The Alchemist

Book Report & Project

By: -
Shashank Sharma

—
English Grade - XII
—
Teacher – Mr. Sebastian Matthew
 Certificate
This is to certify that Shashank Sharma of

Grade – XII ‘A’, The Tribhuvan School, Patna has completed the project
titled ‘The Alchemist’ during the academic year 2022-23 towards partial
fulfilment of the English examination conducted by CBSE, New Delhi &
submitted satisfactory report as compiled in the following pages, under
my supervision.

Mr. Sebastian Matthew Mrs. Mahua Das Gupta

English Principal

_________________ _________________

External

_________________
 Interview of the shopkeeper
1) Why did you not go to mecca even after getting
enough money?

“I was afraid that I wouldn’t know what to do once I

had achieved my dream. It’s the thought of mecca
that keeps me alive. I’m afraid that once my dream is
realized, I’ll have no reason to go on living.”

2) Why did you decide to set up a shop for selling

crystals?

“Since I was young I was very interested into the

crystals and the effect they have. When I was small
all I wanted to do was to put together enough
money to start this shop and that one day I would be
rich enough to go to Mecca.”

3) Why were you reluctant to implement the boy’s idea

of expanding the shop further?

“I don’t like much change. I am content with my

small business and if we make a mistake we aren’t as
 rich that it wont affect us. We will have to love with
it.”

4) Will you ever go to mecca?

“Maybe one day. It is an obligation that I have to

follow after all. But as I said I’m afraid I won’t have
any reason to do live on once my final obligation is
fulfilled. But after seeing the boy, it maybe sooner
than before.”

5) What are you planning to do once the boy leaves?

“well ill miss having someone to talk with. But he

has his dreams which he much accomplish. I am just
an old man running a crystal shop. I will continue my
business and hopefully keep it growing as Santiago
wanted me to.”

6) Do you have any more ideas of further expanding

the shop?

“Not as off this moment. And I’m still not completely

fine with changes. Now more so than ever since
 Santiago has left and I have no one to discuss the
new ideas with. But if someday my heart says so for
some idea I definitely will.”

7) Would you like to see the boy again?

“Without a doubt. I loved spending time with him

and got to learn a lot hopefully taught him
something and had great time while having
conversations with him. Would love to have a chat
with him again one of these days.”

8) Would you be interested in knowing what all new

things the boy learnt since he last met you and any
new philosophy he has developed from then?

“For sure. He seemed to know a lot and mature for

his age. He was really motivated by his dream and
had drive in his eyes. I would love to know what all
he had learnt in his journey to achieve his dream.”
9) How did you feel when the boy left after so long?
Did you wish he stayed or you wanted to go along
with him? Seeing him follow his dreams did you get
the motivation to do so yourself?

“I was certainly a bit emotional seeing him go but

didn’t want to make him upset as he was heading to
fulfil his dream and wanted to see him off with a
smile. I wish he stayed a bit longer, but well I would
always say that and I don’t want to hold him back
from full filling his dream. I am a little bit more
motivated to realize my dream seeing how
motivated he was but I still am not planning to go to
mecca anytime soon, but certainly sooner than
before.”

10) Were you happy from the success of the shop?

“I was hesitant at first to implement Santiago’s

idea’s as if they fail we would have to live with that
but when the idea worked I was relived and happy
but also afraid that I would have to chase after
money from now if I wanted to keep the shop
 running and won’t have the peace of being a small
shop anymore.”

11) Do ever feel lonely or a feeling of emptiness

from inside?

“Not yet as I still have a shop to run and have to go

to Mecca. But I’m afraid that’s what would happen
once I realize my dream which is why I haven’t gone
to mecca yet.”

12) Do you think you could find a new purpose in

life?

