Listen to 'What is Within'

The Journey to the Soul

‘The boy reached through the Soul of the World, and saw that it was part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles.’ (Coelho145) Santiago, a young shepherd boy, dreamed of a treasure buried deep within the great Pyramids in Egypt. He gives up his life in Spain and goes on to pursue his destiny after meeting the king of Salem ‘Melchizedek’, whom gives Santiago two rocks ‘Urim’ and ‘Thummin’, and explains to Santiago that his dream is his destiny. Although his journey begins in Andalusia in Spain, Santiago ends up traveling to Egypt. During his long and meaningful journey, he encounters many new people that support him along his journey. By overcoming many obstacles, finding his true love, and acquiring a more meaningful sense of his boundaries, Santiago slowly moved toward his destiny. He gains a consciousness of how he can help others to achieve their destiny. By acquiring a better sense of himself, Santiago learns that he is God’s vessel and God can fulfill his wishes through him. Determination, bravery and patience are the three traits that Santiago possesses that help him achieve his goal of reaching his destiny.

While on the journey, Santiago shows how determined he is by never giving up. He got robbed and all of his possessions were taken away, but he still did not give up. He worked and found ways around his problems so he could continue to pursue his destiny. After traveling away from Spain Santiago met a new companion, but underneath the friendly mask the new companion was wearing, he was actually a thief pretending to be friendly to gain Santiago’s trust. ‘He recalled that when the sun had risen that morning, he was on another continent, still a shepherd with sixty sheep, and looking forward to meeting with a girl. That morning he had known everything that was going to happen to him as he walked through the familiar fields. But now, as the sun began to set, he was in a different country, a strange land, where he couldn’t even speak the language. He was no longer a shepherd, and he had nothing, not even the money to return and start everything over.’ (Coelho 36) Eventually the thief gets a hold Santiago’s money and runs off. This was a major setback for Santiago because he didn’t know anyone, where he was and he had no money to do anything. During this time Santiago wants to give up, but his heart keeps telling him to go on. He had to choose between returning to his old life or discovering and doing something new that he had never done before. This was probably a test god had put him through, to make sure he would not give up on tasks so easily. Shortly after this test, ‘The boy’ found a job with a crystal merchant. After working with the crystal merchant to gain money, Santiago shows another hint of determination when he went to talk to the tribal chieftains about the omen he saw. He told them about the omen and they agreed that if his prediction was wrong and no weapon had been used by the end of the day, a weapon would be used on him. ‘He was alarmed by what had happened. He had succeeded in reaching through to the Soul of the World, and now the price for having done so might be his life. It was a frightening bet. But he had been making risky bets ever since the day he had sold his sheep to pursue his destiny. And, as the camel driver had said, to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world. Everything depended on one word: “Maktub”.’ (Coelho 103) Santiago’s determination to reach his destiny, and his ability to read omens had helped him get to this stage. He had to overcome many obstacles and this was just another one he would have to fight to get through. Santiago knew his life was on the line but he believed in himself, to be able to achieve his goals. Without his determination to lead him, Santiago would not have been able to go into the room and tell the tribal chieftain that the ‘Oasis’, a natural city, was about to be attacked. After talking to the tribal chieftains Santiago meets the Alchemist and, the Alchemist tells Santiago where he lives. Santiago journeys with the Alchemist and this is another sign of determination because you wouldn’t just follow someone around. You need to be motivated and have a real reason, and Santiago’s was that ‘The alchemist’ was going to help him achieve his destiny. Santiago’s determination to reach his destiny was what made him stay and let the alchemist mentor him. Santiago stayed with the alchemist and learned many new skills that may help him in life, but the main one was, ‘How to talk to your heart’. Santiago’s heart was the key to his determination, and motivation to keep on going and find his destiny. Santiago’s determination plays an important role in helping him to achieve his destiny but he must also have had a lot of bravery to overcome the many obstacles he faced along the way.

Santiago had much bravery in his heart but this journey was what brought that bravery out of its shell to enable it to be seen by the world. Santiago bravely withstood any problems that he encountered during his journey, he even risked his life to protect the people of the ‘Oasis’ and warned the tribal chieftains about how a war was coming. Santiago showed bravery right at the beginning of the book. He gave up his whole life in Spain to go and pursue his destiny even though he barely knew about it. Santiago had to have bravery in his heart because nobody gives up something, for something else they barely know about. Santiago knew only that he had to read the omens and use the two stones ‘Urim’ and ‘Thummin’ to continue on his journey and to complete his destiny. Santiago had to be brave, as he gave up his old life and went for a new one, with very little knowledge of what had to be done. Eventually Santiago picked up the tasks that must be done in order to read omens and continued to search for his destiny. When he came across an omen that meant a war was coming. Santiago had to go to the tribal chieftains to warn them of a war that he assumed was going to happen because of the omen he had seen. ‘“Who is this stranger who speaks of omens?”, Asked one of the chieftains, eying the boy. “It is I” the boy answered. And he told what he had seen. “Why would the desert reveal such things to a stranger, when it knows that we have been here for generations?”, said another of the chieftains. “Because my eyes are not yet accustomed to the desert”, the boy said. “I can see things that eyes habituated to the desert might not see”. And also because I know about the Soul of the World, he thought to himself. “The oasis is a neutral ground. No one attacks an oasis” said the third chieftain. “I can only tell you what I saw. If you don’t want to believe me, you don’t have to do anything about it”. (Coelho 101) This is when Santiago stands up to the tribal chieftains; he had to be brave to stand up to someone with a higher authority than himself. He warns them of an upcoming war but they don’t believe him, and he stood up for himself saying ‘I can only tell you what I saw. If you don’t want to believe me, you don’t have to do anything about it’. He clearly showed his bravery when he stated his point to the tribal chieftains, because they could easily order his execution if he did something rude or unwanted, but he had to get his point across because if he didn’t many people would die. Santiago was brave enough to stand up for what he thought was right and that requires a strong will, and lots of bravery. After talking to the chieftains he encountered two more obstacles that he had to be brave through or he may not have accomplished his destiny. One was that the tribal chieftains had told him that if no weapons were drawn by the end of tomorrow, one would be used on his ‘such as a death sentence’ and he had to accept to this and face up to his fears of death. Santiago wanted to save other people’s lives and to do so he had to put his life on the line as well. By doing so, Santiago raised the attention of the ‘Tribal chieftains’ thus making his claim harder to ignore. The second obstacle would be when he met the Alchemist. The alchemist challenged/ tested Santiago by making a mysterious first impression, dressed completely in black he drew out a long scimitar and held it to Santiago’s forehead, testing him if he actually knew the Language of the World. He tested him this way because anyone whom knows the Language of the World shows no fear. And that is what Santiago did he stood there bravely knowing that if he dies it is God’s will and he does not want change. Santiago may have been brave and determined on his task of completing his destiny but without his patience, none of this would have been possible.

