Author: naveh.2

Text Review: The Alchemist

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The Alchemist Text Review

Sara Naveh

The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who follows his personal legend to find treasure in Egypt from Spain. Along the way, he interacts with people of varying cultures, backgrounds, and opinions to achieve his goal. However, this magical story takes a twist when he learns of the Alchemist, a man with the ability to turn lead to gold, and who can create the Elixir of Life- a liquid that can heal all sickness.

Santiago is from Spain, but in his role as a shepherd, has the opportunity to travel across Europe to sell his sheep’s products, and make money. In his travels, he meets Melchizedek (the King of Salem), the Alchemist (a 200-year-old alchemist who not only has the power to stop death and produce gold but knows the truth about the Soul of the World), the crystal merchant (a Muslim man who hires Santiago to help him make enough money to travel to Egypt), the Englishman (the man who travels with Santiago to understand the secrets of alchemy), and many other interesting characters of different cultures.

Santiago’s main goal in the book is to follow his personal legend to find treasure, but quickly falls in love with a girl who bought wool from him, then a girl named Fatima who lived in the Oasis with the Alchemist. This book shows the conflict between love and riches, as well as the astounding cultural diversity of the Mediterranean region.

The main themes in this book revolve around following one’s personal legend- the key to living a true and satisfying life- and the unity of nature and the world. While Santiago experiences a variety of countries, cultures, religions, languages, and beliefs, there is a certain unity present throughout his entire journey. His interactions with people of different backgrounds are each unique and beautiful, whether they foster conflict or harmony. Each person and group provide him with information and experience to continue his journey to a complete, satisfactory life.

In Santiago’s travels as a shepherd, he is seen as free and independent, but also thought of as a lower-class individual. He does not have parents, but rather lives off of his sheep and his travels. As he moves through his journey, he meets people in positions of power, and he is typically seen as the Other, which is very different for him. When he stops in Africa, for example, he gets into a conflict with the people who live there, and he is thought of as a thief and a scandal because of his race. When he arrives at the Oasis, he is not trusted at first, as he is a different race and religion than those who live there.

The Alchemist seeks to take its readers on a journey across cultures and show that while we all have our differences, everyone is fundamentally the same, and that we are all people of the Earth.

Context Research Presentation: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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Context Research Presentation: Terrorism in 2001

 

In this contextualization of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, we will be discussing the tragic event that occurred in December of 2001- the Indian Parliament Attack. Changez mentions this attack briefly in relation to his experience as a Pakistani man, as well as in relation to 9/11. After reading this, I hope that his references to this attack and his lack of sympathy to the attack on the twin towers makes a little bit more sense- as most of us likely don’t know much about the Indian Parliament Attack. I also hope that this helps Changez’ background to make a little bit more sense, and that his opinions on terrorism, American involvement/tragedy, and Pakistan’s presence in the world are much clearer and more contextualized.

As I was reading, I realized that the conflict between India and Pakistan, as well as Changez’ background in Pakistan were a little unclear to me, as I don’t have a lot of knowledge about southern Asian culture and history. This research definitely helped me to understand the story, and I also feel much more well versed in such a significant topic to both India and Pakistan. It is important to remember that in America, we live in a bubble. If we don’t make the effort to learn about these kinds of events, it is likely that we will live not knowing about them. Terrorist attacks and other horrible events are not unique to us, and it is imperative that we remember to think about others and their struggles, at the same time as our own.

About halfway through The Reluctant Fundamentalist, we learn about the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, around three months after the attack on 9/11. While it doesn’t seem to have much to do with Pakistan, it is interesting to note that the terrorists were Pakistani based (not affiliated with the government). These terrorists might have had to do with Osama Bin-Ladin, and it is known that he had escaped to Pakistan after his attack on the Twin Towers.

It was discovered that Jaish-e-Muhammad was the terrorist organization that orchestrated the attack. This organization is a Pakistani terrorist group led by Masood Azhar, a 51-year-old cleric. This attack was fundamentally a car bombing of the parliament in New Delhi, India on December 13, 2001- just over 3 months after the attack on 9/11. It is said that the attack involved a 22-year-old man on a suicide mission, and Jaish made it known that they had thousands of other soldiers who were ready to take similar action.

This terrifying event in India immediately sprung preventative measures and actions were taken to ensure that they would never happen again. Azhar was immediately the most wanted terrorist in India. At almost the same time, Bin Ladin was the most wanted terrorist in America. While these two terrible attacks seemed to have no similarities, India was going through a terrorist attack at almost the same time that we were, and many had no idea that this was going on.

