#The alchemist by paulo coelho series

Coelho is alluding to the potential vain found in love, and to be wary of the cause of one’s emotions. His superficial attraction is much like the Greek story of Narcissus Coelho includes in the prologue: a warning of the destructive nature and effects of self-love and vanity. As a lonely shepherd that is constantly traveling, he is plagued with the desire to settle down with her, but Coelho includes this pain as a valuable lesson to readers. He is fascinated and baffled by her but mostly is interested in her because she was impressed that he could read and listened to his stories. For example, as Santiago is a traveling shepherd, he encounters the daughter of a merchant he is bartering with. Coelho develops such characters and includes their interactions with Santiago as a method of discretely conveying his themes and lessons to the reader.

#The alchemist by paulo coelho series

The story of his travels and challenges equate to an overall extended metaphor for the reader to follow and reflect upon.Īdditionally, this plot is told through a series of character interactions, rather than events, as seen in the encounter with the merchant’s daughter, the fortune teller, and Melchizedek to be more relatable. In this section, Santiago is introduced, whose journey is to realize and fulfill his Personal Legend. The Alchemist is a parable, as it uses a relatable story to develop a moral lesson. Furthermore, the literary devices presented within these sentences have a distinguished purpose: form a relatable story to develop a moral lesson.

In other words, the simple sentences make the literary devices stand out, such as the use of personification, irony, metaphors, allusions, and themes Coelho sprinkles throughout the novel. His sentence structure in itself is a method of captivating his audience, as their simple structure is easy for readers to understand, and therefore making it easier to comprehend the intricate metaphors and rhetorical devices.

The novel is told in past tense, which provides him with a storyteller presentation, establishing a knowledgeability and trust in Coelho, that make readers pay attention to his blunt and straightforward sentences. To explain, a significant technique of Coelho is his use of style and language. Through the character interactions, symbols, and allusions presented in the first few pages of this novel, Coelho is able to present various lessons to the reader. In the opening of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Coelho uses numerous stylistic techniques to not only inspire his readers but also to instill his message through thematic elements.