"The Alchemist" Summary

The Alchemist is a novel that is written by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is a medium-sized novel that is about a young shepherd named Santiago who is in search of this treasure which is at the Egyptian pyramids. On his way he learns a few moral lessons and he is also taught about one's Personal Legend.

He first meets Melchizedek, who claims to be an old kind from a land that is far away. This man gives Santiago two stones, Urim and Thummim, which play as a big symbol throughout Santiago's journey. Then, Santiago leaves for Africa in search of his treasure, when he arrives he is robbed for all of his money and he is left with nothing. After this incident, Santiago just feels like he should turn around and give up, but he remembers the wise man, so he stays determined and then gets a job at a crystal glass shop. Santiago works at the crystal shop for about a year and learns a lot about life and his Personal Legend. After making enough money Santiago then leaves the glass shop to return home and buy a new herd of sheep, but at the last minute he changes his mind and decides that since he made it this far that he would just join a caravan that would cross the desert and place him in Egypt.

Once Santiago joins the caravan he meets an Englishman, who studied everything about Alchemy and is learning to become an Alchemist. Throughout the caravan's journey through the desert the Englishman teaches Santiago some of the secrets of Alchemy. Also while on this journey to Egypt Santiago meets a girl named Fatima who he quickly falls in love with. Santiago asks Fatima to marry him and she accepts his proposal, but tells him that she is a desert girl and he is in search of his treasure and she wants him to find his treasure before they get married.

Santiago then has a vision of a battle that is coming to the oasis from a tribe. Santiago meets the 200 year-old Alchemist and the Alchemist tells Santiago some hints that would lead him to his treasure. Santiago arrives at the pyramids and begins to dig for his treasure, but he is robbed and beaten bad by a tribe. A robber does ask Santiago what he doing around here and Santiago tells him that he had a dream that his treasure was buried here and the robber tells his that he had the same exact dream, but his was buried in Spain. It is at that time when Santiago realizes that his treasure was in Spain all along.

The book then makes a jump in time and Santiago is back at the church digging a hole by the tree where he had his original dream. He then finds a treasure chest full of gold and it's plenty enough for Fatima and Santiago to live for the rest of their lives.

I did like this book because it had an interesting story behind it and it got me hooked after I really started to pay attention. I would prefer people to read this book because it teaches you good morals about life and also teaches you to never give up on your dreams.
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Blogging About Anything

It was the begining of July 2003, when I was leaving my house to go to the shore with my Dad and there was a cop at the house next to me looking around the yard. I noticed that it was my old D.A.R.E, so we stopped to say hello. Officer Pratt came over to the car and started to say that the neighbor's girlfriend had went missing and her car was found in an unfamiliar ampartment complex. He also showed my dad and I that the garage door was opened about 2 inches and there were flies going in and out of the garage. My dad made a joking remark, "What? Do you think there are dead bodies in there?" The cop turned back and said, "I hope not." I will never forget the look of fear and nervousness as he walked back towards the house.

My dad and I left for the shore and let Officer Pratt finish what he was doing. When me and my dad finally arrived at the shore my mom called. She was in tears and told me that the whole family was dead next door. We hurried back home and it looked like a festival out front of my house. News reporters were recording on my front lawn and it seemed like the whole neighborhood was on my street. The father had killed both of his children, his girlfriend, and himself. The daughter was found badly decomposed tucked in her bed, but the cause of her death was unknown. The girldfriend was found stuffed between the washer and dryer and had been beaten to death with a baseball bat. As for the father and son, the police found them in the car dead of carbon-monoxide poisoning along with pitcures of the father and kids and a six page sucide note. After all the commotion was over there was still a cop that had to watch the property over-night to make sure no one stepped onto the scene. My dad and I stayed up with him and kept him company. Ever since that day it is weird to look at neighbors the same.

Invading Privacy: Can it be Justified?

