September 14-18
....Some more on the SETTING of our novel:
Wednesday, 9/16 ....Some more on the SETTING of our novel:
The Human Condition
- In the face of adversity, what causes some people to prevail while others fail?
- What is the meaning of life?
- What is the meaning of life and does that shape our beliefs?
- Are we governed/guided by fate, free will, a greater power, or do we fall somewhere on the spectrum between?
- In the face of adversity, what causes some people to prevail while others fail?
- What is the meaning of life?
- What is the meaning of life and does that shape our beliefs?
- Are we governed/guided by fate, free will, a greater power, or do we fall somewhere on the spectrum between?
Blog Assignment: Due 9/18
How does The Alchemist compare with other "quest" novels, fables, movies......?
In approximately 150 words, make a connection between one fable story you know of, and discuss the similarities to the novel.
Friday, 9/18
Exam: What will be on it???
> Five exam questions will be "conceptual," meaning that each question has various plausible answers, but one best. We will begin to debate this five questions on Monday.
> The rest of the examination will be short answer questions, similar to that of your study guide.
Friday, 9/18
Exam: What will be on it???
> Five exam questions will be "conceptual," meaning that each question has various plausible answers, but one best. We will begin to debate this five questions on Monday.
> The rest of the examination will be short answer questions, similar to that of your study guide.
I think the Alchemist connects really well to the little mirmaid because both are about people who want somthing bad enough to do what ever it takes. Santiago goes all the way to Egypt to find his treasure and Ariel gives away her voice to live on the land. This might be an odd example but i tihnk the two stories connect well to show how far some one would go to persue their dreams. Ariel and Santiago are very similar both thining that they are not able to follow their dreams. Ariel becuase of her strict father and Santiago because of his lack of confidance. Yet in theend they still were able to folloe their dreams and get what they wanted
ReplyDeleteI think The Alchemists relates to the movie Finding Nemo. Because in the movie and in the novel all of a sudden something major happens and they both go out on a journey to find something/ someone important to them. When Nemo was taken all of a sudden the dad right away started the journey in finding Nemo. When Santiago found out about the dream he to set out for his journey to finding it. They also both faced obstacles that were good and bad, but at the end, they both got to there treasure.
ReplyDeleteI think The Alchemist compares with the movie National Treasure. In both the book The Alchemist and the movie National Treasure the characters are searching for a treasure. It takes the characters in both the book and the movie a long time to find the treasure. They struggle and at times and want to quit because of the surroundings but both keep pushing and eventually find the treasure. The people all have people to inspire them in their quest to find the treasure. In The Alchemist the Crystal Shop Merchant and Fatima inspire Santiago to keep looking for the treasure and not to give up. In National Treasure Ben Gates comes from a family of treasure hunters and that inspires him to continue the tradition.
ReplyDeleteBy: Reid Pakula
I think the Alchemist compares to the movie and book Secret Life Of bees. In both the book The Alchemist and the movie Secret Life of Bees, the main character goes on a journey to search for her mothers past and find out about her. She struggles to find what she is looking for but eventually finds it. In The Alchemist, Santiago searches for his Personal Legend and goes on a journey. He meets many people just like in the Secret Life of Bees, and he struggles in finding his Personal Legend. Eventually he finds it and succeeds.
ReplyDeleteI think the Alchemist relates to the movie Invincible because in the novel and the movie both characters seek for their destiny or dream. Santiago's destiny was to find his personal legend and he tried his hardest to find it and he succeeded by doing all he could. In the movie the main character Vince, his dream and destiny is to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was a 30 year old bartender but the Eagles had an open tryout and Vince went and played the best he could just so he could make the team. By working at something you really want you seem to try harder. Both Vince and Santiago bot wanted what they were going for and finally got what they wanted.
ReplyDeleteSantiago’s journey in The Alchemist is similar to the Dorothy and the other characters in "The Wizard Of Oz" trying to find the wizard in the film the. They each want something that the Oz can help them receive. Lion wants courage, Tin-Man wants a heart, and Scarecrow wants a brain. Although Santiago is only one person he wants to reach his treasure in the pyramids. In the movie they all help each other to get what they wish to achieve, similar to in The Alchemist where the king, the alchemist and the gypsy do to Santiago. Like the movie, Santiago’s treasure was with him the whole time just like the characters had what they wanted the whole time. They both face obstacles as well, in the movie, the had to deal with the wicked witch of the west and Santiago had to cross the desert while facing many challenges
ReplyDeleteI compare The Alchemist to the book, One Thousand And One Arabian Nights. In both stories, each main character finds his precious treasure in their love of their lives.
