The alchemist
Summary from page 1 to 40 By: Malak Nassif C5B
By reading the first forty pages we can understand what it’s talking about. The book is telling us that everyone should have a goal and this goal has to be realistic. You should try your best to accomplish it. So Santiago, the main character, is a shepherd although his parents wanted him to be a priest. But he decided to follow his dream which is to travel and see different traditions and their way of life. He loved the merchant’s daughter; he met her when he traveled to Tarifa to sell the wool of the sheep. Santiago had a dream; it was repeated almost every day. So he wanted to know its meaning. He went to a gypsy and told her that he dreamed that some children came and played with his sheep and the sheep were getting along with the children. When suddenly, one of the children told him about a hidden treasure in the pyramids of Egypt. But when the children were about to say the exact location he woke up. As a result, the gypsy told him that he had to go to the pyramids and find the treasure. As a normal response, he didn’t believe but then he met Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who convinced him to follow his dream. Not only that, he gave him two stones black and white. These two stones answered all his questions, the black meant yes and the white meant no. but he had to give him one tenth of his sheep. Furthermore he advised him to follow his personal legend and travel to Egypt. Moreover Santiago decided to travel and sold all his sheep to get the money. While traveling Santiago passed by a place called Tangier. It seemed weird and unusual, because men walked hand in hand, and women walked with their face covered. He was sitting in a bar when someone suddenly told him “who are you?” he was surprised that someone in this country spoke Spanish. So he considered this guy as his friend and he trusted him. Consequently, he gave him all his money in order to show him how to get to the pyramids. Unfortunately the man was a thief and stole all his money. Santiago wanted to be a shepherd and his parents wanted him to be a priest but he ends up being nothing.
