Please extend one of the ideas we discussed in class today here:
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts--great job today.
Best,
AK
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In the beginning was the word...
Berwick Academy's World Literature class. A blog that dabbles in Universal Truths and steeped in true thoughts. A judgment free zone that promotes thoughtful conversations about difficult questions.
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The Invisible Man
In the beginning was the word...
14 comments:
Stemming off of what I said in class today, I think Santiago’s journey and everyone’s personal legend is to discover that pain and happiness, and lead and gold, are not the same things. However, they must share a similar quality, which has led us into our perpetual state of confusion and error. The simple notions of dreams and realities separate them. The lead and pain are realities for those who don’t follow their legends and the gold and happiness are their dreams. Inversely, those who follow their legends are living among the gold and happiness, and the negative has no place in their lives. Yet, at the same time the alchemist turns lead into gold, and perhaps pain can be turned into happiness, which would lead us to believe that happiness has traces of pain and gold has traces of lead. If this is not true and the idea that we must suffer before we can be happy is the world’s biggest lie then our only true task must be to decide which one we want to embrace. This is the job of the desert or in Bishop’s opinion, our hearts. As Santiago travels closer to the positive or happiness he learns to trust and rely on his heart. However, the desert still represents a solid separation between the positive and the negative. Unless we follow where our hearts are leading us, we will wander no closer to either side. The abyss has no direction and therefore no destination, and Santiago’s journey has a destination. The unknown in his case is where exactly his destination is. If the negative side of life is the beginning of his journey, I find it interesting that he ends up in the same physical place as where he started. Perhaps he is ending in the same state all together with just a small knowledge of the desert and his heart. The desert is the unknown and filled with discovery. Santiago’s desert has shrunk due to his journey and maybe gold and lead are a lot closer together than they were before.
So the desert...Yeah, I'm feeling a little lost in the desert, but I did have an idea I've been puzzling over.
I said the desert was a neutral force, and as the class went on, I became less and less convinced. However, if it is, as Mr. Kasprzak suggested at the end of class, that the desert is the heart, is the heart active or passive? Man of action versus man of thought, again.
"Everything we know was taught to us by the desert," (107) said one of the chieftains when the boy went to explain the vision he'd had of approaching armies. But that being said, wasn't there also a part (and I've looked, but I can't find it again-- so if anyone does remember where it was, I'd love to know) that said that the heart tells you more what you'd like to hear? It only reaffirms things, essentially. I hope I remembered that idea correctly!
Because, if that is how the idea was presented, then isn't that a passive action? And the desert...it doesn't act against the boy in any way, or really help him until he calls on it (I'm thinking of the wind scene). I guess neutral was the wrong word. But, like the boy, "I don't know if the desert can be a friend" (65).
But maybe that's still not the right idea...maybe Dan's idea of the desert as a transitionary place is more accurate. The problem is, my original idea and the active/passive thought (which may be the same, I'm having trouble differentiating between thoughts lately) gives the desert the role of a living entity. Dan's desert is more of a place. Can it be both? Is it neither?
Maybe all this is moot, and "Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees" (87).
I'm also having trouble with the idea of alchemy as separating things. I think that's too negative. Like Dan's idea of the desert, I think of alchemy as being more about the transitions, the change that happens in the middle. I think the true alchemist is less concerned with making gold as being able to move from the leaden life of unfulfillment to the much more satisfactory golden life, which represents much happier things. As the alchemist said upon turning the lead into gold, "I wanted to show you that it was possible" (155). Sort of like what Christian was saying, I think the alchemist doesn't necessarily need a balance between the lead and the gold, but instead acknowledges the lead but does not accept it, per se. Therefore, he challenges himself to change it.
I hoped I'd have sorted out my ideas better by the end of this, but no such luck.
The desert is definitely the inbetween of the current state and the personal legend. Sand may be the physical representation of the desert, but the actual meaning or underlying purpose as to what the desert is is something which can't be revealed through the physical state. The separation between the current state and personal legend is necessary because a personal legend must be found, not handed out. The journey across the desert is a search in oneself which leads me to challenge the idea that the desert is a place of waiting. Waiting for the answer is the same idea as Fate. The downside of Fate is that one is powerless and has no way of knowing. Even though the boy follows omens, he's aware of where he's going and is still directing himself. The Alchemist helps when the boy looks to him for a direct answer and guidance by simply telling the boy to look inside himself, to follow his heart, because that is where the answers lie. Pain and Happiness, Lead and Gold, Life and Death, all have crossing points where transformation takes place. Just like the boy, a transformation occurs throughout his journey, perhaps a journey through his heart, in finding his treasure. This shows how vital the desert is. It's what links the current state and the personal legend, showing how each state relies on the other.