ReplyDeleteSantiago, in the book The Alchemist, meets a girl named Fatima that he can't stop thinking about. His dedication to his long journey to Africa is to find his treasure which makes him want to follow his dream. After finding the hidden treasure, Santiago dreams about one day marrying Fatima. To compare the similarities, King Shahryar, in One Thousand And One Aribian Nights finally meets his wife, Queen Shahrazad. She tells him stories and he loves her for this. Both books relate to long journeys in finding their ladies and fufilling their wishes. Through hard work and dedication, both men succeed in finding their treasures and realizing that dreams do come true!
The novel The Alchemist it compares to the story of Jackie Robinson. In the novel Santiago fights to find what his calling or personal legend is. In the story of Jackie Robinson he finds out that what he really wanted to do was be a professional baseball player. Life was hard for Jackie as well as for Santiago. Santiago was robbed and had nothing but he worked hard and got what it was he was looking for. Jackie Robinson had one of the most difficult lives ever. He was spit on people threw stuff at him and he couldn’t do anything about it. Jackie didn’t care because all he wanted to do was follow his personal legend which was to be the best baseball player ever. Santiago had to do things that nobody could ever do but he did it to follow his personal legend. Jackie had to also do some things that no man could ever do, but he did it and succeeded in becoming one of the best baseball players ever.
ReplyDeleteI think The Alchemist compares well to “The Goonies”. In both the movie “The Gonnies” and the book “The Alchemist” the characters are searching for a treasure. “The Goonies” discover a treasure map and decide to go on a treasure hunt. Although at times things got tough they went were determined to find it. In the “The Alchemist” Santiago wants to pursue his personal ledged, and travels all the way to Egypt to pursue it and find the treasure at the pyramids. Both Characters at times wanted to give up because of the obstacles they faced but at the end they stuck it out and pursued their dreams to find the treasures.
ReplyDeleteThe novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho compares well with the movie National Treasure. They both start out with wanting to find something that was very important. In the movie National Treasure, Benjamin Gates when he was a boy, his grandfather told him a story about treasure. His whole life his dream was to find that treasure. Santiago, in the book The Alchemist wants to pursue his personal legend by finding the treasure at the pyramids. They both overcome obstacles on their way to find their treasure. In National Treasure, Benjamin Gates runs into villains. The villains try to take the map to getting the treasure. Santiago in The Alchemist runs in to villains also, when he had to turn himself into wind in front of the chieftains. If he didn’t turn himself into wind he would die. They both also run into good things that helped them on the way. Santiago had help from the crystal merchant and the Alchemist. In the National Treasure, Benjamin had the Declaration of Independence, coins and more clues that would help him find his treasure. At the end Santiago pursues his personal legend by finding the treasure at the pyramids and Benjamin Gates pursues his dreams in finding the treasure.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Alchemist compares well to "The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie". Santiago unexpectedly travels on a journey to achieve something in the end. Just like Sponge Bob he unexpectedly goes on a journey to shell city to save Mr. Crabs from his ultimate doom and in the end achieves his manager position. Just like Santiago achieving his personal legend. Also Sponge Bob meets many people along the way like Santiago such as the cyclops and monsters which he overcomes like Santiago.
ReplyDeleteI compare The Alchemist to an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Santiago and Spongebob were both after hidden treasure. Santiago was helped by a few other people, like Spongebob was helped by Patrick and Mr. Krabs. Santiago faced many obstacles in his journey like getting his money stolen and being captured by a tribe, for Spongebob, their underwater ship broke forcing them to keep going by foot, and Patrick sending them the wrong way switching east with west. Both were surprised about how the situation with the treasure ended, for Santiago he learned the treasure was really in Spain, for Spongebob, he didn't keep a lot of the treasure. But Santiago was rewarded in the end by finding the treasure, meeting the girl of his dreams, and having an amazing journey through Egypt. For Spongebob, he and Patrick got 2 gold coins, Mr. Krabs didn't get any treasure, and had a good journey.
