THE ALCHEMISTPAULO COELHO

THE FABLETHE ALCHEMIST

THE FABLE

▸ Literary Genre

▸ Succinct fictional story

▸ Often anthropomorphized1

▸ Illustrates a moral lesson or “moral"

▸ May end with a pithy2 maxim3.

THE ALCHEMIST

1 The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object

2 (of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive.

3 A short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct

THE FABLETHE ALCHEMIST

1 The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object

Wait…isn’t that personification?

Personification: seems like it’s doing something

human

Anthropomorphism: it is doing something human

most commonly animals

Anthropomorphism

THE FABLETHE ALCHEMIST

1 The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object

Anthropomorphism: it is doing something human

most commonly animals

Anthropomorphism

Etymologyanthropos human being

morphe form

THE FABLE

▸ Enduring form of folk1 literature

▸ Oral transmission

▸ Found in the literature of almost every country

▸ A writer of fables: fabulist

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1 Relating to the traditional art or culture of a community or nation

AESOP’S FABLES

▸ Accredited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller from ancient Greece

▸ 620–564 BCE

▸ Anthropomorphized animals

▸ Used typical traits of animals to express truths about humans

THE ALCHEMIST

Aesop: the fabulous fabulist

...Like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he made use of humble incidents to teach great truths; …by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, [he] told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events.

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Book V:14

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DETERMINING THE MORAL OF A FABLE

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VIDEO REVIEW

▸ What was the story modern Aesop told his daughter?

▸ The Fox and the Grapes

▸ How did it relate to her situation?

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TASK

▸ Read one of Aesop’s fables

▸ Decide its moral/maxim with your group

▸ Brainstorm: a modern adaptation in our school

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AESOP’S MAXIMS

▸ “Never trust a friend who deserts you at a pinch.”

▸ “Do not trust interested advice.”

▸ “Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to be your ruin.”

▸ “Fate helps them that help themselves.”

▸ “Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.”

▸ “One cannot be first in everything.”

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THE ALCHEMIST

GROUPS OF FOUR

▸ Narrator/Boss: Keep your group on task; give everyone something to do at all times; narrate the story for presentation.

▸ Illustrator – 2 halves of an A4 sheet; Aesop’s fable—your modern fable.

▸ Story teller/Writer – (on back of A4 sheet) Rewrite Aesop’s fable in your own words; write a modern adaptation of Aesop’s fable (8-10 sentences).

▸ Silent Actor/Group assistant – acts out the story with only their body; helps with any other necessary tasks (research, helping the writer, et cetera).

THE ALCHEMIST

PERSONAL LEGEND

HOW MUCH OF A PERSON’S LIFE IS UNDER

ONE’S CONTROL?

HOW MUCH IS CONTROLLED BY FATE?

THE ALCHEMISTPAULO COELHO

PAULO COELHO

▸ Born: 24 August 1947

▸ Brazil

▸ Novelist and lyricist

▸ Highest social media followers amongst writers

▸ Facebook –– 29.5 million

▸ Twitter –– 12.2 million

THE ALCHEMIST

EARLY LIFE

▸ Teenager –– wants to become a writer

▸ Mother: “My dear, your father is an engineer…do you actually know what it means to be a writer?”

▸ At 17 years old: sent to a mental institution where he escapes three times before the age of twenty

▸ Response: “They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me.”

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FORMATIVE YEARS

▸ Attends college and abandons his dreams as a writer

▸ One year later –– drops out and becomes a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe in the 1960s

▸ Return to Brazil

▸ Composes lyrics for famous Brazilian rock stars such as Raul Seixas.

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ROAD OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

▸ 500 mile trail in Northwest Spain

▸ Turning point in his life

▸ Spiritual Awakening

▸ “I was verb happy in the things I was doing…I was working, I had a person whom I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer.”

▸ Coelho leaves his career –– becomes a full-time writer.

THE ALCHEMIST

WRITING CAREER

▸ Publishes first book “Hell Archives” and later the “Practical Manual of Vampirism”

▸ No substantial impact

▸ 1987 — writes “The Alchemist”

▸ 900 copies; no reprint

▸ 1994 HarperCollins (largest publisher in the US)

THE ALCHEMIST

SUCCESS WITH “THE ALCHEMIST”

▸ Sells 83 million copies

▸ One of the best selling books in history

▸ Most translated book by a living author

▸ 81 million languages

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PLOT SUMMARYTHE ALCHEMIST

PLOT SUMMARY

▸ Young Shepard

▸ Leaves his homeland of Spain

▸ Travels to Egypt in search of treasure buried beneath the pyramids

▸ Journey to discover material wealth turns into a journey to discover inner enlightenment

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PHARRELL WILLIAMS

HOW THE ALCHEMIST CHANGED MY LIFE

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PHARRELL WILLIAMS

PHARRELL WILLIAMS

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Everyone read The Alchemist by @paulocoelho. You have no idea what you are capable of...read it and find out.

#GREATNESSVIA TWITTER

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PHARRELL WILLIAMS

ALCHEMYWHAT IS IT?

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ALCHEMY

▸ Ancient practice shrouded in mystery

▸ 100AD–18th century (dawn of modern chemistry)

▸ Sought to turn lead into gold

▸ Rooted in a complex spiritual worldview

▸ Everything contains a “universal spirit”

▸ Metals are alive

▸ Lead = immature

▸ Gold = mature

▸ All — the same thing in a different form

ALCHEMY

▸ Part experiment –– part magic

▸ Philosopher’s Stone

▸ Mythical substance (waxy liquid)

▸ Heal, prolong life, change base metals to precious metals

▸ Symbolism

▸ Lead = sinful; dark

▸ Gold = spiritual beauty

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PSYCHOLOGY + ALCHEMY

▸ Carl Jung

▸ Swiss Psychologist

▸ Connection between symbols in alchemy and symbols in dreams

▸ Process: Individuation

▸ Symbolic process of coming into wholeness as a human –– inner, outer, spirit, and matter are combined

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SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY

▸ Original Alchemy — a pseudo-science of transforming lead into gold.

▸ Spiritual Alchemy — the secret science of inner liberation and spiritual awakening.

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THE HERO’S JOURNEYTHE ALCHEMIST

THE ALCHEMIST

JOSEPH CAMPBELL’S HERO'S JOURNEY

▸ Joseph Campbell

▸ Created a set of observations known as The Hero’s Journey.

▸ Compares the myths and legends of many cultures.

▸ All-embracing metaphor for the deep inner journey of transformation that heroes in every time and place seem to share

▸ A path that leads them through great movements of separation, descent, ordeal, and return.

Joseph Campbell

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THE ALCHEMIST

HERO’S ADVENTURE

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