The Alchemist

The Alchemist

The book I read is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is about a boy from Spain, whose name is Santiago and is a shepherd. The book tells how he gets around countries, and how he deals with his problems and how he solves them. It shows how he follows his dreams, and who helps him along the way.

Santiago leaves his family to become a shepherd, before leaving his dad gives him money he has saved up, Santiago buys sheep with the money. As a shepherd Santiago travels around Spain. As he travels he is in search of food and water for his sheep. During his journeys he gave his sheep names and really connects with them. When he ran out of money, Santiago sold wool from his sheep for money. He learns that being a shepherd is not hard as long as you have food and water for the sheep.

Santiago is a very intelligent boy, he knows how to read and write because he went to school. Santiago wanted to become a shepherd because he loved traveling and he never traveled while living on his farm with his parents. Another reason he didn’t like living on a farm was, because there was no change in every day life, and he liked change. That’s why his dad understood his reasoning for wanting to become a shepherd.

One day he had a dream while resting under a tree in an abandon ruined church. Santiago had dreamt that same dream before so he decided to go to a dream reader. There was a town near by that he knew had a dream reader, so he decided to go there one day. When he got to the town he found her booth, and told her his dream. The woman told him that his dream was, that he

would find treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. After leaving her booth thinking she was crazy, he sat on a bench and started to read a book he got in town. Suddenly an old man sat by him and tells him that he knows where to find the treasure he is looking for, and that he will tell him in exchange of one tenth of his sheep.

The boy agreed, and discovers that the man knew about the treasure the dream reader was talking about, and knew a lot about the boy and where he is from. After conversing with him for some time, he finds out that he is king, and that he helps people with their personal legends.

After teaching the boy a lot about the journey he will go through, the king gave him omens to follow. Santiago sells his sheep, and travels to a town on his way to Egypt. He finds a man that could take him past