ReplyDeleteI think the novel "The Alchemist" relates to the movie "The Notebook". In the novel Santiago has to leave Fatima when he had to go to the pyramids and find his personal legend, and thats somewhat like in movie Allie had to leave Noah when her parents decided to move because they didnt like how Noah wasnt one of the wealthiest people in their town.
ReplyDeleteI think the book the alchemist is like the movie August Rush. The movie is about a boy who loved music and is looking for his parents. On his journey to find his parent he meets many interesting people along the way who help him with finding his parents his love and talent of music. This relates to the book because on Santiago’s journey he meets many interesting people like the King of Salem, the Alchemist, the Englishman and Fatima. In this movie August hears music leading home to where his mother is, this reminded me of how the omens leaded Santiago to his treasure. Like the book the Alchemist August finds his mother and father and he learns many things along his journey.
ReplyDeleteThe book the Alchemist relates to the movie 300. In 300 there is a roman army that is in pursuit in fighting and beating another army and comes to some obstacles that they turn into victories, but overcomes those obstacles because they had the heart to believe in themselves.this kind of ties in with santiago's journey as he is in pursuit of his personal legend and does run into some obstacles himself. He overcomes them the same way the roman army did by listening to his heart which got him to his treasure.
ReplyDeleteI think the book The Alchemist is like the movie “A Christmas Carol”. Ebenezer Scrooge goes on a journey of self discovery as does Santiago. Ebenezer travels into the past, future and present. He learns truths about himself similar to Santiago’s discovery of his personal legend in The Alchemist. Both Scrooge and Santiago are forced to transform as a direct result of their enlightening journeys. Scrooge had to visit unpleasant events in his life in order to transform from a twisted, selfish person to a generous one, enlightened by the sadness surrounding his life as shown to him. Santiago gained insight into his ability to adapt to strange and unusual situations and gained insight into what he was truly capable of. As a result of their experiences in the respective books, both gain the perspective to see themselves differently by the end of the book, undergoing a positive total transformation.
ReplyDeleteThe alchemist compares the “Simpsons movie” because in the book Santiago goes on a journey to find his personal legend just as Homer Simpson goes to save his town. Just like as in the alchemist there are setbacks that slows homer down. A setback that slow Santiago down was that he got robbed in town and a setback homer goes through is the police is looking for homer and he has to stay hidden from the cops or there going to put him back to his town where he will be locked up. kyle kraivt
ReplyDeleteThe book the "Alchemist" is like the movie "I am Legend" because in the beginning of the book Santiago is just an average person but then he has this dream of treasure and feels that hes missing something in his life. So he goes on a long journey to find his personal legend. In "I am legend" Will Smith has a happy life with a happy family. But then this terrible diesese spreads that infects almost everyone and turns them into a zombie like creature. Only a handful of people are immune to the diesese and one of those people is Will Smith. Through out the whole movie Will try's to find the cure for it and try's not to get killed along the way. To find the cure though he has to capture one of the zombies which was very brave and dangerous. Just like when Santiago crosses the dangerous desert while there was a tribal was going on. He also gets saved by a women and her child and then become friends. After Will finally finds the cure he gives it to the mother and sacrificed himself to save them so they can go bring it to the other survivors.
ReplyDeleteI think the book The Alchemist is similar to the movie Spiderman in both Spiderman and The Alchemist something unexpected happens to the main characters. In The alchemist Santiago is hit by his dream which he then has to go purse his personal legend. In Spiderman Peter Parker gets a spider bite and then I believe he has to purse his personal legend as well and help the world. Both Santiago and Peter lose people who are important to them along the way. Santiago has to go away from the girl he falls in love with Fatima and make his way to Egypt where he will find his treasure. Peter loses his best friend because he has to kill his dad (the green goblin) for the better of the world. they are very different situations but very much the same they both lose someone they care about along the way to purse their personal legend.
