Comparing the Alchemist to Coco

The novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and the Disney film Coco directed by Lee Unkrich both prove the necessity of a mentor and experiencing innermost caves for a hero to succeed. A mentor and ordeal are essential to guide the hero to the right path to succeed. Neither would Santiago nor Miguel, the heroes of the novel and the film pursue their journey on the right track without meeting their respective mentor. Santiago would never start his journey in Africa to the Pyramids in Egypt if Melchizedek, the mentor, never existed in the protagonist’s life. In The Alchemist, Santiago has a dream of a child telling him to seek the hidden treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids. Santiago wants to ignore his dream and continue his ordinary life after understanding what his dream is from the old woman. After knowing Santiago has such a dream, Melchizedek finds Santiago and tells him that his dream is his Personal Legend, “It’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is” (Coelho 21). Melchizedek convinces Santiago to pursue his Personal Legend because it would be impossible to do so as time passes. Melchizedek is crucial for Santiago in the decision to chase his Personal Legend and pursue his journey to the Pyramids. By explaining what a Personal Legend is, Santiago realises that the dream of treasure is the Personal Legend, the one thing that must be attempted to achieve immediately. Even though Santiago really wants to deny the Personal Legend and stay in the comfort zone, Melchizedek is right and influences Santiago’s decision successfully. Santiago would not make the decision if Melchizedek never appeared to Santiago. Similarly, Miguel would not be able to know the pathway to meet De La Cruz without the help of Hector, the mentor in Coco. In Coco, Miguel is completely lost after being in the Land of the Dead accidentally. MIguel has to escape from his parents while finding where De La Cruz is. Luckily, he meets Hector coincidently and agrees to a deal with Hector, promising that Hector would help find De La Cruz, in exchange of Miguel bringing his photo back to the Land of the Living to his family to be remembered. As Hector is a resident of the Land of the Dead and knows De La Cruz, Hector gets a guitar for MIguel and lets him join a music competition, where the champion of the competition will have a chance to meet De La Cruz. (Coco) Having the fear of not knowing anything in a new place, Miguel effectively fulfils his role by guiding Miguel to overcome the obstacles and difficulties faces. As a newcomer to a completely strange place, Miguel has no idea about the place at all. Although Miguel knows who to find, it is impossible to find without any help or clues, especially when Miguel is still a child. Therefore, the appearance of Hector is definitely a saviour from the eyes of Miguel. Although the two mentors both fulfil their role by guiding their respective heroes to the right track of the hero’s journey, there are differences between the two journeys. In The Alchemist, the mentor Melchizedek influences Santiago to pursue his Personal Legend of finding his treasure in Egypt. The existence of the mentor influences the hero to begin his journey, or else any incident that happens after would never occur. However, in Coco, the mentor influences Miguel by guiding the hero throughout his journey of finding De La Cruz. The existence of Hector offers a big help to Miguel to overcome and solve difficulties during the journey. Miguel already decides to start his journey of being a musician because of himself, instead of his mentor. In contrast, Santiago’s mentor does not offer any help throughout the journey in the desert, where the hero requires to overcome a lot of obstacles. The mentor fulfils their role in different stages of their hero’s journey. Moreover, neither would Santiago nor Miguel discover and achieve their real treasure without experiencing an ordeal. Santiago would not be able to indicate the information of the real treasure if the innermost cave is never entered. In The Alchemist, Santiago and his alchemist guide are spotted in the desert and are brought to a military camp as spies. The alchemist tells the men Santiago is an alchemist and has extraordinary powers. In order to prove it, the alchemist claims that “If he wanted to, he could destroy this camp just with the force of the wind” (140) in 3 days, or else Santiago has to sacrifice his life to the troop. Santiago at last connects to the wind and blows the camp away successfully. Additionally, Santiago now understands every element that an alchemist has to know, which is required to understand what the actions of the thieves mean next to the Pyramids. The process of experiencing the ordeal is crucial for Santiago to understand himself more as an alchemist. Without obstacles, one can not exert their potential at the maximum capacity, just like Santiago. Even though Santiago reads a lot of books and meets a lot of people who share their personal experience, it is not enough to become a real alchemist. The breakthrough provides Santiago the opportunity to connect himself with the nature and his own heart, the essentials of an alchemist. Santiago would not understand the indication of the real treasure without the ability of a true alchemist. Similarly, Miguel would not know Hector is his real great-great grandpa without experiencing the ordeal. In Coco, Miguel thinks that De La Cruz is his great-great grandpa, the only person in his family to give a blessing without the condition of not playing music. Miguel finds where De La Cruz is and asks him for a blessing. However, De La Cruz is actually not Miguel’s great-great grandpa and is an evil person, who eventually brings Hector and Miguel to a cave with no exit to wait for their death. This lets Miguel realise who his real great-great grandpa is, who is actually Hector. Luckily, Hector and Miguel are saved by their family. The truth of Hector also changes how his family thinks about him, causing them to forgive Hector and most importantly, allowing music to exist in the family. (Coco) The ordeal provides the opportunity to reveal the truth of Hector and to solve the misunderstanding between Hector and his family. Miguel would never get to play music in the Land of Living if the family never knew Hector is innocent, as the family thinks that music is the reason the family was torn apart, which in fact is not true. Only when Miguel and Hector experience the evilness of De La Cruz they would have the opportunity to realise each of their real identities. Although both of the heroes achieve their goals because of the occurrence of the ordeals, there are differences between the two journeys. In The Alchemist, the ordeal acts as a challenge for Santiago to test if he has the ability to be a real alchemist. Santiago has all the factors required as an alchemist, and thus able to understand the indication of where the real treasure is. In Coco, the ordeal provides the opportunity for Hector to prove himself innocent, which results in the open-minded attitude towards music of the family, which is the ultimate goal for Miguel. The ordeal in Coco influences the result of the journey directly, where the ordeal in The Alchemist influences the result of the journey indirectly. Santiago still would arrive at the Pyramids if the incident did not happen, but would just not know where the real treasure is, which changes the outcome of the journey. However, Miguel would fail his journey immediately if he does not know who his real great-great grandpa is, as there is no chance for his family to tolerate the existence of music. The occurrence of the ordeal affects the outcome of the journey in different ways. Despite the similarities and differences between the two journeys, a mentor and ordeal is necessary for Santiago and Miguel to succeed in the hero’s journey.