The Alchemist and The Secret of Kells: Similar or Not?

        How can a film and a book about two different things be similar? Well, if one were to dig deep enough, they would find that the parable characteristics of certain stories can be very similar. A parable is a story that includes a hero who goes on a quest. Also, there are wise masters who help the heroes out along the way. Specifically, The Alchemist is a fiction book, and parable, that was written by Paulo Coelho in 1988. To summarize, it is about a boy named Santiago who goes out to the Pyramids, following his personal legend. He learns a lot about the “Soul of the World”, love, and many other things during his journey. In the end, he finds the treasure that he was looking for, and goes back to an oasis in the middle of the desert to marry Fatima, his true love. This book received many awards. Another story, The Secret of Kells, which is also a parable, is an animated feature film made in 2009 about a boy named Brendan who wants to become an illuminator and write in the Book of Iona, a celtic book, with the help of his friends, Brother Aidan and Aisling. It is an award winning movie. Even though there are many differences between the book and film, there are quite a few similarities between them because both stories contain similar elements of a parable and have many themes in common. 

 

First of all, The Alchemist and The Secret of Kells are similar parables, which, again, is a story including a hero who has a quest, and a wise master. The two heroes, Santiago and Brendan, are a lot alike because they are both alone in the world. Santiago traveled by himself most of the time when he was a shepherd and also during his journey, and Brendan is an orphan. They both have personal legends, or quests. Santiago’s is to find his treasure, and Brendan’s is to become an illuminator. The wise masters they have are the king who tells Santiago that a personal legend is “what you’ve always wanted to accomplish” (21), the alchemist, who helps Santiago out a lot during his journey, and Brother Aiden, who taught Brendan how to write in the book and become an illuminator. So the book and movie are similar because of their parable characteristics. 

 

One theme in the book and film was that love should never hold us back from pursuing personal dreams. Santiago had to leave people he loved, and Brendon did too. Santiago left Fatima to continue to the pyramids saying “I’m going away, and I want you to know that I’m coming back” (121), and left his family so that he could become a shepherd and see the beauty of the world. Brendan left Abbot Cellach to continue with Brother Aiden to become an illuminator. He also left the abbey after the vikings came when there were people falling off the burning path to the tower, because he needed to escape to write in the Book of Iona and follow his personal legend.

 

Another theme the book and film share is that “the secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never forget the drops of oil on one’s spoon” (32). The king talked about this during his story about the man who needed to be responsible, but have fun too, in The Alchemist. Basically, the king is saying that one should see the beauty of the world, but not forget about their responsibilities. Santiago fulfilled his personal legend, and then went back to Fatima, so he followed the metaphor by following his personal legend and being responsible, but having fun too. Brendan fulfilled his personal legend, and then went back to the abbey to see who was left alive, so he followed it also. However, Abbot Cellach was too responsible and cared more for building the wall around the abbey to protect the abbey than following his personal legend to become an illuminator; he wasn’t as happy that way.

 

This last theme that both of the stories share is that people who follow their dreams are more likely to achieve great happiness. Paulo Coelho acknowledged this throughout The Alchemist. It relates to both the book and film, because some people were happy because they followed their dreams, but some people weren’t. Santiago was happy when Coelho wrote “The boy stood up shakily, and looked once more at the Pyramids. They seemed to laugh at him, and he laughed back, his heart bursting with joy. Because now he knew where his treasure was” (167). He was also happy when he realized where his treasure was, on page 163 in The Alchemist. Brendan was happy when he wrote in the book, when he finally became an illuminator, and when he came back to the abbey to find that Abbot Cellach was still alive. Next, the crystal merchant was not happy because he didn’t go to Mecca, thus not following his personal legend. Finally, the Abbot wasn’t happy either because he didn’t follow his personal legend and become an illuminator; he stayed too responsible and built the wall instead.

 

My conclusion, then, is that there are many similarities between the two parables, The Alchemist and The Secret of Kells. I liked both of the stories, though the book a little better, but they have really similar themes because Santiago and Brendan are both following their personal legends, or dreams. Some other books similar to these are Harry Potter, the Percy Jackson series, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, because Brother Aiden said “Finish what you start,” and all of these books have a hero who has finished what they started. So, it is proven that a movie and film can have many similarities between them.

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Me and Santiago’s Stories Compared

 

Santiago’s Story

 

I started out simple

As a shepherd, but then

A dream changed my course

And that’s where my story begins

 

I traveled to Tangier

Where I was robbed

So I worked at a crystal shop

For almost a year, which was so long

 

I earned much commision

And traveled in a caravan

Across the desert to an oasis

With an alchemist (an Englishman)

 

At the oasis

I met Fatima, whom I wanted for a wife

But traveled to Egypt, after much thought

With the Alchemist, a wise man who knew much of life

 

I then reached the pyramids

But a gang beat me up

Talked of dreams of treasure

So I went back to the Sycamore tree, and dug my treasure up!

