Alchemist Archetypes

Alchemist Archetypes In the alchemist by Paul Coelho, he writes about a shepherd named Santiago. Santiago’s journey is written mainly through situation archetypes. Archetypes are used to categorize people and a situation in stories, poems, plays ect. The predominant archetypes are situational. The most distinguished archetypes in the alchemist are the initiation, the quest, death and rebirth, the journey, and supernatural intervention. The first archetype in the entire book is the initiation; the initiation is the starting point of Santiago’s journey across the world. The initiation is a dream Santiago has two nights in a row when he slept under a sycamore by a church. His dream was of treasure buried by the Egyptian pyramids. The recurring dream causes him to see a gypsy who tells him to go to the pyramids and if he does he’ll owe her money, while he’s contemplating an old man approaches and tells him to listen to his dream. The boy was unsure of weather to listen or not because he felt the man was unreliable until he discovered the old man was an old king, the deal was half his sheep if the boy left for Egypt. The boy pays the man and it initiates his journey. Next is death and rebirth of his journey when he gets robbed and must work at the chrystal shop to regain his stolen money. Santiago originally sees this as the end and he’ll never get to the pyramids and the document. Eventually he realizes his robbery as a omen to meet what he will be, if he fails to complete his personal legend. The merchant resembles death because he will never accomplished his personal legend because he is afraid he will have nothing to a for afterwards. Santiago hears the merchants story and it causes a rebirth that tells Santiago of what will become of him if he doesn’t reach the pyramids. Santiago realizes his journey when he leaves the alchemist. Before the alchemist took some Santiago to the pyramids he gives the boy a few tests to see if he’s ready. His task is