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The Alchemist (Response)

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The Alchemist : Journal Entry #1 When the book began with the character’s name, Santiago, I was somewhat skeptical. I thought that the entire story may have been poorly written, given that translations aren’t always perfect due to grammatical differences between languages. But only within the first few moments of reading I found myself immersed into a simple and short, yet gripping, story of a young-adult’s search for destiny. When the author introduced Santiago as a shepherd travelling the land in search of nothing but a simple life, I was confused as of where he may be going with the story. When he mentions a merchant’s daughter that he has a slight infatuation with, I expected your typical love story: the boy meets a girl, the boy likes the girl, the boy tries to impress the girl, they find a mutual interest in each other, the boy makes a mistake, the girl gets upset, the boy tries to apologize, the apology is usually accepted, and then happily ever after. There may be a twist thrown somewhere in there, but nothing to get too excited about. Anyways, Santiago’s journey leads him far from that. It struck my interest that it turned out to be a philosophical writing, rather than a romance. The realism of Santiago as a character is great compared to some other readings. He provides me with someone I can surprisingly relate to. I didn’t think there would be much relation between me and a Spanish shepherd from maybe 500+ years ago. His decisions remind me that we are all still very human, with less individuality than we might think. Currently, as I am writing this, I have only just reached Part Two of the story. I’m not too sure what to expect right now, but I doubt it involves Santiago paying for a ticket back to his homeland and giving up on his dream just because of a few

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