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The Pyramids of Egypt
The abandoned church in Spain forms bookends for the novel—Santiago dreams of his treasure while sleeping in the collapsed church at the beginning of the book, and he returns to the church to find his treasure at the very end. The abandoned church symbolizes the value of the familiar and of home. Santiago ultimately did not have to travel any physical distance to find his treasure, which was in his own homeland, but the journey itself was as much a part of his quest as was the final result. The importance of this journey is symbolized by his initial distant goal of the Egyptian Pyramids.
Santiago’s realization that his treasure is in a place he knew all along marks the final stage of his self-development in the book. Early in the novel he is consumed with wanderlust, but by the book’s end he realizes the value of returning home. Coelho suggests that both the journey and the destination are valuable, and the abandoned church symbolizes this idea.
The Abandoned Church Quotes in The Alchemist
The The Alchemist quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Abandoned Church. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part Two
Quotes
“You’re not going to die. You’ll live, and you’ll learn that a man shouldn’t be so stupid. Two years ago, right here on this spot, I had a recurrent dream, too. I dreamed that I should travel to the fields of Spain and look for a ruined church where shepherds and their sheep slept. In my dream, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins of the sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore, I would find a hidden treasure. But I’m not so stupid as to cross an entire desert just because of a recurrent dream.”
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The Abandoned Church Symbol Timeline in The Alchemist
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Abandoned Church appears in The Alchemist. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part One
...shepherd boy in the Andalusian region of Spain. At dusk one day, he arrives at an abandoned church . The roof has caved in, and a sycamore tree grows up through the open...
(full context)
Part Two
...he himself had a recurring dream on that very spot. In the dream he saw an abandoned church that sheltered shepherds and sheep. The dream told him that if he dug at the...
(full context)
Epilogue
Night is falling as Santiago reaches the abandoned church . The tree is still growing up through the broken roof, and he remembers the...
(full context)
