First, many
literary critics see Santiago's role of a shepherd in 's as a parallel to
Christ's persona of the "Good Shepherd. This literally describes
Santiagohe is a young man with a gentle spirit who cares for his sheep,
knowing them as if they were his children.
In actuality, sheep are very
smart. In the Middle East, when herds of sheep water at the same place, the sound of the
shepherd's voice is easily distinguishable to the sheep so that they separate from the other
sheep and don't become mixed in with other sheep.
With these associations in
mind, I believe that in the context of the story, the sheep know and trust
Santiago. He leads them, protects them, makes sure they are fed, and sleeps with them at night.
There is often an association with sheep that they passively follow, and one who is referred to
as a sheep is considered to be a person that has little sense of self, but
must trail behind another. In truth, it seems that the sheep are actually showing their
intelligence. Wandering off separates them from the herd, but also from the person who feeds and
cares for them. I am reminded of the saying that refers to "biting the hand that feeds
you." The sheep seem to know better.
To address your original question,
I don't know if I can find a way to see the sheep as symbolic of people in life. The story is
about Santiago, and the sheep are important to the development of the plot
because they allow Santiago to travel. We learn early on that Santiago's father wanted him to be
a priest, but the boy did not want to always stay in one place: he wanted to see the world, and
keeping sheep allowed him to do this. If anything, I think that the sheep become symbolic of an
easier but ignorant time of the boy's life. "Ignorant" here does not refer to
foolish or obnoxious as we may sometimes use the word,
but as naive and lacking knowledge.
The one time Santiago shows what we might
consider to be a "flaw" is when he is robbed and learns that he will have to work for
a year with the crystal merchant to earn only a portion of the money he
would need to travel to Egypt. This information is staggering to him, as is his immediate loss
of faith. Now that he knows his Personal Legend, he comes to a crossroad where he must decide to
return to the past, but knowing what he will have missed (as does the crystal merchant) or
overcome his disappointment and move forward. At first he decides to work to make enough money
to buy more sheep, indicating his choice not to follow his dream.
There was a moment of silence so profound that it seemed the city was asleep. No sound
from the bazaars, no arguments among the merchants, no men climbing to the towers to chant. No
hope, no adventure, no old kings or Personal Legends, no treasure, and no Pyramids. It was as if
the world had fallen silent because the boy's soul had. He sat there€¦wishing he had died, and
that everything would end forever at that moment.
He
turns to the merchant and says:
I'll work for you€¦I need
money to buy some sheep.
It is only
after he has worked for the merchant for close to a year and has learned
about the merchant's lost opportunity to follow his dream, that Santiago decides against the
sheep.
Other than a device that allows Santiago to travel and begin his
quest, I don't see the sheep as symbolic of people todaybased primarily on the context of the
story.
No comments:
Post a Comment