose their own fate. That’s the principle that governs all things. In alchemy, it’s called the Soul of the World. When you want something with all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It’s always a positive force” (78).
