The Alchemist

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Melchizedek, Joseph, and Narcissus Walk into the Desert…”

Students will think about the messages of their own heroes and what they learn from those figures in a modified version of Santiago’s journey.

On a slip of paper, write down the name of one of your heroes. Then imagine that Santiago encounters this person during his journey. What lesson might he learn from them? Briefly identify the hero with a description or a summary of accomplishments. When you are finished, add your own name, fold up your paper, and place it in the box in the front of the room.

• Your teacher will sort the class into groups by pulling the papers in sets of three. Then all the papers will be returned to the box and shuffled.
• Draw a hero’s name from the box and get together with the other students in your group. As a team, formulate aloud a retelling of Santiago’s journey. The start and the end of the journey will be the same: He begins with a dream and ends by returning to the ruined church. However, instead of meeting Melchizedek, the crystal merchant, or the alchemist, he will meet the three heroes you and your group members pulled at random. What lessons would they impart to him?
•  Discuss and confer for approximately 15 minutes, retelling the story aloud and summarizing what Santiago and each hero would do and say. One person should act as the group’s reporter, writing down the group’s general ideas.

When all groups are ready, the other two group members will present to the class your group’s narrative retelling.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might be intimidated by the task of plugging in modern or unfamiliar heroes to Coelho’s story; you may want to encourage them to be creative, or to briefly investigate a hero online for ideas. Questions throughout the creative process and during sharing will benefit storytellers and listeners: How do these heroes change the story? How might they update it, making it more inclusive—for example, less male-centered?

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who might benefit from a visual learning task, group members could instead choose to draw Santiago’s journey in which he meets their heroes in a series of sketches with captions.