Santiago had to learn to follow his heart throughout the novel and not listen to his sadness, thus allowing him to go further through the desert by following his heart. “The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other.” This shows us that Santiago has decided…
Throughout life, people will have to make decisions everyday whether it is important or inessential. In this book, Santiago is deciding whether he should follow his “Personal Legend” (what one has always wanted to accomplish), or…
The story is non-chronological and is told out of order, mimicking the way that memories are often not remembered sequentially. In addition, the story is told like clockwork, told repetitively through memories that essentially keep Santiago alive twenty-seven years after his death. Although most of the chapters end on an exclamation similar to “They’ve killed Santiago Nasar!” the story is reconstructed again, with a new memory or voice telling the story, adding more pieces to solve the puzzle of Santiago Nasar’s murder (García Márquez 71). Santiago’s murder is retold in each chapter, but Santiago becomes ‘resurrected’ in the next where his last moments are replayed, up until the last chapter of the novel. The last sentence of the novel ends with the line “He went into his house through the back door that had been open since six and fell on his face in the kitchen”, again ending Santiago’s life, but this time ending the loop of Santiago’s death and his following resurrection (García Márquez 120). The novel ends with no conclusion, paralleling the fact that Santiago’s murder has no conclusion or resolution. Santiago dies with his innocence still in question, but the circumstances of his death causes Santiago to still be remembered and, therefore, to still be…
He had a reoccurring dream that there was a treasure at the Pyramids. After talking with Melchizedek, the King of Salem, I believe his fear was to not discover his Personal Legend of finding the treasure. “I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.” (Santiago, page 45) There were several omens along his journey that made him fearful of pursuing the treasure. When he met the alchemist at the oasis there was a tribal war happening around them making it dangerous to travel through the desert. Santiago said to the alchemist, “I have already found my treasure.…
Courage is one characteristic that a lot of people aren’t blessed to receive. This characteristic is like a diamond in the rough -- very brilliant, yet rare. It doesn’t just mean you have the ability to defeat your fears, it is much more significant than that. It means you have to have the ability to beat the odds.. To achieve the impossible; which is what Jimmy Santiago did.…
When Santiago proposes to sell tea in the crystal glasses, “as [the crystal seller] smothered the coals in the hookah, he told the boy that he could begin to sell tea in the crystal glasses. Sometimes, there’s just no way to hold back the river.” (59) The mood in this passage gives the feeling that he should just go with what the hand has written. The crystal seller knows that selling tea in the crystal glasses will surely increase his revenue. If he has the money he would have to go to Mecca, he would have to go, which he fears. However, in this case, he overcomes the fear that would have hindered him from reaching his Personal Legend of visiting Mecca. After being captured by a warring tribe, when Santiago has to turn himself into the wind, at one point, he felt that “the desert only moments ago had been endless and free, and now it was an impenetrable wall.” (141) The mood consists of hopelessness and fear. Feeling hopeless and fearful definitely will not get Santiago any closer to turning himself into the wind, which would help him reach his Personal Legend.In this way, the current mood hinders Santiago from getting closer to his Personal Legend. The moods of these events help show how emotions can affect people on their way to realizing their Personal…
A public spectacle occurs when the performance of the strange autopsy for Santiago Nasar is in the hands of the village priest, who is carless about Santiago’s body, in the novel “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”. In the story Santiago is killed by the Vicario brothers, Pedro and Pablo. Before Santiago was murdered he was being accused of sleeping with Angela, and taking her virginity. This created a lot of hell and embarrassment for Santiago throughout the town, and caused people to have zero respect for him.…
Nicolas, who has never been taught the virtue of hard work, has always considered the world his oyster. However, his careless attitude towards his freedom is contradicted through the shocking news of his girlfriend's…
People make many choices for society’s sake. In the book, the Giver and the Outsiders, one sees the importance of courage through the development of the characters in the book. The number of sacrifices Jonas and multiple characters from the Outsiders make for the benefit of the society is great. Through this story, the reader sees the powerful effect of bravery.…