“I don’t know yet. I would like to hop so as I don’t

want to live a meaningless life without any purpose
but for now my purpose is to go to Mecca. I’m afraid
of taking that risk of losing my purpose by going
there.
 Scene where the boy turned into the wind
The boy looked at the Horizon towards to distant
mountains. And at the dunes and plants that insisted on
living where survival seemed impossible. He looked at
the desert which he knew so less off

1 Conversation with the desert

The Desert- “What do you want today? Didn’t you
already spend enough time looking at me yesterday?”
The Boy- “Somewhere in the desert you are holding the
person I love, (pauses) I want to return to her, and I need
your help so that I can turn myself into the wind.”
After hearing the boy, the desert asks the boy
The Desert- “What is love?”
The Boy- “Love is the falcon’s flight over your sands. He
knows your rocks; your dunes and you are generous to
him”
The desert argues saying
The desert – “for years, I cared for his game, feeding it
with the little water I have, and then I show him where
the game is, and one day, and one day the falcon dives
out of the sky, and takes away what I created. So that’s
what love is?”
The boy-“you created the game to nourish the falcon in
the first place, and the falcon then nourishes the man
and eventually, man will nourish your sands, where the
game will once again flourish. That’s how the world goes,
that’s what love is.”
The desert is confused, the boy says
The boy- “I may not understand what I am talking about
but at least you understand that somewhere in your
sands there is a woman waiting for me and that’s why I
need to turn myself into the wind”
The desert didn’t answer for while and then said that he
could bring the sand but alone he cant do anything
The desert- “you have to ask help from the wind”

2 Conversation with the wind

A breeze began to blow, The tribesmen watched the boy
from a distance, talking among themselves in a language
that the boy couldn’t understand.
The wind approached the boy and touched his face
The alchemist smiled
The boy – “Help me, one day you carried the voice of my
loved one to me”
The wind- “who taught you to speak the language of the
desert and the wind?”
The boy answered my heart and asked the wind’s help to
transform him into wind. The wind denies since it
believes they are two very different things.
The boy thinks this is not true and says
The boy- “I learned the alchemist’s secrets in my travels.
We were all made by the same hand, and we have to
reach the same soul. I want to be like to reach every
corner of the world, cross the seas, blow away the sands
that cover my treasure and carry the voice of the loved”
The wind- “I heard what you were talking about with the
alchemist, but people can’t turn themselves into the
wind”
The boy- “just teach me to be the wind for a few
moments so that we can talk about the limitless
possibilities of people and the winds”
The wind was a proud being it felt that it has no limits yet
here was a boy saying that there were other things the
wind should be able to do. The wind became irritated a
commenced to blow harder raising the desert sand.
The wind acknowledged its own limitations and said it
would be better to ask the heaven with that it blew with
all its strength and the sky filled with sand and the sun
turned into a golden disk.

3Conversation with the sun

The boy- If you know about love, you must also know
about the soul of the world because it’s made of love
The sun – From where I am I can see the soul of the
world. It communicates with my soul, and together we
cause the plants to grow. I learned how to love. I know if
I came even a little bit closer to the earth, everything
there would die, and the Soul of the World would no
longer exist. So we contemplate each other, and we want
each other, and I give it life and warmth, and it gives me
my reason for living.
The boy – You are wise, because you observe everything
from a distance, but you don’t know about love. If there
hadn’t been a sixth day, man would not exist; copper
would always be just copper, and lead just lead. It’s true
that everything has its Personal Legend, but one day that
Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has to
transform itself into something better, and to acquire a
new Personal Legend, until, someday, the Soul of the
World becomes one thing only.
The sun thought about that a decided to shine more
brightly. The wind which was enjoying the conversation,
started to blow with great force.
The sun- Why do you think I don’t know about love?
The boy - Because it’s not love to be static like the desert,
nor is it love to roam the world like the wind. And it’s not
love to see everything from a distance, like you do. Love
is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the
World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the
Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that
it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own
passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the
World, and the world we live in will be either better or
worse, depending on whether we become better or
worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in.
Because when we love, we always strive to become
better than we are.
The sun – so what do you want from me?
The boy- I want your help to turn me to into the wind
The sun was unable to help the boy turn into wind. After
thinking for a minute the sun tells the boy to speak to the
hand who wrote it all.

