How does Hesse and Coelho present the importance of wealth and love is to fulfilment and self-discovery in ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘Siddhartha’? Siddartha and The Alchemists are both novels featuring a world of sacrifice and journeys of the soul in order to find enlightenment and have fulfilling lives. Both stories show a journey distracted by love and wealth but ultimately returning to their desired goal of finding true happiness. The Alchemist describes the journey of a humble shepherd who seems to live a happy life before he meets a king who tells him his destiny is to travel to Egypt and find hidden treasures.
His pursuit of a ‘personal legend’ leads him down a path of self-discovery and love which convinces him he does not need to fulfil his prophecy to be happy. Eventually he understands that he must sacrifice his love for the time being. He goes on to find the alchemist who teaches him invaluable lessons. The story ends with Santiago finding his treasure and going back to his love, Fatima, with true happiness as well as the fruits of his labour. Siddhartha similarly describes the story of Siddartha, the son of a Brahmin who is dissatisfied with his life and seeks true fulfilment.
He goes on a journey where he meets the Samanas, Kamala (a woman who convinces him wealth and love is human fulfilment) and eventually Vesudeva who helps him to discover true happiness and spiritual being. Hesse and Coelho lived in ways that influenced the novels they wrote. Hesse spent several years in mental institutes in order to overcome a state of depression and realign his personality to the expectations of society. Similarly Coelho was sent to an institute because his parents could not cope with his divergent attitude.
Coelho often compares his journey in life to Santiago’s in The Alchemist and the novel is heavily influenced by his 500 mile walk along the road of Santiago de Compostela. Despite both authors being forced to change they returned to their original goals, of discovering themselves and leading fulfilling lives, and created novels based on a journey full of the distractions of love and wealth. The authors suggest love and wealth should be sacrificed in order to achieve human fulfilment however Coelho encourages the return to wealth and love once they have found their enlightenment.
Furthermore Coelho believes after fulfilling ones legend the world rewards the person with worldly goods as suggested when Santiago says in the epilogue ‘It’s true; life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny’ Hesse creates a world of permanent sacrifice for Siddartha. Siddartha reaches enlightenment after he gives up on his wealth, his love and his son; he says “My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life. ‘ suggesting his soul is separate to the things he does in his life and worldly gain has no benefit on his ‘real self. Again when Siddartha says “He has robbed me, yet he has given me something of greater value … he has given to me myself. ”
He is telling the readers that human fulfilment and self- discovery is more important than the love and wealth he had previously obtained. At the beginning of both novels Siddhartha and Santiago are portrayed as highly motivated to improve their quality of life. Their ambitions of love present Hesse and Coelho’s beliefs that love is an insuppressible aspect of their lives that will distract them from their real dreams.
However, eventually the characters abandon these emotions and focus solely on their ambitions which prove to the readers that doing so shows absolute strength and motivation. For example in Siddhartha, after living happily with Kamala absorbed by material gain for years, he realises that his dreams and life is unfulfilled and he is unsatisfied by this way of pleasure and wealth. This whole world of Kamaswami people has only been a game to him… but was it worth playing continually? ‘ This reference to his gluttonous life being a ‘game’ suggests he expected the game to end and he knew that it wasn’t realistic.
In many ways he finds the life he lived a joke in which he is playing a character fascinated by wealth, possession, sexual pleasure and even his love for Kamala. Similarly, Coelho describes these fascinations as distractions from Santiago’s fate. You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his personal Legend. If he abandons his pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love…. the love that speaks the Language of the World While this suggests that love can be a distraction, Coelho does imply that real love should not distract people from their fate.
Fundamentally, Hesse and Coelho suggest that love is the main distraction from one’s desires and fate, and love is never the ultimate desire or one’s fate. It can also be inferred that both authors use the protagonists show that being able to resist the temptation to settle for love and wealth and pursuing one’s real fate takes strength and courage, as well as proving to be beneficial. Santiago and Siddhartha both experience the temptation and captivating allure of love and wealth. Wealth and social status is almost personified as hypnotising and attractive.
This highlight’s their need to reject such intense indulgence in order to obtain their real goals. As well as love and wealth social status also begins to play a large part of these gluttonous experiences. Siddhartha suggests it becomes an obsession more than desire. ‘For a long time Siddhartha had lived the life of the world without belonging to it. The years passed by. Enveloped by comfortable circumstances, Siddhartha hardly noticed their passing. He had become rich… people liked him.