ReplyDeleteThe story “The Alchemist” by Paolo Coelho relates to the movie Glory Road. In Glory Road, a college basketball team (Texas Western) of only African Americans makes an improbable run and wins the National Championship. But because they were the only team to have African Americans on their team, they faced much hate and discrimination on their journey from fans, personal, and opposing coaches and players. The team received hate mail, and many death threats on their journey. Despite these obstacles, they persevere and succeed at winning the championship. This compares to Santiago’s journey in The Alchemist. Just like for Texas Western, Santiago gets taken advantage of, yet he gets back on his feet and succeeds. They both have perseverance, and they were not going to take no for an answer when it came do meeting their goals. They both weren’t treated fairly at all. For Texas Western, they faced racial discrimination, and for Santiago he was stolen from by a young man he trusted with his money. They both could’ve easily given up, but they didn’t and continued their journey’s and succeeded at the end.
ReplyDeleteDan Ketterer
i think the book the Alchemist relates to the movie bruce almighty. In bruce almighty, bruce becomes god and he begins the quest to figure out what happened to himself and how to get back to his home. Bruce was guided by the original god to help him get back to himself but in the end bruce was able to return back to himself. Santiago goes on the journey to find his treasure and santiago is guided by manny people that help him. I think the journeys that santiago and bruce went on were very similar and they both ended with success.
ReplyDeletethe alchemist is like harry potter because they are both horrible books. Both books deal with magic in different ways like harrys potter is real magic and the alchemist in the book turns lead into gold and santiago turning himself into the wind. Both characters(harry and santiago) have a personal legend that they want to accomplish. Santiago wanted to find the treasure and harry wanted to go to that school for magic(whatever its called). In the end they both end up achieving thier personal legends-joey t
ReplyDeleteI think the book The Alchemist is similar to the movie "Knowing." In the movie Knowing they try throughout the whole thing to run and get away from these strange people that end up being aliens. They try many ways to get rid of them, not knowing where they'll go. In The Alchemist Santiago goes on a journey to the pyramids in search of his treasure, not know what will happen. In the end of the movie, the aliens are trying to help the humans because the Earth is about to be wiped out from a sun explosion, so if the humans didn't try to run away in the first place they would have understood that the aliens were trying to save them. The Alchemist is similar because Santiago has to travel back to Spain from his journey to the pyramids and find his treasure where he came from, under the sycamore.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Alchemist is like the movie trilogy The Lord Of The Rings. Like Santiago Frodo must follow his person legend which is to destroy the ring of power. Frodo also meets many hardships on his journey which he must overcome in order to succeed in his quest. He also has many people to help him on his way such as Sam, Pippin, Marry, and the rest of the fellowship. Just like how Santiago's hardest challenge came before discovering his treasure Frodo also had the hardest challenge before destroying the ring. Santiago had to look within to overcome this challenge. On the other hand Gollum was the one who had stole the ring from Frodo and fell into the lava of Mt. Doom. Even though the details of their journeys were different they both came to realizing their personal legends.
ReplyDeleteSpencer Rue
The story The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho relates to the German folktale “The Dream of the Treasure on the Bridge” published by the Grimm brothers. In both of the stories the main characters have a dream about there treasure and personal legend. In the book The Alchemist Santiago goes to the pyramids in search of his treasure as in the folktale The Dream of the Treasure on the Bridge a man has a dream of a treasure on the bridge at Regensburg. He goes there to find a merchant how had a dream of his treasure under the tree next to the bridge, but he never looked for it, because he didn’t believe that dreams meant anything, the man went to the tree and dug under it to find his treasure. They both seek out there treasure and end up finding and fulfilling there personal legend.
ReplyDeleteThe movie, "Stand By Me" strongly relates to The Alchemist. In "Stand By Me", four young boys, who travel by the railroad tracks, search for the body of a boy their age. By this, they expect to win an award for what they have found. But on their journey, they learn the value of friendship and more about themselves and each other. When they find the body, they decide to make an anonymus call to the police, instead of getting an award. In The Alchemist, on Santiago's journey, he also learns about himself and the world around him and also, in a way, he also finds the value of friendship, like with the crystal merchant, the alchemist, and the old king. And even though he finds his treasure, he still returns to Fatima.
