The Orange Drawing

I was staring at the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho feeling unready for the essay I had to write on it. Thinking that I was gonna do bad in the essay, a random thought crashed into my mind: what does the book’s cover represent?

The most notable element of the cover seems to be the Sun, but why is it there? Is it because Santiago, the main character, is traveling to Egypt, which is East, the direction the sun rises from? Maybe, but if that was the case, there also should have been a drawing of dessert on it because that is where Santiago’s treasure lays. So this might not be the reason.

But, it could have been that the sun indicates the boy’s connection to the Soul of the Sun. That thought made sense for a moment because inside the sun’s soul, there is also a drawing of the world's soul which is connected to both the boy’s and sun’s soul. But if that was the case, where is the God’s soul. Isn't that more important because it technically contains everything?

But there is one other reason that could explain the cover: the image inside the sun could be the map of the boy's journey. It shows 2 bodies of land separated by water which could be Spain and Africa separated by the Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, the dashed line could be the boy’s route taken to Egypt.

This seems to be right but at the same time incomplete because the map does not represent the entire book. But it could be that the cover was made to represent all of these things together: the connection to the world's soul, the journey to Egypt, and Santiago’s home of Spain, where he finally found his treasure. The sun could also be representing the boy’s dream, to chase which he was going East first and then back to West where the sun was setting.

If I am right, it does make sense that the cover represents a lot of things in the book. It is likely that this is the case because the same is true with many other books too. For example, in the book Tangerine by Edward Bloor, the front cover of a soccer goalkeeper represents the main character’s passion for soccer. Likewise, the front cover of Maus by Art Spiegelman also connects to many symbols of the book. The same is true for many other books. Thus, it's possible for The Alchemist too, and it might be that I am on the right track to discover the correct reason.

But, it could be that I am completely wrong in the analysis above, but maybe you are not; maybe you found the right reason for the cover’s drawing. Share what you think through the comments below.



(Image from Amazon.com)




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