The portrayal of women in the Alchemist

 

High: I went to Troy Daze! And overall had a busy but fun weekend.

Low: College applications…

Now, I’d assume most people would be surprised that I’m writing about sexism in the Alchemist but it played a larger role than you would’ve thought. 

While being written a mere thirty years ago, the idea that women are “supporting characters only existing for men” is quite prevalent. The merchant’s daughter and the woman in the oasis were added just to add some spice to the plot and keep the story interesting enough without only speaking of Santiago’s personal legend. The author could have been more mindful with his placement of women and could have given them the respect that they earned over generations of fighting for their rights but, he chose the easy way; feeding in to the prejudice women have been enduring for centuries.

It could be argued that the main plot of the Alchemist has nothing to do with women and that I’m making everything about gender, but the subtleties and the small details make a huge difference. Being cast in supporting roles and serving as “eye candy” only feeds into stereotypes that are incredibly harmful. Though, most of us at Troy High can be considered to be quite progressive, other teenagers reading this novel would take this idea as one that feeds into stereotypes they’ve heard about women in the past. This book establishes the idea of persevering to your goal yet, fails to give an accurate representation that would teach equity.

There is quite some problematic language used throughout the book and the way it is embedded into every scene, it seems like second nature for women to be treated as less. The merchant’s daughter would love to hear Santiago’s stories that others told him because, “She would never know the difference, because she didn’t know how to read.” Is it moral to convince women of exaggerations by portraying them as your “heroic stories” because these women can’t read? Most commonly seen with his interactions with Fatima, women of the desert must “await [their] man.” Of course, they should. After all, only men can go out in “the real world” and accomplish their personal legends, right? Along with this there is objectification as Santiago’s father persuades him to stay with a reason being that, “our women are the most beautiful.” This clearly insinuates that beauty is the most useful attribute a woman has.

This book may be considered a fairytale but, women can also live a happy ending in fairytales while being hard-working, right? The idea of representation, even in a book like this, is quite important as the message of a personal legend translates to something bigger in our daily lives and young girls would hope that they have a personal legend too. Moving forward in a society and combatting sexism isn’t the sole duty of a woman. Speaking on sexist issues and empathizing with women is one thing, but actually representing them in media as individuals with goals and aspirations of their own is another far more important thing. Honestly, if animals and minerals deserve to have personal legends, then women do too.