The Alchemist_Mehraeil Zaki

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a Rudolfo Anaya said is " an adventure story full of magic and wisdom" and I could not agree with her more. This was the first book I ever read in my life and I come back to it every time I am trying to figure something out.

This book has been a great success for many years now and the facts behind the book itself are very interesting. So here are some fun facts:

1. It took Coelho only 2 weeks to write this book, because as he says, "it was already written in his soul" and you can really see that when you read it. 

2. He did not gain the success quickly however, it took him a while but now it has been translated into over 80 languages.

















In order to understand the philosophy of the Alchemist especially, I find it very important to learn a little into Paulo Coelho's life: 
1. He was born to catholic parents and grew up with the catholic faith which is reflected in the Alchemist.
2. He was a rebellious child, which made his parents turn him into an asylum 3 times.
3. He was also put into jail 3 times for his political activism.

The reason I chose this book is because it talks a lot about wisdom and now that we all know the meaning of philosophy, I found this book to be the most fitting to present to a philosophy class.

The philosophy in this book is known as Life Philosophy and the whole book revolves around a young boy trying to achieve his Personal Legend. The book revolves around this whole idea of Personal Legend or Personal Calling which as the book describes it, "it is God's blessing, it is the path God chose for you here on earth where when we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend." The personal calling of the traveling boy in the alchemist from what I have read so far is to find his treasure that he has no idea about. This brings up an important debate between whether each person has a destiny or not? and more importantly who makes this destiny, us or God? According to Coelho, he has already made a decision and leans more towards Destiny and God being the one who planned it from the beginning of times. Paulo argues that one finds his own philosophy in pursuit of his destiny because he thinks that the journey of getting to where you are destined to be is extremely hard and challenging and makes you questions a lot of things and made serious decisions which all brings it back to making one's philosophy.

There are certain points that I would want to touch on that help explain the alchemist even better: 
He talks about the 4 obstacles in life which are: 
1. Everything we want is impossible
2. We know what we want but in pursuing that we might hurt who we love
3. Fear of failure
4. Feel unworthy to get what we want

Overall the alchemist is a dreamy book, it is not for everyone but it is for those who are at a point in their life where they want to let go of everything. I am looking forward to reach the ending of this book and know if he finds his treasure or not.

Discussion Questions:
1. Based on what do you think we should live our lives, based on destiny or free will?
2. Building off the previous questions, do you agree with the idea of a personal calling?
3. In the Alchemist, the king man who tells the traveling boy where he can find the treasure says, " when you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve it." Do you agree or disagree and why?

Quiz Questions: 
1. What religion did Paulo Coelho grow up in?
2. What is the 2nd obstacle in life?
3. What is the 3rd obstacle in life?
4. What is this idea of Personal Calling that Paulo explains in his book?