ReplyDelete"The Alchemist" can be compared to the movie "Grind" because like Santiago searching for his personal legend, "Grind" is a story of 4 kids out of high school who go on a journey. The kids travel to California to compete in a skateboard competition so that they can be sponsored by a major company and become famous. During their journey they find out who they are. Just like Santiago in the "The Alchemist" they lose track of their goal but in the end they persevere and achieve it. Also, Santiago met the crystal merchant on his journey and the kids met a bunch of clowns at a clown college. They helped them through a rough time and inspired them to continue to pursue their dreams.
ReplyDeleteKevin Quaglino
The novel "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho relates to the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" Just like Santiago, Will Smith has a hard goal to reach that takes a lot of work and determination. Will Smith doesn't have a home because he doesn't have a job. He has to wait in a line every night to get in a shelter to go to bed with his son. He's in a competition with a lot of people to get a job at an office. It is very difficult to get the job, but he needs it to support his child and himself. He eventually get the job after a lot of hard work and determination. This relates to "The Alchemist" because Santiago also had a goal or dream for himself to accomplish. His dream takes a lot of work also. In the end they both get what they want.
ReplyDeleteThe Alchemist would easily compare to the Film "The Wizard of Oz" because both of the film and the novel start off with an average character with a plain life until both of their lives get flipped upside down. For Dorothy she gets swept away by a tornado and tossed into a land of the unknown and her only way out is to follow her personal legend which is now to find and Oz so he can send her back to Kansas. For Santiago he listens to his dream and the gypsy so he goes on a journey to find the treasure in the pyramids. They both go through a happy and sad journey that ends up with both of their personal legends being accomplished as well as some lessons learned along the way.
ReplyDeleteThe movie “October Sky” connects to the novel The Alchemist. In the movie, Homer Hickam has a dream to build rockets because he is inspired by the first sputnik. His father is a very successful coal miner and he expects his son to do the same….. After school Homer and his friends build mini versions of Sputnik and test them and display them so people can see… His father disapproves of this idea because he thinks that his son will never succeed if he is doing so. Homer’s science teacher is very supportive of Homer making sure that he doesn’t give up his dream… In the end Homer and his dad work things out. His father believes that this is what Homer wants to do (rocketry) and is meant to do.
ReplyDeleteThe novel "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho relates to the movie "Forrest Gump". Forest Gump goes on many adventures through out his life, and meets many people as well, such as his friend Bubba. This is similar to when Santiago meets the man who works in the glass shop.
ReplyDeleteI think that The Alchemist would compare to the movie "National Treaure 2". In both stories, the main charcter is in search for a special type of treasure. Nicholas Cage's character compares to Santiago because they both are not in the search for greed. Both also have to make sacrifices to achive their goal. Santiago giving Melchezdek one tenth of his sheep would be one example. Also Nicholas Cage's character had to be very risky by kidnapping the president for information. I would have chosen the original movie but it was taken.
ReplyDeletei think that santiago's journey in the alchemist is very simialar to fish in the movie rockstar. i think this because they both had some set backs the theif for santiago and vesuvues for fish. so they both hab think to over come to reach there goal and thye both needed some insparation to reach the promise land. then at the end they both reach there goal in live and are complete.
ReplyDeleteI think that the book The Alchemist is similar to the movie Valkyrie. In the book The Alchemist Santiago goes on a quest to achieve his goal which was to visit the pyramids and to find his treasure. In the movie Valkyrie the goal of the group was to stop Hitler and the nazis just like how Santiagos goal was to find his treasure and get to the pyramids.
ReplyDeleteThe Alchemist can relate to the movie National Treasure 2. In NAtional TReasure 2 the old guy who wants to find the treasure and competing with the guy who Nicolas CAge plays to find the treasure first. Nicolas Cage actually is fascinated by clues and figures out the mystery and has fun while looking for the treasure. The other guy was so caught up in getting there first that he had no fun and wasn't fascinated by anything. IN the end Nicolas CAge actually gets the treasure and the other guy fails. IN the Alchemist the englishman is too caught up in his books and studies on alchemy to admire the beauty of things around him and SAntiago does admire the beauty and SAntiago ends up being befriended by the Alchemist and the englishman fails.
