THE STRANGER and THE ALCHEMIST
Belief and Response Essay As one would make it through The Alchemist or The Stranger they would start to notice a clear separation of what each of these books portray. On one side you have The Alchemist which represents more of a positive outlook on life and following your dreams. On the other you have The Stranger which depicts more of a negative connotation on life. Although these two accounts seem far from each other, they present themes throughout the text that show up in both novels. A theme commonly noticed in both books is “love” and its effects on each books main character. Another is “the meaning of life”, which explains why we are here on this earth. The last is the idea of “destiny/fate”, which
The last theme these two books have in common would be the idea of “destiny/fate”. This idea tries to explain that everything happens for a reason. Inside of The Alchemist, it explains that all of our lives were written out by one man and everything we do has already been determined. Almost as if we go through life with a laundry list checking off items after everything we do. “We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions or our property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.” (pg. 76) In The Stanger Meursault expresses his thoughts that people have the ability to change their lives but they chose not to and live a consistent stationary lifestyle. ”I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all.” (pg.41) Even though I disagree with the statement that people choose not to change their lives, I do agree that every person has the ability to do whatever they want with their lives not just follow a pre-determined path already laid out for us. That is why for the theme of destiny/fate I would consider myself a stranger. By simply reading this essay you could conclude I am more of a stranger than an alchemist. Fortunately I