Today in class when we were talking about the crystal and his immortal pain, I came to the realization of what the desert is. The desert is the obstacle within yourself that challenges you to discover yourself. The crystal merchant lets his pain control him. If he were to cross the desert, literally or figuratively, he would become control of himself. Before Santiago crosses the desert, he lets his emotions and moods control him. He nearly gives up on his personal legend once he is robbed when he first enters Africa. His actions are dictated by the people he meets and the omens he stumbles upon. It is as though he does not want to take responsibility for his actions. The people he meets in the beginning of the book (the king, the crystal merchant, and the boy who robbed him) influence his decision making. The king convinced him to pursue his personal legend. The boy who robbed him and his experience working with the crystal merchant almost turn him completely against his personal legend. Once he crosses the desert, he controls himself. He dictates what he decides to do. He looked within himself to find his treasure. The desert helped Santiago gain control of himself and gain confidence in his decisions. The characters in this book are symbols of Santiago at different points in his life. They are all part of Santiago. The crystal merchant is Santiago at the point in his life after he gets robbed when he first enters Africa. Santiago, like the crystal merchant, is letting external activities run his life. The crystal merchant is being controlled by his eternal pain and Santiago is being controlled by the depression and disbelief of losing everything. He is yet to realize that (just like in fight club), he must lose everything in order to have the opportunity to have anything. The alchemist is the boy after he has conquered the desert and therefore himself. The internal confidence and control that the alchemist illustrates are part of the boy. The alchemist is in the desert because he is a catalyst to helping people discover themselves. He is helping Santiago to see the difference between life and death. When Santiago realizes his Personal Legend at the end of the story, it is not the treasure that he has discovered, it is himself.
Dylan Martini
Continuing the discussion from class today, the desert is a neutral area that separates lead-gold, fate-free will and such. I believe that you can go even one step further with this idea. It's a bit of a stetch but here it goes. I think that you can tie this into the theme "to be, or not to be." Whether to take the initiative and follow your personal legend, even if it means forgetting about some of the things you love, or think you love, or not pursuing your personal legend and waiting for things to happen for your. These are the descriptions of Santiago, and the Crystal shop owner. Santiago, although it was difficult at times, let go of his sheep, his job, and his love of his life, to chase and hopefully obtain his personal legend. The Crystal shop owner did not want to follow his personal dream of going to Mecca. He thought if he obtained his personal dream, there would be nothing else to live for. These are the two sides that the desert lays between. You must cross the desert, and chase your personal dream, and if "maktub" is true, and it is indeed written, you will be lead back to the things you gave up along the way. Crossing the desert, to be or not to be.
Shaun Millerick
I have a lot of different ideas about what the desert might be. I suppose its possible that they are all true, but also possible that none of them are. In class we talked about the desert in many ways. Everywhere from a waiting place to a living thing that challenges you while on your quest for your personal legend. Right now I am thinking of the desert as an agent of change. Much like the Alchemist and the philosophers stone. The desert provides what an individual needs in order to change and realize his personal legend. In other words, it is the desert that helps a person turn their pain into happiness. However, the desert was not always an agent of change, just like it was not always a desert. It is an agent of change because it has changed. It went from a sea to a dried ocean of sand. Just like the Alchemist is an agent of change because he changed. Let me clarify the last statement. The Alchemist was able to achieve his personal legend of becoming an alchemist. In doing so, he was forced to change. It is not revealed how he did it, but we know that it happened. Since then, he returned to the desert and helped Santiago realize his personal legend, therefor making him, the Alchemist, an agent of change.
We were also given more than that. In the book we were told that, "only the hand could preform miracles, or transform the sea into a desert... or a man into the wind"(152). Going off of this quotation, the only true agent of change would be the hand that wrote it all, otherwise know as the soul of the world. "And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul"(152). Making this realization is what ultimately transforms the boy, the Alchemist, and the desert into what they need to be in order to achieve their personal legend, and not only that, but it transforms them into agents of change, because they realize that only one thing is ultimately capable of making that change and that they are that one thing. I think that this idea relates back to the conflict of fate and freewill, as well as maktub. Everyone went on the assumption that everything was predetermined because it was all written by the same hand, but what they did not realize was that the hand was their own. This means that people are able to determine what their own future holds in store.
“I find myself in the middle of an eye, watching myself in its blank stare.
