"The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived
with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and
an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood."
Santiago travels from the hills of Andalusia, through the markets of Tangier, across the Sahara desert, and to the Pyramids of Giza in search of treasure and his Personal Legend. Along the way, Coelho brings each of these settings vividly to life in the mind of the reader, helping them to understand not only what Santiago is physically seeing and experiencing but also what impressions these places are leaving on him. Who we are and how we are in this world is often a product, in part, of where we have lived. Have you ever stopped to consider this about yourself?
Discuss one (or more) of the settings of The Alchemist and why it is important to the story being told by Coelho.
Which settings have played a role in shaping your story? How might you describe them to someone else in order to convey the ways in which they have impacted you?
