The Alchemist

Traveling in a desert caravan is a practice that evidence points to have been taking place as early as the third century A.D. (Masonen, Trans-Saharan Trade and The West African Discovery of the Meditation World). However, it still remains as a popular means of travel across deserts for people today (Hays, Transportation along the Silk Road). Multiple accounts from people, who traveled in a caravan, suggest that it is tedious and somewhat monotonous. Yet, much of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist took place in a desert caravan. The character, Santiago, learned a lot from the desert when traveling in the caravan; life in a caravan was different from a sedentary life, but this environment was conducive to Santiago learning the language of the world,
At one point he said, “’I've seen how the guides read the signs of the desert, and how the soul of the caravan speaks to the soul of the desert’” (Coelho, 32). He also learned about getting to your destination in life. “’You should pay more attention to the caravan,’ the boy said to the Englishman, after the camel driver had left. ‘We make a lot of detours, but we're always heading for the same destination’” (Coelho, 31). The desert, caravan, and the people in it, also taught him to enjoy the moment he was in while still keeping in mind his destination. Though the elderly king tried to teach him this earlier in explaining the story of the boy who walked around with oil on a spoon, it was after his journey in the desert that he really experienced and learned this lesson for himself. “He was at home with the silence of the desert, and he was content just to look at the trees. He still had a long way to go to reach the pyramids, and someday this morning would just be a memory. But this was the present moment—the party the camel driver had mentioned—and he wanted to live it as he did the lessons of his past and his dreams of the future” (Coelho, 34). The very sand of the desert even teaches Santiago towards the end of the book when Santiago is trying to turn himself into wind. He talks with the sand of the desert. He learns how it provides for the falcon, and how it, too, is a part of the soul of the
Coelho himself said, “When I write a book I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader” (biography.com). What is taken from a book is often one’s opinion. However, something many overlook is that the reader can learn exactly what the character learned. Even if the reader has not encountered the same experiences Santiago had, the reader can take from what Santiago learned and apply it to his or her own