The moment scatters. Motionless, I stay and go: I am a pause.”
Here you are in the middle of the desert listening to the wind, watching the sand, learning nonverbal secrets, realizing the enormity of the world, seeing the vastness and understanding your place in it. Here you are completely exposed to the world and the world completely exposed to you. The sight is overwhelming. You take a minute to stop and to think.
I see the desert as a pause; as the place where you can find the time and space to admit to yourself that the universe is something immense and largely uncontrollable. In humbly becoming aware of this fact you can begin to own your existence and manage the direction of your life – controlling what you can, but not falling apart over what you can’t. I see this process of ambition and acceptance as human alchemy and like the metals we can “free ourselves of all our individual properties and what is left would be the Soul of the World” (80). Some would argue that Santiago is constantly moving through the desert, striving toward some attainable goal on the other side, others believe the desert is a “waiting place” of sorts, but I would say the crucial part of his desert experience could just as easily have taken place if he sat down in the sand and just actively observed, listened and reflected. The key is to sort things out like we did on the board in class: the lead must be separated from the gold like the pain must be separated from the happiness. That division is mental and emotional purification, which ultimately leads to a kind of unity as you discover that your personal legend and your current state of being have become the same thing. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius.” I would say instead that it’s finding your personal legend. I don’t know if I fully understand the concept of the desert actually being the heart, but I do understand the desert being the process through which one can reach the depths of their heart and understand themselves more fully.
Perhaps the worlds greatest lie is that we must feel pain before happiness, but I can not see any other way to gain happiness. With out pain, how can we know what happiness truely is? With out lead how would we know what is gold? With out one, the other simply cannot exist. The pain is what awakens you and the desert is the way out if you so choose. The desert can either lull you into unconsciousness, a state where you believe that the pain and suffereing will one day lead to happiness, or it can awaken and revitalize you to fiercely pursue a life of happiness. To be able to overcome the pain and separate it from true happiness, we have to endure the desert. The separation and distinction of the two is curtail to discovering your personal legend.
Once the choice has been made that you ‘don’t want to hurt anymore’ the struggle beings. The desert tests all who cross it, it places omens at every turn but instead of following these omens, your heart has to become your guide. Making the choice to listen to yourself proves that you are able to decide your own journey, no longer resting on the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of Urim and Thummim. The desert is the space that separates pain from happiness, lead from gold. It is a real place that you must venture across but a mental journey as well. To be active in the journey to your personal legend one can not cross the desert allowing fate to decide. Because the desert is a place of separation, it is easy to be misguided and end up back where you began, believing that pain is happiness. To listen to your own heart will get you to a place of true happiness. The desert is a holy space, a space where you must decide by using your heart and making the journey.
The desert is dry and hot. And I want to get out.
Except the thing is, I don’t think that I can escape it, nor do I think that Santiago could have escaped it either. I don’t think that he ever will. His desert, or his heart, will always by a sort of vast unknown. After all, it is a desert. I think that pain is a necessity to achieving happiness, but I do not mean excruciating physical pain. The sort of pain that I am talking about is the pain that makes your heart ache and burn. Fatima was one of Santiago’s pains. He yearned to return to her, but the alchemist urged him to continue on, for I think that the alchemist recognized that pain creates desire. As soon as the boy reached his treasure, he could return to Fatima. Another instance of “pain” was when Santiago’s money was stolen by his “friend.” Santiago had been betrayed and was on the verge of giving up on his Personal Legend, but his pain took him to the top of the hill in the market where the crystal merchant had a shop, and there he made money and formed a friendship and revived his desire to achieve his Personal Legend. Doesn’t that make pain worth it.
What I was thinking yesterday when the two circles were put on the board with the line in the middle was that the two circles were past and future and the desert was the present. (I should also mention that I thought that the line in the middle should have been an ellipsis because the desert is an unknown, except, maybe, only to God. And the person who is in the desert has to finish what has already been put in their heart by God—or god?) I don’t really know why that is what I thought of immediately but I think that it would fit into the diagram. The caravan driver was the one who told Santiago that he only lives in the present. And everything in the desert has to be the present. You can’t live in the past or the future because you always have to be aware, and it is the present that you have control over. Santiago knew what he wanted, but if he did not live in the present, reading the omens and following the instructions of the desert—his heart—then he could continue on his journey. He would not, however, he able to continue if he was living in the past, for he would be stuck thinking about Fatima or his sheep and he would want to turn back. And if he constantly looking toward the future, he would miss the omens and would run into tribal wars or would find himself in storm, not to mention he would be unable to communicate with the wind and the sun and God, all of whom saved his life on multiple occasions.