4 The boy with the hand that wrote all

The wind screamed and blew harder than ever. The tents
were being blown from their ties to the earth, and the
animals were being freed from their tethers. On the cliff,
the men clutched at each other as they sought to keep
from being blown away.
The boy turned to the hand that wrote all. As he did so,
he sensed that the universe had fallen silent, and he
decided not to speak. The boy began to pray. It was a
prayer that he had never said before, because it was a
prayer without words or pleas, the boy understood that
the desert, the wind, and the sun were also trying to
understand the signs written by the hand, and were
seeking to follow their paths, and to understand what
had been written on a single emerald.
He knew only the hand could perform miracles, or
transform the sea into a desert…or a man into the wind.
The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and
saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that
the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy,
could perform miracles.
The wind blew that day like never before. For
generations thereafter, the Arabs recounted the legend
of a boy who had turned himself into the wind, almost
destroying a military camp, in defiance of the most
powerful chief in the desert.
When the wind ceased to blow, everyone looked to the
place where the boy had been. But he was no longer
there; he was standing next to a sand-covered sentinel,
on the far side of the camp.
The men were terrified at his sorcery. But there were
two people who were smiling: the alchemist, because he
had found his perfect disciple, and the chief, because
that disciple had understood the glory of God.
 Book Review

1) Summary
The story begins with a young Spanish shepherd having a
recurring dream. It happens each time he sleeps under a
Sycamore tree outside of an old church building. In the
dream, the boy hears from a child that he must go to the
Egyptian pyramids to seek a treasure.
After meeting with a gypsy woman to find out what the
dream means, the boy is surprised when she says he
needs to go to Egypt.
To make matters even stranger, an old man named
Melchizedek tells the boy the same thing. This time,
however, the man uses the word “Personal Legend” to
explain what the young man must do.
After some deliberation, the boy decides to follow his
Personal Legend and head for the pyramids. He sells his
sheep and begins his journey by going to Tangier.
Throughout the remainder of the book, he is constantly
running into obstacles to his Personal Legend. But at
each step overcomes them to find success and fulfilment.
The boy soon arrives in Tangier. The culture and the
language, which he cannot speak, amaze him. This leads
to someone stealing all his money. Even worse, he fears
he’s made the wrong decision and almost heads back for
Spain.
But remembering what Melchizedek taught him, the
young man pays attention to the omens all around him.
He recommits to his Personal Legend and begins working
for a local crystal merchant.
The merchant recognizes the boy’s presence as a good
omen and listens to his counsel that the man should take
more risks with the business. This pays off and the two
eventually become rich.
The merchant knows what his Personal Legend is and
recognizes that the boy’s presence is an omen that he
should go after it. But he’s too afraid to follow it and
stays where he is.
In contrast, the young man uses his money to
courageously continue on his journey to Egypt.
As the young man’s journey continues, he meets an
Englishman who tells him of an alchemist that can turn
lead into gold. Eventually, the two stop in Al-Fayoum as
part of the caravan they travel with.
While there, the boy uses his newfound ability to read
omens to foresee an attack on the oasis. This catches the
attention of the alchemist. The two eventually meet and
he becomes a mentor to the young man. The alchemist
also declares the importance of Personal Legends.
With what he learns from the alchemist, the boy turns
himself into the wind when a tribe of Arab soldiers
captures them and threatens to kill them. The alchemist
continues to teach the boy, but eventually they must
part ways before the young man reaches Egypt.
When he gets to Egypt he begins digging for his treasure
only to be immediately beaten and robbed again. One of
the men tells him of his own dream in which he would
find treasure under a tree in an abandoned church in
Spain.
The boy recognizes this omen and now knows where his
treasure really is. He returns to Spain to find it in the
exact spot he had his first dream and uses it to continue
to fulfil his Personal Legend.
 2)Character sketch:
(i) Santiago
Santiago is the protagonist of the The Alchemist. Born in
a small town in Andalusia, Santiago attends the seminary
as a boy but longs to travel the world. He finally gets the
courage to ask his father's permission to become a
shepherd so that he can travel the fields of Andalusia.
One day, he meets a mysterious man in the town of
Tarifa, who sends him on a journey to the other side of
Africa.
Santiago is a curious boy whose open mind makes him
particularly suited to finding his Personal Legend. He also
values his freedom very highly, which is why he became a
shepherd and why he is reticent to get involved in things
which threaten his freedom. In the end, he realizes that
playing it safe is often more threatening to his freedom
than taking a risk.

