The Alchemist

Alex Kennedy
The novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho first starts out with a young shepherd named
Santiago on a quest to find his personal legend. Throughout his quest, he goes through many
events that occur that are not coincidences. The theme of The Alchemist is that everything
happens for a reason because of the symbols, irony, and man vs. man conflict that Paulo uses
on through the novel.

In The Alchemist, the author uses methods of symbols to convey the theme in the novel.
One of the symbols he uses is where Santiago begins and ends his quest. Santiago begins his
quest at a church with a large tree growing out of the center of it and he ends it in the same
place he started. This symbolizes Santiago has changed as a person, because he ventures all
over his country and other cities to find the he must go back to where he first began. Santiago
has changed the way that he thinks and feels about life. To be believed a coincidence, but that
just happened for a reason.

Throughout the novel, Coelho uses irony to convey the theme in the novel. The name of
the novel has irony in it. During Santiago’s quest, he meets an alchemist in the desert in the
middle of know where. The alchemist and Santiago begin to become close to one another,
through one another. After spending many days together, Santiago becomes an alchemist
himself. That is ironic because there is an alchemist in the book and the reader knows that,
that is the alchemist that the author is speaking about. But it is really Santiago who is the
alchemist.

Paulo uses man vs. man conflict to convey the theme of the novel also. When Santiago
is going through the desert, a fierce tribe kidnaps him. They won’t let him free unless he does
something for them. Then Santiago decides to speak the universal language to help take out
the other tribe’s camp. He speaks to the sun, wind, and the sand to guide him to accomplish his
task. When he does, the tribe lets him go in fear of him. There was a reason that he was
kidnapped so that he could speak the universal language.

Paulo Coelho was trying to convey a theme throughout the novel, but didn’t want to
make it obvious by using the symbols, irony, and the conflict. The theme was that everything
happens for a reason, and the events throughout the novel weren’t coincidences.