I feel that is OK to invade someone's privacy depending on what type of situation it was. In Hamlet, I feel that it was not OK for Polonius to steal Hamlet's love letter to Ophelia and read it to Claudius because that is Ophelia's and Hamlet's relationship and quite frankly, it's no one's business, but theirs.



For instance, one way that is justified to invade someone's privacy is if you are still living in your parent's home and they pay for your phone bill, I feel that they have the right to check your text messages if they're suspicious of their child selling drugs or such things like that. They pay for your phone and you live under their roof, therefore they have the right to invade your privacy to an extent. Now if there was an instance where the parents' daughter has a diary or a journal I feel that there is no way to justify to go through the child's diary.



Also another way that it is OK to invade someone's privacy if there is a suspicion that dangerous activity may occur. For example, if there is a group of kids that is planning to bring guns to a school or something like that, then i feel it is alright for the cops, parents, or principal to invade the kids' privacy for the safety of others.

England Torture

In Shakespere's England, torture was the punishment that was given to people who broke the laws. The torture the England government had used was widely ranged from public shame to the most brutal and gruesome torture methods. The government of England used torture as punishment to intimidate and scare anyone who had ideas of commiting crimes. A few torture methods that were used were The Iron Maidan, The Ducking Stool, The French Rack, and the worst of all, being drawn and quartered. The Iron Maidan, a tomb looking machine, was lined with long spikes inside on its walls and the victims were put in the and the doors of the machine would shut. Thus, the sharp spikes would impail the victims body.

I feel that capital and corporal punishment does work. In England they used this punishment to scare ppeople and it did work. For example, if 50 people were going to rob a store and the non-capital punishment was 5 years in jail, all 50 peopple might do it compared to the capital punishment was going to be torture, then only 30 people might commit this crime. Therefore capital and corporal punishment does work to an extent. People aren't afraid of doing jail time, but when they think of the torture they would have to go through for commiting a crime they might think twice before they commit that crime.

Background Music To My Favorite Odyssey Scene

My favorite scene from the Odyssey was Book 22: Slaughter in the Hall. I like this scene the most because it is a great action scene and because this is when Odysseus arrives home and confronts the suitors. It is sort of how the happy ending starts. During this scene the suitors are trying to win a arrow shooting contest, so they can be the king of Ithaca and Penelope's husband. No one can even string the arrow, except the old beggar which is really Odysseus in disguise. The doors to the room then shut and Odysseus shoots the bow throw all 12 axes. Then his disguise is removed and the suitors realize who he is. That is where Odysseus and Telemachus start to kill all of the suitors and try to retake his home from the suitors.

I like this scene the most because it is the best action scene in the book, and it's the most goriest. I can't really relate to this scene because I never had to fight suitors off of my land. I just chose this scene because of how action-packed and intense it was. This scene is inspiring to me because it shows Odysseus standing up for his land and home and killing all of the men who had tried to take it over because they thought he would never return home from his voyage to Troy. Everyone had counted on Odysseus to never return and he finally came home and took control of his kingdom.

A song that I would use to go with this scene would be like a hard metal song. I would use a song from Mudvayne called "The End of All Things to Come". I would use this song because it has a hard rock beat that would go good with a gory murder scene. Also the song talks about killing everything, which is sort of how Odysseus looks at the suitors. The link to the lyrics is, http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-end-of-all-things-to-come-lyrics-mudvayne.html

My neighborhood that I call home is Magnolia. It's a small town and is somewhat clean. We have all the stores necessary like Wawa, McDonald's, Crown Fried Chicken, Water Ice factory, and a few more. We also have two parks, Otterbranch a.k.a OB Park and Albertson.

I love living in my town. I wouldn't choose any other place. One thing why I love living in Magnolia is because of how small it is. All of my boys litteraly live within a 2 block radius of my house.

Because of these reasons I feel that Magnolia is defintly worth fighting for. I grew up here and this is my home so if anyone tries to intrude or harm it then god help them. Also i feel this way because everyone from my town feel the same towards this question whether Magnolia is worth fighting for.