Meaning Of Life In The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho

Throughout The Alchemist, readers see a clear view of how they are to discover the meaning of life. The first is by discovering their personal legend. People are supposed to go out and seek their life’s destiny. The second is by defeating fear. There is nothing to fear but fear itself. We shouldn’t worry about the past or future. In fact, we should be focusing on the present. When we take the focus off of our fears we begin to focus on the present and realize what we’ve been missing. Paulo Coelho portrays two main themes throughout The Alchemist: pursue your personal legend and dangers come when you fear.
Paulo Coelho first covers the topic of personal legends in his novel. As mentioned in The Alchemist, “It’s [a personal legend] what you have always wanted to accomplish”(Coelho, pg. 21). Everyone has a personal legend, but with age comes the dying off of a dream, a dream that once shaped your life. As people get older, they begin losing sight of their personal legend, not because they forget about it, but because they lack the motivation. They lack the drive to figure out their destiny or what their life was meant for. Often people start to fulfill their personal
When we start to fear about a certain situation we are only causing pain for a longer time, instead of living in the present and working on that certain situation when it occurs, we start trying to figure everything out beforehand, causing us to fear when there is no need to. As soon as people stop fearing the unknown, they can focus on achieving their goal. So often people miss their calling because they feared the outcome and didn’t want change. For instance, in The Alchemist, the merchant had always dreamed of going to Mecca, but never did because he feared change. He missed his calling because of one small instinct. When people let go of their fears, they are open to so many more