ReplyDeleteI think the book "The Alchemist" is similar to the film "the Pursuit of Happyness" because its about someone that goes though they're journey of life chasing their dream. While on their "journey" in life they come across many figures that either help or harm in their pursuit of their dream. They both struggle to achieve their dream, but in the long term the morals are kind of similar "dont give up when the going gets tough" and that "hard work pays off". They also do a great job in making us realize how important it is to follow your dream but do your best to acknowledge the beauty around you. For Santiago it was the deserts and his surroundings on his expidition for Will Smith it was while on his path to a new career he didn't lose sight of how important his son's happiness was to him.
ReplyDelete-Johnny Law
The novel, the Alchemist, is like the movie “Mickey”. The movie is about a little league baseball player who has a great passion for the game. When his last year of little league comes to an end he finds out that his dad, also the coach goes bankrupt because his mother, who passed away, had a lot of medical bills. So instead of facing the consequence he runs away with Mickey and gets a new birth certificate for both of them. The new birth certificate would make Mickey a year younger so he could play baseball for another year. He gives his new team everything he had to win. His dream was to go to the Little League World Series and this team could do it. There was one team they had trouble with, this team was just as good as they were. But Mickey was determined, stuck with it and ended up wining the Little League World Series. This movie is similar to the novel because in both the novel and the movie the main characters are determined and overcome their problems. For example, Mickey over came beating the other team and Santiago over came being robbed in town. They found a way to beat or comeback form defeat. For example, Mickey found the other team’s weakness and Santiago raised the money back by working for the crystal merchant, and learned a lot from him to. Along the journey they both met a lot of people along the way to help them achieve their goal. The book says that when you want to go after your personal legend, everything in the universe seems to help you, which also happens in the movie
ReplyDeleteThe novel "The Alchemist" can be compared to the movie "National Treasure" because the main charachter (Nicholos Cage} has his very own personal legend that will motivate him threwout the movie. Just like Santiago and his personal dream of finding the hidden treasure, nicholos cage follows his dream in finding the national treasure. During the movie the people and things he encounters motivate him to keep following dream of finding his treasure.
ReplyDeleteI think the Alchemist is most like the movie Saving Private Ryan. Santiago's personal legend is to find his treasure just like the squad in the movie is tasked with finding Pvt. Ryan. Both of these legends are like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding treasure in the desert is like finding one soldier among a million. Both the soldiers and santiago fight their way through wars to reach their goals. In the end santiago lost way less than the men trying to find and save Pvt. James Ryan.
ReplyDeleteGrant Novo- The alchemist is connected to the movie Men In Black because agent K lost his memory and ended up being a mailman for a long time. Will smith needed his help so he helped K realize what he was meant to do which was fighting monstors. This was agent K's personal legend. Both the book The Alchemist and the movie Men In Black both have someone achieving their personal legend
ReplyDeleteI think that The Alchemist relates to the movie Finding Nemo. I think this because Santiago goes in search for his personal legend and he wants to go to Egypt to find it. This relates to Finding Nemo because Nemo gets lost and Marlin goes in search for Nemo. On both of the journeys, in the book and the movie, Santiago and marlin have to over come many obstacles. One obstacle they have to overcome is the risk of going to find it. In order for Santiago to find his personal legend he must risk his sheep to figure out what he should do next. This is a big risk because if Santiago didn’t find his personal legend he would be lost without his sheep. Marlin has to take the risk of going because he has to swim in the open sea to get to Sydney Australia. This is just one way that marlin and Santiago have to overcome obstacles. This is why I think that The Alchemist and Finding Nemo are related.
ReplyDeleteI think that “The Alchemist” relates to the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
ReplyDeleteSantiago and Henry Jones Sr. both had big dreams, Santiago’s wanting to fulfill his Personal Legend, and Henry Sr.’s dream to find the Holy Grail. When Santiago was traveling to Egypt he faced many challenges and interesting people. Henry and his son, Indiana, overcame many traps and puzzles at the ‘Canyon of the Crescent Moon’, the location of the Holy Grail. Not only that, the Jones’ had the Nazis on their tail racing to find the Holy Grail first. When it all came down to the climax of both adventures, Santiago found his treasure and Henry and Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail. At one point in The Alchemist, Santiago found love with Fatima, and Henry Sr. chose the safety of the son he loves over keeping the grail. This is my reasoning for thinking that The Alchemist and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are related.