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5. Smart
As a thoughtful boy, Santiago uses his logic and conscience many times in order to comprehend situation and people he meets during his shepherding as well
as to well respond toward them and to decide next steps he takes during his journey to Egypt shows that he is a brainy boy.
Santiago is a great learner. He has great willingness to know things. Thus that curiosity leads him to be critical toward people, situations, as well as himself.
This critical thinking, which is seen on his attitude toward circumstances, makes him a good observer. He observes the surroundings in order to collect sufficient
data, thus the data also he uses as comparison or as further sampling so he can have adequate analysis on the circumstances, that lead him into better conclusion
that assist him to get better understanding toward the matter, as a new source knowledge for him or further it helps him to make decision in some cases.
The collaboration of such great curiosity and good logic leads him to be a good autodidact. Thus, his ability to extract values and knowledge from his
experiences during his travelling nourishes his character as a person, as a wise yet young man, and to be not just an ordinary shepherd.
He has the idea of proper things, such as the way of being proper shepherd. After two years being a shepherd, he has learned everything about
shepherding. He knows how to shear sheep, how to care for pregnant one, and how to protect the sheep from wolves. He learns the fair price for every one of his
animals p.12. This attitude is also shown when he meets the strangers in Tangier who takes his money, he thinks about asking to give the money back, but decides
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that will be unfriendly. He believes he knows nothing about the customs of the strange land he is in, and so he does not ask the money back, but keeps eye on
them instead. p.17 Besides the knowledge of propriety, he develops his logic ability by
observing and gathering facts in order to get sufficient information to lead him analyzing the situation and will lead him to a response for many situations he
faced. As seen when he was in a gypsy‟s place to interpret his dream. The lady scares him, but by observing surrounding, he found the symbol of Catholicism her
place, Sacred Heart of Jesus, he decided to think that this lady is not dangerous for him.
As a child, the boy had always been frightened to death that he would be captured by Gypsies, and this childhood fear returned when the old woman
took his hands in hers. But she has the Sacred Heart of Jesus there, he thought, trying to reassure himself. He didnt want his hand to begin
trembling, showing the old woman that he was fearful. He recited an Our Father silently. p.5
In many situations, Santiago meets several obstacles. Since he travels
alone, he finds he has to decide everything by himself. As stated before, in order to make an analysis toward the situation, Santiago gathers sufficient information
before deciding something. Thus, it results on wiser decision making. The information can be in form of a facts he identifies, symbols he saw or
so called omens, or even his past knowledge retroactive knowledge in the form of his memory of what his older men told him or what people said or what he has
read in the books. As seen when the king approaches him while he is sitting and reading on a bench in the town plaza, he actually feels disturbed. But he finally
does not avoid the man, but having conversation instead. As he assesses his
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retroactive memories, about what his father taught about respecting the elder, it allows him to well respond to this stranger annoying old man.
The boy was tempted to be rude, and move to another bench, but his father had taught him to be respectful of the elderly. So he held out the book to
the man - for two reasons: first, that he, himself, wasnt sure how to pronounce the title; and second, that if the old man didnt know how to
read, he would probably feel ashamed and decide of his own accord to change benches. p.8
As a defense mechanism, he made reasoning. He also tries to connect one
past event to another in the present to make sampling of possibilities that will occur in the future. His critical thinking makes him not easy to believe in stranger
as the king that approach him in sudden. The old woman hadnt charged him anything, but the old man maybe he
was her husband- was going to find a way to get much more money in exchange for information about something that didnt even exist. The old
man was probably a Gypsy, too. p.8
Santiago‟s attitude of being a thoughtful boy and good observer enable him to be a good autodidact. During the long journey he is going to conduct,
being an autodidact and broad minded to learn new thing every day is really useful and prepares him for the new values of life he will find later on.
Ive learned things from the sheep, and Ive learned things from crystal, he thought. I can learn something from the desert, too. It seems old and
wise….. But he found it much more interesting to observe the caravan and listen to the wind. As soon as he had learned to know his camel better, and
to establish a relationship with him, he threw the book away. Although the boy had developed a superstition that each time he opened the book he
would learn something important, he decided it was an unnecessary burden. He became friendly with the camel driver who traveled alongside
him. At night, as they sat around the fire, the boy related to the driver his adventures as a shepherd.pp.32-33
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6. Religious
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