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coincidental occurrence of words or ideas to the need of action and change. In the early of the story, Santiago tells to himself that he is bored of his activity of
traveling. Everyday in two years he has doing the same activities and has passing the Andalusia many times. he feels that he needs more action to change and
develope, maybe doing some more interesting job. He declares his situation like a simply book, he says that he
“has to start reading thicker books; they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows Coelho, 1993: 3, for the more great
the experience he gets the more satisfying his life. This wish is not only the inner problem but also the call. It signifies that in the deep of the hero
’s mind, he actually needs a new, great, and worth experience for his life like a thicker book.
Moreover, the wish indicates that the hero is a selected person to get the call for adventure.
Beside the wish, a recurrent dream has put Santiago in curious thought. “I
wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had
awakened before it ended” Coelho, 1993: 4. The aim of the call that comes more than once is to get the response from
Santiago. For, the call to adventure will always come through the hero’s inner self
like the wish or dream until it gets a response.
b. The Call is Brought by the Herald
The call generally is brought by the herald with such temptations and knowledge to awaken the hero that he must undertake the adventure. A curious
thought about the dream has brought Santiago to a Gipsy woman to interpret the dream. This datum is a depiction when Santiago tells the Gipsy woman that he
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gets the same dream twice when he sleeps in the abandoned church under a sycamore tree:
I have had the same dream twice, he said. I dreamed that I was in a field with my sheep,”…. The child went on playing with my sheep for
quite a while, and suddenly, the child took me by both hands and transported me to the Egyptian pyramids. Then, at the Egyptian pyramids,
the child said to me, ‗If you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.’ And, just as she was about to show me the exact location, I woke up. Both
times. Coelho, 1993: 13
The dream is the call to adventure since it happens more than once and gives such temptation. The dream is about a rumour of treasure that there is a
hidden treasure in Egyptian pyramids. The kid in Santiago’s dream is a herald
from the unconscious realm who invites him to an adventure, whereas the treasure is the temptation that the kid has brought to persuade Santiago. A Gipsy woman is
the herald of the real world who tries to interpret the dream and encourages Santiago with some knowledge to take the journey. She tells him the knowledge
that “a dream is the language of the world” Coelho, 1993: 14 and she insists the
boy that “you must go to the Pyramids in Egypt. I have never heard of them, but,
if it was a child who showed them to you, they exist. There you will find a treasure that
will make you a rich man” Coelho, 1993: 14. The archetype of the herald, either the kid or the Gipsy woman, is served to keep the story rolling by
presenting Santiago with an invitation of challenge like going to the unknown. Santiago
doesn’t know where the Egypt or the Pyramids are. Thus, responding this call to undertake the journey is the greatest challenge he has ever met and if
he takes the call, this challenge will be the means to his ultimate destiny.