This suggests that while love and wealth are a distraction, they are also a waste of time and ridicules the fascination of humans with such things especially with the detrimental effects it has on one’s journey to self-discovery. For example when he says ‘Living without belonging’he distancing himself from the game he is playing. In the Alchemist, Santiago almost abandons his personal legend because a thief steals the gold he was given to travel to Egypt. Instead he decided to start working in a shop in order to make enough money to go back to tending his sheep.
For nearly a year, he had been working incessantly… so that he could return to Spain with pride. ‘ The authors gave the protagonists the chance to settle for ‘comfortable life’ but both men resist the influence and power of effortless love and wealth so they could achieve their goals. Siddhartha realises this when he says ‘How many years had he spent without any lofty goal… content with small pleasures yet never really satisfied! The use of language like ‘heart”soul and ‘spirit repetitively throughout the book continues the theme of meditation and peace that the book is based on.
Additionally the story is set out so it is at the start of his life, the beginning of his journey to self- discovery, and it feels as if the reader is being taken along this journey as things progress rather than in retrospect. Most of Siddhartha’s journey is vague and he describes several year of months at a time, however at certain points in the book where Siddhartha pinpoints specific evenings or days that show significance. An example is when he leaves the Brahmans to join the samanas. Later on Siddhartha introduces us to the main motifs of the book.
He introduces the lake as a ‘cleansing agent which sounds almost scientific suggesting that he really believes it is how he will reach enlightenment. The use of the word ‘OM’ is important because of the strong focus on the word and emphasis placed on the word. It is separate from the story, suspending time, which is key to the plot. In ‘The Alchemist Coelho says “In order to arrive you must follow the signs. God inscribed on the world the path that each man must follow. It is just a matter of reading the inscription he wrote for you.
This language objectifies the earth as a scripture written on using nature for humans to read and understand. This use of nature is a running theme and links to Santiago’s search for an‘all uniting language. ‘ Furthermore Santiago personifies the earth by suggesting it has a soul and that we can communicate with nature which, to him, means the world is alive. Coelho uses the dessert not only as a physical journey but a metaphor for Santiago’s spiritual journey. In literature, the desert symbolises different dangers and the novel these dangers represent the physical and mental hurdles Santiago has to overcome to achieve his personal legend.
The desert is also a symbol of the debility of life and the relief of seeing the palm trees and fresh water. They are metaphors for appreciating good things in life after overcoming hurdles thus Santiago finding Fatima in this place of refuge. Siddhartha feels he learned more from Vesudeva than he did from the Samanas, Kamala or the wealth he obtained. This meant Siddhartha felt he needed to permanently reside with Vesudeva in order to obtain complete fulfilment. Similarly Santiago follows the advice of the Alchemist and leaves Fatima in order to achieve his personal legend.
He decodes the language of the world and discovers his hidden treasure. Conversely Santiago intends to return to Fatima with his newly obtained wealth. In many ways it could be argued that Coelho is saying love and wealth is a significant part of human fulfilment and after our self-discovery we should return to such things. However both authors find that it is essential to continue to a journey to self-discovery even if it means leaving love and wealth behind. There are many differences between the novels in this respect.
Siddhartha is a novel ingrained with Buddhist values that suggest real happiness derives from enlightenment and not the materialistic world most live in. Hesse implies that love and wealth are stepping stones to achieving fulfilment but can only be achieved by oneself and not with the aid of others. ‘Only Kamala was dear to him-had been of value to him…. Were they not playing a game without an end? ‘ In this way Siddhartha has objectified Kamala and his love for her and puts her in as part of the game he mocked. While he values her, he considers her disposable and a character in the game he is playing.
Contrarily Coelho believes love and material possessions as an essential part of a fulfilling life. Coelho uses a natural metaphor to write ‘what is love? love is the falcons flight over your sands. Because for him, you are a green field which he always returns with game’ Coelho compares love to nature and this shows the significance of love in turn. Conclusively, Santiago and Siddhartha show the importance of embracing selfishness while sacrificing some comfort. Without self-involvement it is impossible to discover one’s self or achieves one’s personal legend.
Additionally the authors suggest those who possess the strength and wisdom to know which things are valuable and which should be sacrificed, reach their highest potential. Through their protagonists, the authors highlight the rarity of such people; the kind that can reject wealth and love for enlightenment. They believe the love and wealth can delay or distract people from their true path which may provide temporary fulfilment but it doesn’t last. They are both heavily influences by the concept of having faith in one’s destiny and standing by this destiny in order to reap the rewards.
