Lesson: The Alchemist Lessons
Aim: How can our understanding and analysis of The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, be used to apply close reading strategies to create double entry journals?
Do Now: We were assigned to Think/Pair/Share with our classmates. We had to answer the question, The proverb, “Nana korobi, ya oki” means “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” How might the ideals contained within this proverb apply to The Alchemist?
My answer to the Do Now is that the proverb means to keep trying and to never give up. The classmate I Think/Pair/Share with was VIlton and he says it’s okay to fall back but it’s okay Armaan says the proverb means to never give up.
What point of view is the story told from?
The story is being told in the 3rd person.
Class begins to start spirit reading the following (red font color shows spirit reading):
The story is told from the perspective of a 3rd person omniscient narrator
What does this mean?
an outside narrator (not a character in the story) who knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story, omniscient means “all knowing”)
What are some of the other points of view?
1st person the narrator speaks about their own views/experiences using ‘I’.
2nd person the narrator tells the story to another character/audience using the word 'you’.
3rd person limited narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character.
What is the genre of the novel?
The genre of the novel is fable.
The Alchemist is written in a fable format
What is a fable?
Fables- stories that use recognizable, simple characters and settings in order to illustrate a simple truth about life or human nature, express a message.
Why would Coelho use it to tell his story? What is he attempting to teach?
Coelho is trying to tell the readers to follow their dreams.
The novel begins in Spain and as Santiago journeys to find his treasure the story is brought to many lands:
Andalusian city of Tarifa
Across the Strait of Gibraltar
Tangier, Morocco
Across the Sahara desert to Egypt
Students answer the question: How does the setting of the desert play a significant role in Santiago's journey?
The setting of the desert plays a significant role in Santiago’s journey because the desert is a hard terrain and you would have to sacrifice things. Importance of the journey.
Students write a short description for each character.
Santiago
The Alchemist
The Crystal Merchant
The Englishman
Fatima
Melchizedek
Gypsy
(n) a medieval chemical science and philosophy aiming to achieve the altering of base metals into gold; the discovery of a universal cure for disease and the discovery of a means to indefinitely prolong life
Alchemy has a literal importance in the novel as the medieval “science” of transforming rocks to gold. How does this become symbolic? (what do you think “gold” and “rocks” represent?)
Gold represents the perfect metal and rock represents nothing.
How does the king explain the concept of the personal legend to Santiago on page 21?
Telling him it’s a goal and it’s what you want to achieve in life. What you actually want to do.
Personal Legend- whatever the person has, perhaps unconsciously “always wanted to accomplish”. A person’s dreams, yearnings, and goals all relate to the concept of the personal legend.
unifying principle and a positive force for getting closer to one’s heart-felt wish
Interconnectedness between living and non-living things
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change.
What are some of the omens that Santiago encounters on his journey? Urim and Thummim
Activity: Kahoot at the end of class
Reflection: During today’s lesson, I was able to learn new things from the google slides. I was able to learn the difference between all the points of view. I learned the difference between all the points of view so I can identify them in new books. I learned that the genre of The Alchemist is a fable. I also learned what the definition of Alchemy is. I learned this to help me get a better understanding of what the title of the book means. This is what I learned in today’s class and this is how it will help me
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