Perhaps, for a person who may look like an otaku, it is a bit incredible to be interested in the exploration and journey of the outside world. But in fact, for me, a beautiful external space that I have never experienced and explored has a strong attraction to me, but it may be interesting or beautiful, and not all the conditions are met.
Opening this book, the preface and introduction mentioned at the beginning of the book are actually very strange. I don't know why the author mentioned a story told by alchemists and alchemists at the beginning of the book. He also mentioned that an English scholar studied alchemy and went to Egypt to look for the legendary alchemist. I don't know why the author mentioned the story about daffodils described in Wilde's book in the introduction.
These doubts made me wonder if I had read the book wrong several times, but when I finished reading the book completely, I didn't have these doubts. On the contrary, I understand why the author constructs the content in this way, and I have to admire the ingenuity of the author's book content structure from the bottom of my heart.
In fact, the story told in this book is not complicated. In short, a boy named Santiago was eager to travel around the world since he was a child. With the support of his family, he became a shepherd boy who could travel around the world. In the process of traveling around the world, he had two repeated dreams. These two repeated dreams told him that there was a treasure buried under the Egyptian pyramids, so he embarked on a journey of treasure hunting in Egypt.
However, if we only understand this book from the plot outline, we will find that this book seems a bit vulgar and has nothing new. In my opinion, it is because it is relatively simple to refine the outline of a book as a reader, but an author has spent a lot of time and energy to enrich and expand the outline. Therefore, personally, only by further understanding how the author develops the outline of this plot can we realize the true value and significance of this book.
So how did the author of this book develop the outline of this story? Personal suggestions can be thought and analyzed according to the clues provided by this book and the route of the protagonist's browsing.
The hero Santiago was born in an ordinary peasant family. His father wanted him to be a priest in the future, so he was put in a seminary since he was a child. In the seminary, he studied Latin, Spanish and theology until 16 years old. But when he was a child, he had the idea of traveling around the world. He didn't want to live his father's busy farm life. So he asked his father to travel around the world. Although his father tried to persuade him, he didn't persuade him, but he didn't force him to become a priest. Just told him that only by becoming a shepherd can he travel around the world, so the shepherd boy mentioned in the title appeared.
During the two years of grazing, he has been to many places around. At the same time, a strange dream made him interested in the pyramids in unknown places. The dream showed that there was a treasure there, and this dream was done twice in a row. Once, she found an old witch to explain her dreams. In the process of dream interpretation, the old witch thought it was some kind of wonderful omen, so that she could share one-tenth of herself after finding the treasure. In this way, he set foot on the road to the pyramids of Egypt.
On this road, the hero Santiago first met a strange old man named King Salem. The old man said to give him a tenth of his sheep, and he told him the way to the pyramid. As a normal person, he may feel that he is a liar, but he actually told the hero's past deeds and even some privacy accurately, so the hero especially trusts him.
In the experience with the old man, the old man told him many short stories and expounded many truths, which looked a bit like chicken soup. For example, no matter who you are or what you do, when you desire something, you will eventually get it, because this desire comes from the soul of the universe. That's your mission in this world. When you want something, the whole universe will cooperate with Qi Xin to help you realize it.
I often preach to the author why we should not forget the expressions of various omens. Dreams lead you to the treasure, which is the story of your destiny. Everything is the same thing, and so on. When the old man left, he gave him two gems to make a decision when he really couldn't make a decision. Black gemstones represent yes, and white gemstones represent no.
The words and actions of the old man made Santiago more confident in treasure hunting. He sold all his sheep and went to Africa by boat. But soon after he landed, he was cheated of all his assets by a little boy. This is a great blow to the hero, who is alone in a foreign land, with no language and no money. what should he do ？
He wanted to do odd jobs in a crystal shop and got the boss's approval. Only then did the boss tell the hero a message that he wanted to despair, that is, even if the hero worked here for a year, it would not be enough for him to travel to the pyramids of Egypt and cross a desert of nearly a thousand kilometers. For these two points, the protagonist Santiago may never have thought about it. But he didn't give up the idea.
In this life experience, I personally think the most interesting thing is that through the dialogue between the protagonist and the owner of the crystal shop, I can realize that many people, like the owner of the crystal shop, have a dream in their hearts, but they can only think about it in their dreams and dare not pursue it with practical actions. At the same time, they are used to the unchanging, stable and mediocre life, but this store has changed a little because of the arrival of the protagonist Santiago.
Under the innovative management of the protagonist Santiago, the store began to flourish, and the protagonist earned enough money to buy 120 sheep, a return ticket and a trade license. At this time, there are many roads in front of the hero. You can go home, you can do trade, you can continue herding sheep, and of course you can continue to collect them.