Additionally, the attack on the Indian Parliament sprung a sort of “war” between India and Pakistan at the time, as Changez tells the American in The Reluctant Fundamentalist. He talks about the discrepancy in Pakistan at the time, where many wondered if this attack had anything to do with them. Similarly, many Americans stereotyped those from the middle east (and/or Muslims) as being terrorists. Sadly, this stereotype remains active today, as we see closed-minded Americans being rude and discriminatory towards Muslims.

Changez reflected on his own reaction to the attack on the Indian Parliament, and it is very interesting to notice his dismay and terror being from the country that the terrorists had come from. He didn’t even know about the attack on the Twin Towers and was surprised to notice his own reaction to it. His reaction to the attack on 9/11 was strangely pleasure. He noticed that after the attack on the Indian Parliament, America did not come help, and he believed that his country was used as a “pawn”, so he likely intrinsically wanted America to suffer as well. Interestingly, he was in conversation with an American when this opinion was shared, which would likely cause anyone to be taken aback.

Now, Azhar and the rest of Jaish-e-Muhammad are still on the run, after having just committed a terrorist attack in February of 2019 against India, causing intense defensive attacks from India in retribution. This war between India and Pakistan has been longstanding and will likely continue for a long time. While we don’t learn much about these southern Asian conflicts, it is important to know- not only for the context of this book.

 

Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit. “The Terrorist Who Got Away.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/magazine/masood-azhar-jaish.html.

Diary of Systemic Injustices SHOWCASE: Racism in America

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As a college student, I am now completely responsible for taking care of myself, which involves going grocery shopping. A few weeks ago, I walked about half a mile south down High Street to Kroger with my roommate to pick up some more food for my dorm. As we were shopping, we noticed that a majority of the people shopping were black, with some college students mixed in. My roommate (who was born and raised near campus) told me that the area that we were in was more known as a “black neighborhood”, and that not only is Columbus diverse in the sense of social class, but also by race. She said that there were poor white neighborhoods, poor black neighborhoods, rich white neighborhoods, and rich black neighborhoods. This is how it had always been.

As we walked around, I realized that there were police officers scattered around the grocery store, all of whom were white. I noticed that as I went through the aisles, none of them blinked an eye, but they seemed to follow the black shoppers much more closely. As I was leaving the store with my groceries, none of the police officers seemed to notice me holding my groceries, but I watched as they followed the black people with their eyes, as if to imply that they were doing something wrong. Now, as a white person, I have not personally experienced poor treatment due to my race, but I have noticed it happen to others.

It hurts me to see that even in 2020, over 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, many in our society still see people as only a skin color, nothing more, nothing less. If things don’t start to change in our society, if those in positions of power or those who believe themselves to be superior to others based on their race don’t begin to see through the color of someone’s skin, where will we be in 10 years? 20? 50? This inequality and injustice that I experienced wasn’t violent, or even verbal, but to be in the position of one of those people being scanned by white police officers must be terrifying and hurtful, and this feeling should not be felt by anyone in our country.

After reflecting on this experience over 6 weeks later, I still am in disbelief. I am still wondering how, in 2020, people still think that they are superior to others due to their race. How can your skin tone, the amount of melanin present in your skin, cause you to belief that you are different from others? The police officers in this store did not use physical violence, or even verbal communication to degrade these black Americans. They instead used intimidation, dominance, and sheer presence to make those in the store feel uncomfortable.

This reminds me of the concept of the subaltern in Can the Subaltern Speak? by Spivak. When one asks this question, it is not to ask if they can literally form words. Rather, it is asking if others will truly hear them when they speak up for themselves. The answer, in today’s America, is sadly NO. Our country is unable to eliminate racial discrimination by opening its eyes enough to realize that we are all the same. We are all humans.

Currently, black people in America are being treated terribly, especially after the terrible loss of George Floyd earlier this year. However, we cannot even begin to assume that this is a new concept. Systemic racism has been present in our country and in the world for generation and will continue until people wake up and realize that they are no different from others, but it is a collective effort. The subaltern in our society today (at least in this example) is the black community of America, and they cannot, in fact, speak. While they can be heard by those willing to listen and to ignore the unfortunate presence of racism in our country, they cannot be heard by all- and therefore, not heard.

We need this to end. We need to band together, buckle up, and get going to end racism and discrimination in our country. It is already too late.