So what does this mean? I think that the desert is the heart, and I think that the desert is the present. Pain is within the desert but it is necessary—it is not the world’s greatest lie, for without pain, we lack the desire to continue. Pain is the force that drove Santiago to continue on his journey.
I wrote this poem during Calc just now. It is my understanding of the desert. There is no punctuation or line breaks, so the meter can go however feels best.
There are some that sleep at night others during the day I can't stand the comparisons I don't sleep at all I stay awake all the time watching the travelers sorting them by height & beauty I speak of longing love with sandy dustmen musical odyssey and the finest hashish they speak of truth in murmured prose they were once so pale their burned skin faded slowly they live off tourism but the visitors scared them off with scrutiny staring judgment it's the Americans Swedes Brits Israelis they push too hard but that's because they do things differently here and they miss the womb listen closely roundeyes can't hurt you infotainment can't hurt you guns can't hurt you tear down the Pyramids and it's still Egypt let urban sprawl consume your heart but keep your pockets full of sand open your heart and travel the world but never NEVER leave the desert.
I think that the desert is a neutral place. It has no positive of negative effect on Santiago's journey. He gains and loses while he crosses the desert, but that could happen anywhere. The desert simply is a place. I think it's important that it is the desert though, because the desert is one of the most barren and "blank" places in the world. The setting of the desert emphasizes the fact that the things that happen to the boy on his journey are because of a reason. I think the desert acts as a blank slate; a sort of path that links him to his treasure, even though it actually isn't there where he's led.
I agree that where the boy is coming from is seen as the negative and that what he's aiming for is the postive, but I also think that he shouldn't forget his past. The pain he went through with being robbed and having to sell his sheep, etc. helped lead him to where he is when he reaches his ultimate goal. Without those previous experiences he wouldn't have been "shaped" the same way. And in that sense I think that pain leads to happiness.
With that connection though I also don't agree that to know happiness you must experience true pain first. When the boy meets Fatima he feels happiness because he's found love. The boy has never before experienced hearbreak that causes him pain yet he feels happiness before the pain of having to leave Fatima to fullfill his Personal Legend. In this case, the happiness is first. I don't think it's a set statement. Pain can make you appreciate things more, therefore making you happier. But when you find something that truly makes you happy, there doesn't have to be pain to make you really appreciate it.
One of the things we talked about in class was the idea of the Desert being neutral. I think that the Desert is indeed neutral. If you put your mind to it you will always make it out of the Desert, but what you make of it is up to you. One of the things I picked up on, and kind of ran away with, was something that someone said in class. They said that the Desert is not neutral because the tribes are warring in it. I would argue that the tribes are only warring in the Desert because it is neutral. It is one of the few things that they can lay claim to, and battle over. While the people inside the Desert have their positive and negative influences, I do not think the Desert does.
I do not think the desert is your heart. It just doesn't sit right in my mind. I feel like I've been going with my gut most of the time with this book, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and this makes my heart squeeze. The idea that my heart, Santiago's heart, is a barren landscape with only random patches of nourished and healthy land disturbs me.
I think what Santiago has to separate are his heart and the desert; he must realize what distinguishes them from each other and then be able to blend them together again. His heart speaks to him along his journey, and is what allows him to commune with god and turn himself into a sandstorm. But this does not mean that they are one and the same. Like lead and gold, they may be made of the same essential ingredients (protons, electrons, etc.) but they are not interchangeable.
If we say then, that the desert is lead and the heart is gold, than it must be this transformation which alchemy speaks to. It is in the desert where Santiago learns to listen to his heart, which could arguably be the treasure that he finds in the end. It is in the desert where he finds love, the emotion most often associated with the heart (whether it is true or not is debatable). This is why the entire methodology of alchemy could be written on a single emerald; it is a basic human emotion. It is also undefinable, and often just beyond our reach, as is the practice of alchemy.
So I guess you are partially right mr. kasprzak; the desert is the heart in the sense that they are made of the same basic units, like lead and gold, and the practice of alchemy could arguably be separating the two, and finding the oasis in the middle of the desert.
If the desert is my heart then it is not a place I ever want to leave... Or perhaps it would simply be unwise of me to do so. In my heart there is happiness and pain, sometimes one outshines or overshadows the other. This can be overwhelming to a point where I wish to escape the desert, to numb myself. But the desert is a place of self-growth and self-learning, and to try to escape would leave me walking in aimless circles.
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