As readers, we naturally know that the screenwriter will definitely set the hero to look for treasure, but it is worth exploring the reason why the hero chooses. For him, he can choose everything he was familiar with before, but treasure hunting in the desert is a brand-new experience, and this strange experience that has happened and the experience that is about to be unknown gives us more infinite possibilities and imagination.
At this time, the author entered an experience, that is, the British scholar who talked about alchemy at the beginning of the above-mentioned book. He also went to Africa and met the hero. For the sake of this British scholar, he went to Africa to find an alchemist, thinking that the alchemist had mastered a language and everything in the universe was * * *.
They are going to the same place and direction, so they set off with the local caravan. On the way, the dialogue between English scholars and the hero made him interested in alchemy. The hero is most interested in the soul of the world in alchemy, which is the final product obtained by alchemists after years of alchemy and a medium that can be used to communicate with everything in the world.
On the way, they knew that there was a war ahead through the caravan passing by, but as long as they reached the oasis, they could be safe for the time being. They reached the oasis smoothly. After arriving at the oasis, the hero Santiago met the object he wanted to protect for life, and it was love at first sight, and the hero Santiago sank in it.
On one occasion, the hero Santiago looked up at the sky and saw two eagles, looking in a trance, as if he saw the army rushing into the oasis. He thought it was some kind of omen, so he chose to tell the leaders here. Only on the premise that he guaranteed his life did the chief of the garrison here believe him and ambush him in advance. The next day, as expected, there was a surprise attack by the army, but all of them were captured. The protagonist Santiago also became a consultant here because of this incident.
For Santiago, the hero, now that he has the person he loves, the status and power, and the money, will he choose to continue searching for treasures in the Egyptian pyramids? Indeed, he was very shocked. But at this time, the alchemist that the British scholar was looking for appeared and told him that you must find your treasure, otherwise everything you found on the road would be meaningless.
In the alchemist's view, after a long time, the motivation and significance of treasure hunting will be lost, while in the hero's view of love that cannot be abandoned, in the alchemist's view, true love will not hinder a person from finding his own destiny. In fact, the beloved woman in San Diego said the same thing to him.
So, San Diego and the alchemist started a treasure hunt together. During this journey, the alchemist told him the story of the alchemist mentioned by the author at the beginning, and mentioned three types of alchemists. The first one developed himself like gold, so they found the philosopher's stone. They know that the development of one thing will drive the development of other things around them. The second kind of alchemist, rare, can find the philosopher's stone by talent.
The third kind of alchemist pursues gold wholeheartedly, but he can never find the mystery, and he doesn't know that copper and iron also have their own destiny.
It was also during this journey that they encountered unprecedented danger and special fantasy places in the book. They were captured by an army, when alchemists said that Santiago could change the wind direction. Of course they didn't believe it, but on the one hand, they received a large sum of money from San Diego, and on the other hand, they were curious, so they agreed to let San Diego demonstrate it three days later. But in fact, San Diego doesn't know how to become the wind at all, but on the third day of the book, San Diego can talk to the desert, the wind, the sun and even the hand of fate. In the dialogue, he saw that the so-called hand of fate was himself, so he became the wind.
Three hours before the pyramid, the alchemist chose to say goodbye, and Santiago went to look for it alone. He also succeeded in finding the pyramids. He began to dig deep into the treasure in his dream, but he couldn't find it for a long time. At this time, another group of people appeared, found the gold coins on him and asked him what he was doing. Santiago didn't want to say anything at first, but he confessed the truth under the beating of a group of them.
At this time, the leader of the gang chose to let him go and told him that he had had dreams again and again. He dreamed that he should go to the fields in Spain. A shepherd is herding sheep, and there is a dilapidated church. There is a treasure under the fig tree in the dilapidated church. But it is absurd for him to think that he must cross the desert to Spain. But at this point, Santiago knows where the treasure is. In fact, he is the shepherd boy in the leader's dream, and he is familiar with that place. In the end, San Diego, as expected, dug up rich treasures there.
In fact, the hero's dream and the dream with the leader are metaphors of Wilde's narcissus youth story mentioned by the author at the beginning. In this story, a beautiful teenager was very excited to see his beautiful face through the water, so he came to see himself in this lake every day and finally drowned. In the drowning place, a bunch of daffodils grew, so they were named daffodil boy. Interestingly, after the narcissus boy drowned, the lake was crying. As for why it is crying, it is because it can no longer see its beautiful face through the eyes of narcissus teenagers.
Nor should we give up halfway in the process of not realizing our destiny and accept others' suggestions and teachings with an open mind. We believe that for those who follow our destiny, life is really generous. Everyone's dream-seeking process begins with' novice luck' and always ends with' explorer's test'. "