Sierra’s Story

I started life in Texas

And then we moved here

Trinidad School’s small, and though I love it all

Texas is still always near

 

I’ll take a trip to France some day

In many years yet to come

I’ll be there for many hours, and see the Eiffel Tower

But for now I learn some French from my mom

 

Next I’ll move to South California

Near the ocean, and the Sun

I’ll become a vet, that’s my personal legend’s bet

And have a lot of fun

 

Then I’ll find a husband

Have two kids, a boy and girl

we’ll live together, forever and ever

with the years going by in a whirl

 

Lastly I’ll see the wonders of the world

Many monuments, mountains, and more

I’ll hang glide, and have a nice ride

And everything, I will adore

The Date Trees in the Desert

 

 

“Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees, he thought” (page 88). I think that when Santiago thought this, he meant that there are some things in life you don’t realize how important they are until something different happens and then it hits you how important it actually is, but you had never thought about it that way until then. This thought Santiago had made me think of when I read a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book once, where there was a part when Greg wrote a picture book about a man who thought polar bears were useless animals. Then, the man rode his car off of a bridge, and a polar bear saved his life. The man said that polar bears weren’t such useless animals after all. So that’s an okay example of one thing that I think Santiago’s thought meant.

 

Also, he might mean that even in the saddest times, there will always be something happy you know of to keep your spirits high. The desert would be the sadness, and the date trees would be the happy thing that optimists always know to think of. For example, I was really sad last year when I really hit my knee hard at school. I couldn’t play in the volleyball tournament because it hurt to move it, not even saying how much it would hurt if I had to slide on my knees to hit a ball flying my way! But, the pluses I thought about were, I hoped that we would do good in the game, and at least I wasn’t going to make my knee hurt a lot more by playing.

 

So the things I think Santiago’s thought meant are that there’s some things in life that don’t seem important at first, but important later on, and that in the saddest times there’s always something happy to think about.

Luck and Coincidences

   
     On Page 72, the Englishman said, “If I could, I’d write a huge encyclopedia just about the words luck and coincidence.  It’s with these words that the universal language is written.”

    I think that the roles luck and coincidence play in creating the universal language are that by coincidence, people could meet their future wife or husband, a life could be saved, someone could bump into a friend when they are at a faraway place, and more.  With you, Mr. Vack, I think that it was a coincidence of how you met Ms. Thao, not luck.
    Next, I think that luck’s role is winning something big or small, or something else good happening to you.  Another kind or luck could be you getting an injury, losing something, or something else.

    The roles that luck has played in my life are when I won a $50 gift card once, and also my biggest win, when I won a recliner chair from Vern’s in Eureka, less than a year ago.  Some other roles that luck has played  are when I was about eight or nine, and was running to my neighbor’s house.  I tripped and fell flat on my face, which hurt a lot!  Also, there was the time when I was playing on the monkey bars on Mother’s Day a few years ago, when I tried to do a trick on the high bar and fell on my back and somehow broke my wrist.  I think it was bad luck that my wrist broke,  but a coincidence that it happened on Mother’s Day.

    A big role that coincidence has played in my life was over the Summer, but  my family was planning on building a house on our property when my parents’ friend Stephen Leach, who’s a well worker, was working at an oceanfront  house for sale and thought of us so he told us about it.  Then we ended up buying the house, and now live in it!

Waiting Too Late to Follow a Dream

    In The Alchemist, the crystal merchant thinks that it’s “too late” to change because he’s been a shopkeeper for 30 years.  In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” we talked about how “way leads to way,” and often you can’t change roads in life.  I think that you can’t change roads because you think that you don’t have enough money to switch over, or maybe you’ve had the same job for 30 years like the crystal merchant and have already gotten used to the way things are and therefore don’t want anything to change.

     Next, I think that people probably get “stuck” with the decisions they make because, for example they want to go to medical school but think that they can’t afford it so they find a job that they don’t really like thinking that they can save up enough to go back to medical school in a couple of years.  Then 20 years later they find themselves still working on that same job, wasting so many years of their life when they could be working at a hospital, doing what they love.

     Lastly, I think that you can prevent this from happening and it’s not an inevitable part of growing up because you can get scholarships and/or loans from the bank to help pay for things and then after you start your job, you can pay back money from the loan.  You can also start saving your pennies when you are young and that does add up fast!  In short, I think you can get stuck, but there are ways to prevent it.

   

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