The Alchemist Summary: Plot, Characters and Ending
The dream, the king, the crystal shop, the desert and the treasure
The Alchemist follows Santiago, a young shepherd in Andalusia, Spain, who keeps dreaming of a treasure hidden near the Egyptian pyramids. Encouraged by a mysterious old king to follow his Personal Legend, he sells his sheep and travels across North Africa, working in a crystal shop, crossing the Sahara with a caravan, falling in love at an oasis and learning from an alchemist.
In the end the treasure is not where he expected, and the journey itself turns out to be the point.
How does The Alchemist begin?
Santiago left his studies to become a shepherd because he wanted to travel. Sleeping one night in a ruined building in the Spanish countryside, where a sycamore grows, he has the same dream again: a child takes him to the pyramids and shows him a treasure. A fortune-teller in Tarifa tells him to go and find it. Then an old man who calls himself Melchizedek, king of Salem, explains that everyone has a Personal Legend, the thing they are meant to do. When you truly want something, he says, the whole universe helps you get it.
↑ Back to the topWho's who
| Character | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Santiago | A young Andalusian shepherd |
| Melchizedek | An old man who says he is the king of Salem |
| The crystal merchant | A shopkeeper in Tangier |
| The Englishman | A scholar searching for an alchemist |
| Fatima | A young woman at the oasis |
| The Alchemist | A two-hundred-year-old master of alchemy |
What happens in Tangier?
Santiago sells his flock and crosses to Tangier in North Africa, where on the first day a stranger steals all his money. Penniless, he goes to work for a crystal merchant whose shop is failing. His ideas, cleaning the glass, building a display, serving tea in crystal glasses, make the merchant rich. After almost a year Santiago has enough money to go home and buy a bigger flock, but he decides to keep going.
↑ Back to the topWhat happens in the desert?
He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara and meets an Englishman who has spent his fortune searching for a famous alchemist. At the oasis of Al-Fayoum, war between desert tribes forces the caravan to stop. Santiago falls in love with Fatima, who promises to wait for him. A vision of two hawks lets him warn the oasis of an attack, and the alchemist himself comes to find him.
↑ Back to the topWhat does the Alchemist teach him?
The Alchemist leads Santiago into the desert and teaches him to listen to his heart and read the signs, which the book calls the Language of the World. When they are captured by warriors, Santiago is told he must turn himself into the wind within three days. He speaks with the desert, the wind and the sun, and in the end summons a storm so strong that the camp is nearly destroyed, and they are let go. The Alchemist turns lead into gold and sends him on alone.
↑ Back to the topWhere is the treasure?
At the pyramids Santiago digs where his heart tells him to and is attacked by refugees from the war. When he explains his dream, their leader laughs. He once dreamed of a treasure buried under a sycamore in a ruined building in Spain, but was not fool enough to cross a desert for a dream. Santiago understands. He returns to the place where his journey began, digs beneath the sycamore and finds the treasure. The book ends as he plans to go back to Fatima.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Alchemist
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