the alchemist discussion questions. part 1

I think that this statement is true. As she got older you become more focused on what is realistic, and actually liable to happen. I think the force is at least in part, pressure by society. People believe less and less as they get older that anything is possible. They think that in order to become successful they have to conform to society. “in the long run, what people think about bakers and shepherds becomes more important for them then their personal legends” -23. Another reason people abandon their personal legends is because they think what they have is plenty. Like Mechizedek says, “I can’t help you if you feel you’ve got enough sheep”. To be completely successful, you have to keep pushing for more and more. Santiago helped the shop keeper understand that. The shop keeper kept on pushing to make his business better and better and it expanded once he did that. You can’t achieve your personal legend when you settle for mediocrity. “The crystal merchant awoke with the day, and felt the same anxiety that he felt every morning” -44. The crystal merchant had not achieved his personal legend, and was therefore, unfulfilled.

The language of the world is how you can communicate with someone. It is different from spoken language because it can cross language boundaries. Omens and sensing things are definitely involved you have to be able to spot them. Like the boy was able to spot that the crystal merchant had to make a decision, so he began to clean his glasses without waiting for a response. You cannot question it while you are speaking it, you might not even notice it is happening, like the boy and the candy seller. A fascination with words and pictures can make you forget the universal language because you cannot notice when you are speaking it. The boy had been speaking it to his sheep all along but once he was in a different situation, still doing the same thing, he was shocked by it. “He was learning a lot of new things. Some of them were things he had already experienced, and weren’t new, but that he had never perceived before” -43. He hadn’t realized he was speaking the universal language until he did it with the candy seller.  If you cannot understand the universal language, you cannot understand the world.