The Alchemist written by Paulo Coelho is an adventure novel that narrates the shepherd Santiago’s journey toward seeking his “Personal Legend”, or ultimate dream of finding treasure around the Egyptian Pyramids. In part one and two of the story, Santiago embarks on his distant adventure toward the Sahara desert. On his way up on the hill, he encounters an elderly merchant who sells crystals in a small plain shop. Realizing the heavy expense of his trip, Santiago decides to work for the merchant in order to earn money to buy his daily supplies and stolen sheep. The merchant then agrees and employs him as a staff for cleaning his dusty crystals. During Santiago’s employment with the merchant, Santiago offers useful suggestions that bring the crystal shop good omen. However, as the business continues to prosper, the old merchant insists that he doesn’t want any more change or development of his shop because he’s used to the small controllable size of it. Sticking toward the shop’s own profit, Santiago successfully persuades the merchant to sell tea in his crystal glass. As customers gradually increase, the merchant starts hiring several more employees. One day, the merchant tells Santiago his dream of setting up his own shop, making money, and making his pilgrimage to Mecca, which is the ideal destiny of every Muslim. He says that he never fulfills his dream because if he did, he fears that the rest of his life would be monotonous. Months pass, Santiago has become rich and decides to return to Tarifa with all his earnings, continuing his journey forward.
Omens guide our way both toward success or failure. Despite the result might be undesirable, we should always learn to recognize those subtle omens that encircle us. When we stop focusing omens by ignoring their existence, they would eventually fade into disappearance. That’s what applies to the crystal merchant’s problem in the story. In the Alchemist, omens symbolize the unity of nature, whenever good omens occur, good things will happen. In the beginning, Melchizedek, the King of Salem, consistently reminds Santiago to be aware of good omens that would help guide him toward his personal legend. Santiago listens to him truthfully and follows his gnosis throughout the novel without any disturbance. However, the crystal merchant fails to follow his intuition by displaying his careless attitude toward omens. Even though he recognizes Santiago as a good omen that would assist his business, he remains hopeless of his mission of visiting Mecca, which seems an impossible destination. After Santiago joins the Merchant, Santiago’s own dream starts to come in sight, with some implementary hope and course. It’s essential to remember the importance of omens, whether being theistic or not, because it works as a stimulator toward us following our intuitions.
Realizing our dreams doesn’t signify our final success. In order for the fulfillment of dreams, we need to solidify and strive for it after recognizing it. Sometimes, people think they know their dreams, but in reality, they have no plans, no clues about anything. The novel uses the crystal merchant as an example of a mere day-dreamer. The crystal merchant demonstrates no solid practices, efforts, or even small progresses toward his personal legend. He uses “being busy” as an excuse for not showing progress toward his goal. His anxiety of his dream’s failure also contributes significantly toward his choice of making no progress. Conversely, Santiago seems to stick to his intuition and follows his steps toward success that he creates in his mind. Apparently, Santiago appears to be more positive about his dream while the crystal merchant remains in his hopeless immersion.
The most egregious problem that the crystal merchant offends is not knowing how to deal with changes, overcome difficulties, and undergo disappointments. We have to accept the fact that the world is changing constantly. Change is inevitable in personal growth because while we evolve, we continue to make mistakes that help us acknowledge our faults. Therefore, facing changes is not always a bad thing since it helps us to cope, accept, and grow. However, the crystal merchant’s self-isolation from outer influence prohibits him from achieving his personal legend. In the story, the crystal merchant refutes every suggestion that Santiago proposed that may lead to a booming business. Primarily, Santiago suggests he clean the dusty crystal glass to create aesthetic satisfaction, but the merchant doesn’t trust him and thinks that he will break the glass during sanitization. Subsequently, when Santiago notices there’s not many customers, he immediately thinks of having an outer crystal exhibition to attract more customers. Opposing his recommendation, the crystal merchant is afraid of people bumping the crystals by accident. On the third suggestion about selling tea placed in crystal glasses on the hill, the merchant finally expressed his main reason. He contends that he doesn’t want any expansion of his small shop because he is used to the small controllable size of it. Instead of getting closer toward his dream with the assistance of his factotum, he chooses to stay conservative, waiving his dream. It’s crucial to possess critical thinking like Santiago and not to avoid transitions like the crystal merchant. In the end, the willed person with an open-heart is always the most productive in life.
The crystal merchant in The Alchemist is a representative of a day-dreamer giving off his pursuit of his personal legend. Through his careless, and meticulous attitude and behaviors toward Santiago, his exhibitions, and his business, we can infer that he’s not really yearning for achieving his dream. Instead, he prefers to stay his own “complacence”. Because of his feeling of fear, he missed a lot of possibilities of victory. Hence, it’s not a wise choice to give up our life intuitions and fear making mistakes. Being the opposite of the crystal merchant, Santiago exemplifies a lively spirit that perseveres his journey with courage. He sticks to the good omens he observes and believes in his fate as the holy God guides him toward glory. From his acts of helping the merchant, we can derive that he’s really up to exceeding his goal of finding treasure. Santiago displays personal development throughout the whole novel. Yet it is not all plain sailing, his journey in search of his personal legend seems auspicious.
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