Santiago is a shepherd in the rolling hills of Andalucia. He loves his flock, but can't help but notice the limited nature of their existence. Seeking only food and water, they never lift their heads to admire the green hills or the sunsets. Santiago's parents have continually struggled for the basics of life, and have smothered their own ambitions accordingly. They live in beautiful Andalucia, which attracts tourists to its quaint villages and rolling hills, but for them it is no place of dreams.Santiago, on the other hand, can read and wants to travel. He goes into town one day to sell some of his flock, and encounters a tramp-king and a Gypsy woman. They urge him to 'follow his omens' and leave the world he knows. The Gypsy points him towards the Pyramids of Egypt, where she says he will find treasure. Crazily, he believes her. He sells his flock and sets sail. Sure enough, disaster is met early on when a thief in Tangier robs him of his savings. So much hard work and discipline for a little adventure! But strangely, Santiago is not devastated, apprehending a greater feeling - the security of knowing he is on the right path. He is now living a different life, in which every day is new and satisfying. He keeps reminding himself of what he was told in the market before he left: 'When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.'
The book does not get away from the fact that dreams have a price, but as Coelho has noted in interviews, not living your dreams also has a price. For the same money, he said, you can either buy a horrible jacket that doesn't fit, or one that suits you and looks right. There will be difficulties in whatever you do in life, but it is better to have problems that make sense because they are part of what you are trying to achieve. Otherwise, difficulties just seem insidious, one terrible setback after another. The dream-follower has a greater responsibility, that of handling their own freedom. That may not seem like such a price, but it does require a level of awareness we are maybe not used to.
The Alchemist is remarkable for being a love story that renounces the idea that romantic love must be the central thing in your life. Each person has a destiny to pursue that exists independently of other people. It is the thing you would do, or be, even if you have all the love and money you want. The treasure Santiago seeks is of course the symbol of the personal dream or destiny, but he is happy to give up on it when he finds the woman of his dreams in a desert oasis. Yet the alchemist tells him that the love of his oasis girlfriend will only be proved real if she is willing to support his treasure search.
Santiago's dilemma is about the conflict between love and personal dreams; too often we see the love relationship as the meaning of our life, but the obsession with romantic coupling can cut us off from a life more connected with the rest of the world. But surely the heart has needs? Live your life around the dream, Coelho says, and their will be more 'heart' in your life than you can now comprehend: '...no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity'. Romantic love is important, but is not your duty as is the pursuit of your dream. Only through devotion to the dream is the 'Soul of the World' revealed to us, the knowledge which destroys loneliness and gives power.
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