(ii)Melchizedek
Melchizedek is the king of Salem, a mysterious far-off
land. Melchizedek appears to Santiago in the town
square of Tarifa, where he tells Santiago about the Soul
of the World and his Personal Legend for the first time.
Melchizedek always appears to people who are trying to
live their Personal Legend, even if they don't know it.
While he appears at first to be dressed in common Arab
dress, at one point he pulls aside his cloak to reveal a
gold breastplate encrusted with precious stones. He also
gives Santiago the magical stones Urim and Thummim.

(iii)The Englishman
Santiago meets the Englishman on the caravan to Al-
Fayoum. The Englishman is trying to become a great
alchemist and is traveling to Al-Fayoum to study with a
famous alchemist who is rumoured to be over 200 years
old and to have the ability to turn any metal into gold.
Santiago learns much about alchemy from the
Englishman, who lends Santiago his books while they
travel across the Sahara.

(iv)Fatima
A beautiful girl who lives at the Al-Fayoum oasis.
Santiago falls in love with her at the well there. He and
Fatima talk every day for several weeks, and finally he
asks her to marry him. Fatima, however, insists that he
seek out his Personal Legend before they marry. This
perplexes Santiago, but the Alchemist teaches him that
true love never gets in the way of one's Personal Legend.
If it does, then it is not true love.

(v)The Alchemist
Very powerful alchemist who lives at the Al-Fayoum oasis
in Egypt. Initially, Santiago hears about him through the
Englishman, but eventually Santiago reveals himself to be
the Alchemist's true disciple. The Alchemist dresses in all
black and uses a falcon to hunt for game. The Alchemist
is also in possession of the Elixir of Life and the
Philosopher's Stone.

(vi)The Shopkeeper
Gives Santiago a job in Tangiers after he has been
robbed. Santiago takes the job at the crystal shop and
learns much about the shopkeeper's attitude toward life
and the importance of dreaming. The shopkeeper, while
generally afraid to take risks, is a very kind man and
understands Santiago's quest - sometimes more than
Santiago himself. This is the case when the shopkeeper
tells Santiago that he will not return to Spain, since it it is
not his fate.

3)About the author

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and
attended a Jesuit school. At his parents' wishes, Coelho
enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of
becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and
lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America,
North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started
using drugs in the 1960s.
Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter,
composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and
Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. Composing with Raul led to
Coelho being associated with magic and occultism, due
to the content of some songs. He is often accused that
these songs were rip-offs of foreign songs not well
known in Brazil at the time. In 1974, by his account, he
was arrested for "subversive" activities and tortured by
the ruling military government. Coelho also worked as an
actor, journalist and theatre director before pursuing his
writing career. While trying to overcome his
procrastination about launching his writing career,
Coelho decided, "If I see a white feather today, that is a
sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new
book." The following year, Coelho wrote The
Alchemist and published it through a small Brazilian
publishing house that made an initial print run of 900
copies and decided not to reprint it. He subsequently
found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication
of his next book Brida, The Alchemist took
off. HarperCollins decided to publish the book in 1994.
Later it became an international bestseller. In a 2009
interview with the Syrian Forward Magazine, Coelho
stated that the Sufi tradition had been an influence on
him, particularly when writing The Alchemist and
later The Zahir.
Thank you