Urim & Thummim
Santiago, the main character of the novel The Alchemist, is a shepherd. He loves his sheep, and he has become their guide through everything and anything in the region of Andalusia in the country of Spain. Santiago himself speaks of their blind faith in him at one point when he thinks, “They [the sheep] trust me, and they’ve forgotten how to rely on their own instincts, because I lead them to nourishment.” (Coelho 7) Santiago is quite pleasant with being a shepherd. That is, until he has a dream about the Pyramids and has it translated by a Gypsy woman. After he is told that this dream means he is to find his treasure at the Great Pyramids, an old man sits beside and converses with Santiago. The old man claims he is king of Salem and writes the thoughts, parent’s names, and past of Santiago. Some of the things written by the king of Salem were only known by Santiago. This evidence along with the king’s knowledge of Santiago’s dream and mission causes Santiago to realize that this old man really is who he says he is: the king of Salem. The king, after receiving a tithe of Santiago’s sheep, told the shepherd of one’s Personal Legend. “To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only obligation.” (Coelho 22) Santiago not only gleaned some wisdom off this old man; he is given two stones to keep. One is black, the other white. They are omens, named Urim and Thummim, and they signify (respectively) yes and no. It is with these stones Santiago makes his mistake.
The mistake occurs after Santiago reaches Tangier. At this point in the shepherd’s journey, he becomes a victim of thievery. This occurs because Santiago does not know Arabic and must rely upon a false friend, who tells Santiago the owner of the café where the shepherd had just eaten wishes to steal from Santiago. In reality, the fake accomplice is the thief, and the restaurant owner was attempting to warn Santiago of this fact. The thief gets Santiago’s money and leaves him all alone in the foreign (to the Spaniard shepherd) city of Tangier. This lack of knowledge of Arabic or his misinterpretation of the café owner’s emotion is not the aberration. His ignorance of Arabic is due to his being a shepherd in Spain since he was sixteen and the lack of comprehension of the dream that thrusts Santiago upon his journey. Before, he had no need to learn Arabic; he was to simply be a shepherd in Andalusia!
No, the mistake is made a little while later, when Santiago attempts to follow Urim and Thummim as blindly as his sheep trailed him. Prior to leaving Spain, Santiago swore to make his own decisions, as the king of Salem bid him to do on Santiago’s leave of Spain. The mistake occurred when Santiago asks if he will find his treasure. Both stones are held in a single pouch, and as the former shepherd reached to grab one as an answer, both fall out of a hole in the pouch he did not know existed. Santiago, rather than get upset, smiles, recognizing this as an omen of sorts, a reminder of his oath to make his own choices. The answer to his question would determine whether or not to continue on his quest, and thus inhibit his ability to truly make his own path. If the answer had been given to him, Santiago would be no wiser than the sheep he once led through Andalusia. However, the boy realized his mistake and became wiser through this small trial.
The novel The Alchemist was written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian author whose books are often philosophically and spiritually revealing. He writes in the way of a parable, a tale meant to be spiritually and mentally stimulating. This information should be kept in mind when discussing any characteristic of any of Coelho’s novels. When Santiago made the error of asking his omen-stones a question that would ultimately cause some kind of alteration in his journey, Coelho wished for the reader to modify their concept of Santiago. Coehlo wanted the reader to take the image of Santiago the Andalusian shepherd boy and defenestrate it; he desired for the reader to accept the image of a man more mature and philosophically inclined in his thought processes than before, a much wiser version of the Santiago previously seen. This seemingly small event represents a big change in the protagonist of this tale, and Coelho wishes for the reader to note this as a major event rather than a microscopic one.
Before Santiago leaves Spain, he is still as a child of sorts. All he wishes to do is travel, which is the reason he became a shepherd. Prior to Santiago becoming a shepherd, however, he studied Latin, Spanish, and theology at a seminary. His parents were a simple farm folk, and becoming a priest would invoke pride in them. At age sixteen, Santiago realized he desired to go and see other places rather than just the seminary and his family’s farm. After making sure his son was not just going through a phase, Santiago’s father gave the boy three gold coins to buy sheep with and so gave Santiago his blessing. That is when Santiago became a kind of adolescent man; a boy caught between caged freedom and true freedom. He had to recognize his Personal Legend and fulfill it in order to truly become free, and as the book nears its end, likewise does the journey of Santiago to pursue his Personal Legend. In order for Santiago to satisfy his destiny, he must become wise. Coelho aims for the reader to notice that Santiago transforms from semi-ignorant shepherd to sage-like achiever of his Personal Legend, for that is the ultimate path of all who travel through life’s journeys.