The Englishman tells Santiago what he’s read: there is an individual language that every living thing speaks, although it is spoken without words, a language of action propelled by emotion: the same lesson Santiago learned from his sheep, and his experiences in Tarifa. Although Santiago does not understand who the Alchemist is, he does understand desire, and he understands that the Englishman is expressing it in his knowledge of alchemy and the universe. At the caravan site, the Englishman begins to explain to Santiago the importance of knowing that nothing is a coincidence. However, Santiago already knows the lessons the Englishman is attempting to teach him.“The boy knew what he was going to describe, though: the mysterious chain that links one thing to another, the same chain that caused him to become a shepherd, that had caused his recurring dream, that had brought him to a city near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a crystal merchant.” The caravan trip shows Santiago more of the universal language. Each person following the caravan is headed towards the same compass point, the same destination, joined by hunger, fear, and yearning: be it for travel, for refuge, or for those they love and miss. If Santiago was not able to adapt to the harsh conditions in the desert, of the caravan trip itself, he would not have reached Al-Fayoum: he would not have…
This scene provides an idea of the problem (first obstacle) that Santiago will have to overcome through the book. The scene suggest what Santiago have to do in order to find that treasure – not every step, or every aspect of the procedures but a hit of what he should go –Then with this information, the reader realize that Santiago must cross the desert to reach the pyramids, that he must acquire some money to arrive to Egypt. A foreshadowing event not only tells the reader what a character might do to accomplish ‘’that’’, but with what he might struggle and what the character mush overcome.…
At the beginning of the book, Santiago was unaware of his surroundings. First, Santiago did not realize that actually the treasure that he was looking for was at the abandoned church, which is the first place that he has visited. He just remembered that two years ago, he had a dream that he should travel to Spain and find a ruined church. There was an enormous sycamore tree, if he dug at the roots, he would find the treasure (Coelho, 163). Due to the fact, he had already found his treasure in the first place where he started his journey. Secondly, Santiago thought that the old king was a gypsy too. The old king wanted to help Santiago to accomplish his personal legend instead. Furthermore, the old woman had not charged Santiago anything, but the old king possibly was her husband. Probably the old man was a gypsy too (20). At first, Santiago thought that the old king was the gypsy woman’s husband. They were going to find a way to get more money in exchange for information that did not exist, but actually the old man was helping…
In Coelho's writing, he illustrates what’s going on with metaphors. In other words, he uses Santiago's sheep as a way of showing someone that is ignorant of his personal calling. With this in mind, he also uses the wind as a way of showing that he is virtually close to his treasure. Likewise, Jess has the burning desire to overcome and beat her dreams because her motivation are her parents they keep. On the other hand, if you look at the difference between Santiago and Jess. Santiago meets an endless string of people that help him first find out what is his personal legend is and how to achieve it. Santiago meets the gypsy woman, the king of Salem, the Crystal merchant, and the alchemist. The gypsy woman is a palm-reader who takes money from others in order to look deeper into their future. She is the one that leads Santiago to look for a treasure in the Pyramids of Egypt. The King of Salem pushes him to go after his dream warning him about omens he must find. He also met the alchemist who teaches him the soul of the World. Jess meets one character that convinces her to keep on going with her dreams. Her friend displays her to try to make it to soccer practice. She portrays what a life might be like if she goes further on with her dreams. Jess decides to follow her own future, not what any others have made for…
First, Santiago realizes his purpose in the world. For example, when Santiago decides to become a shepherd, he decides to talk to his father about becoming a shepherd. "The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy. His purpose in life was to travel, and, after two years of walking the Andalusian terrain, he knew all the cities of the region." (pg. 10). Santiago knows that he has a place for him in the…
We find the first obstacle Santiago faces in page 9, where Santiago mentions to his father at a early age that he did not want to become a priest that instead he wanted to travel and see the world. His father explained to him that the people that travel and see the world are wealthy people. Santiago insisted that him too wanted to see where the wealthy people lived, that he would love to see their castles in the towns where the wealthy lived, but his father explained that the only people that traveled amongst them were the shepherds. Santiago made the decision to become a shepherd, so the next day his father gave him three ancient Spanish gold coins so the boy could buy his flock.…