Patience is a key factor to Santiago’s success because throughout the book he has many challenges that involve more time than normal tasks require to complete, also along the way he learn many new attributes that take him time to understand and master. After getting robbed by a thief, when he first entered the new continent, Santiago went on to work for a Crystal merchant and worked for about a year to gain enough money to travel back to Spain and restart his life. ‘The boy went to his room and packed his belongings. They filled three sacks. As he was leaving, he saw, in the corner of the room, his old shepherd pouch. It was bunched up, and he had hardly thought of it for a long time. As he took his jacket out of the pouch, thinking to give it to someone in the street, the two stones fell to the floor. Urim and Thummim. It made the boy think of the old king, and it startled him to realize how long it had been since he had thought of him. For nearly a year, he had been working incessantly, thinking only of putting aside enough money so that he could return to Spain with pride.’ (Coelho 58) Santiago had to have patience to work with the crystal merchant that long. He had helped make the crystal merchants store into a well know business, and made him very rich over just a span of one year. Santiago clearly waited, and worked hard to earn his money, but he knew that he didn’t want to return to Spain and his heart was telling him to continue on his journey. Santiago’s patience helped the crystal merchant as well as himself, by providing Santiago with enough money to travel to Egypt, and by making the crystal merchant wealthy and happy. One other skill that I believe was important for ‘The boy’ to master was being able to talk and understand what his heart wanted him to do. The alchemist tells Santiago that he needs to learn to listen to his heart, and talk to it to understand what he must do next along his journey. ‘”Treason is a blow that come unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them. You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.”’ (Coelho 124) Santiago is talking to his heart, and his heart is telling him why it is being treasons. The alchemist is telling Santiago he needs to now his heart well, and if he does, his heart won’t surprise him in any way. This skill takes a lot of patience and time to master, but Santiago puts all of his time into perfecting this attribute making sure that his heart won’t betray him any longer. Before leaving the ‘Oasis’ with the Alchemist, Santiago wanted to stay with Fatima ‘ a girl his heart had fallen for’, but the Alchemist explained that if he stops perusing his destiny now, in three years time he would want to start perusing it again, but it would be too late. Santiago decides to leave Fatima behind but promises that he will return after finding his treasure. This shows patience by both Fatima, and Santiago, because when you are in love it is hard to stay apart from each other. Santiago and Fatima manage to endure the isolation. Santiago kept Fatima in his heart and she knew he would keep his promise to her, knowing that she would be waiting there ‘in the Oasis’ for him. Santiago’s patience was a key factor in helping him achieving his destiny and without it he may have either failed or not even been able to even start pursuing his destiny.

Santiago travels from Andalusia, Spain to the Great Pyramids of Egypt, just to end up where he began. Determination, bravery and patience are three traits that helped Santiago complete his destiny; thus showing that you should never give up on your dreams. Santiago’s determination helped him find his treasure, his bravery developed along the way till he had the courage to risk his life to save others, and his patience led and helped him, without it Santiago couldn’t have learned the very important attributes that helped him along the way or he couldn’t have even earned enough money to travel to Egypt. Santiago journey wasn’t really about finding a treasure, it was about finding something he already had, but deeply buried inside his soul.

By : Jürgen Moltmann

That which we persist in doing becomes easier not that the task itself has become easier but that our ability to perform it has improved.'(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Although my abilities and knowledge as a teenager have not been fully developed, I use my persistence to get things done and done well. Despite the fact that I as a teenager do not have as much experience and knowledge as an adult I have a trait that will support me through-out the rest of my life. ‘Persistence’ A trait that has kept me going and always will. Like the traits that helped Santiago accomplish his destiny (determination, bravery and patience) Persistence is the one that will help me follow through and accomplish my destiny. I keep going at any task that is given to me and by doing so I always seem to complete them, and usually complete them well. As my family moves around to different countries a lot, I have had to learn how to deal with saying good-bye to my friends and had to learn how to make new ones. No matter what my persistence is what has helped me, too be able to keep this going. Saying good-bye to good friends is reasonably hard but by learning how to cope with it, will help you through-out life.
Gaining friends is a very hard thing to do, and to fully gain their trust is even harder, but when I meet new people I am always trying to be polite and trying to gain their trust and be there for them when they need me. Persistence, a trait that will forever help me through life without it, I would always give up and never complete my tasks, thus diminishing my choices later in life. Persistence , a person with it “Never says Never”.