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In the opening chapter of the book we are introduced to Santiago, a young shepherd in the regions of Andalucia, Spain. As a boy Santiago was sent to school by his parents as they thought an education would give him a better life, however, against his fathers wishes he decided to become a shepherd. This was because he had a dream to travel and he thought that becoming a shepherd was a perfect opportunity to do this. At this point we see that Santiago has a lot of determination but is also quite immature as he did not take on board his fathers opinion. On his travels Santiago falls in love with a girl whom he met when selling wool to her father. He reads to her and she is impressed but bewildered by a shepherd that can read and write.
Throughout the first chapter he continuously talks about the girl and is looking forward to returning to the village to meet her again. This shows a caring side to Santiago and the innocence of first love. One night Santiago has a dream about finding treasure in the pyramids of Egypt, but before he finds out where the treasure is buried he wakes up. Santiago becomes perturbed about this dream as he has had the dream twice before and it always occurred at the same place, in the grounds of an old ruined church. Santiago wonders if the dream is telling him to go and fulfil his destiny.
This is probably the most important part of the book, as the rest of the book is based on the happenings on his trip. This part shows Santiago's vivid imagination and his strong will. As Santiago is on his way to go and see the girl, he goes through the small village of Tarifa and he remembers that there is a women there that can read peoples dreams. Santiago goes to see her but she tricks him in to telling her about the dream, but Santiago doesnt realise.
She takes no payment but insists that when he finds the treasure he must give her one tenth of it. Santiago stupidly agrees. However, he still was not convinced that he should look for the treasure. This shows Santiago's naively by trusting an old gypsy. Santiago then meets an old man who claims to be a king and this king seems to be able to read people and he then teaches Santiago about the omens and helps him on his way to Egypt.
The king then gives Santiago two very special stones called Url and Thummium which can help read the omens in exchange for six of Santiago's sheep. He then persuades Santiago to fulfil his destiny. This is one of the first times when we see Santiago's will to learn things as he was of full attention when learning about the omens. Santiago's intuition makes him trust this man and he forgets all about the reason for him being in Tarif to see the daughter of the wool buyer and decides to follow his destiny. This is also one of the main turning points as this is when Santiago leaves for Egypt. The journey from Spain to Egypt is a long one and Santiago's first stop after getting off the ship is Africa.
He arrives tired and hungry. A young boy, about the same age as Santiago, offers to be his guide and take him Egypt. Santiago is delighted and cant believe his luck to find someone so quickly who wishes to help him and stupidly gives the boy all of his money in advance. The boy quickly disappears into the crowd not to be seen again. Santiago was now left in a foreign country with no money for food or anywhere to sleep... This is the second time when we witness Santiago's naively where he trusted the first person he met.
Santiago had to stay in Africa as he had no money to go back. Santiago then manages to get a job working in crystal shop. The shop at the beginning is very dirty and the owner had almost given up hope of selling anything but Santiago turned that around by doing many things. One of the main things that Santiago did was he didnt feel the shop was busy enough so he made a small stand that could be put outside the shop to attract customers, and it worked. The shop became very busy and made the crystal merchant happy. This showed Santiago's business side of him.
Also while he was working here Santiago realised that for most of the time Santiago was speaking Spanish and the merchant Arabic but somehow they understood each other. Then Santiago came up with a theory that there must be a language that doesnt depend on words. Here we see how Santiago is maturing and absorbing information. Santiago was working in the crystal merchants for months and he then decided that with all the money he had made he was going to go back to Spain.
But the crystal merchant talked Santiago into fulfilling his destiny and go to Egypt. Santiago listened to the man and changed is mind. This shows that Santiago has become a bit more mature as he is starting to listen to other peoples opinions. When Santiago went down to the caravan (a large group of people all travelling to one destination on foot or horse back) he met an Englishman who was reading books on alchemy. Santiago befriended him and showed an interest in the books that the Englishman was reading. The Englishman then tells Santiago that he is going to the Al Fayoum oasis as it is said that the oldest alchemist lives there.
This again shows Santiago's determination to learn new things all the time. Santiago was then told that the caravan was only going to the Al Fayoum oasis but he could carry on himself from there. On the journey Santiago read the Englishman's books very quickly and he learned that the liquid part of alchemy is called the Elixir of life and this can give you eternal life and that the solid part is the Philosophers Stone which is a substance that can turn any metal into gold. When I first read this part of the book I had never heard of alchemy but now I have, and it has been really interesting. As the caravan neared its destination there was a lot of talk about war between two tribal leaders in the area. As the days passed people were talking to each other less and less everyday.
But then Santiago's new friend, who was a camel driver, explained to Santiago that for everything to be happy you must concentrate on the present and not the past or the future. Here the book is starting to get better as a lot of meaningful thoughts from different people are being told to Sant...
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Research essay sample on Part Of The Book One Of The Main
