10/18/14 Post

Prompt: What do you think some of the challenges might be in drawing another person's story. What might be some of the advantages? Why?

I think that one of the challenges of drawing someone else's story would be that you wouldn't have the firsthand experience of what you're trying to portray, so you might have to be creative and fill in gaps as realistically as you can just based on descriptions that your'e given. I think an advantage would be that you would be able to look at it more objectively and you would have a less biased view, so it would be closer to the truth of what it actually looked like.

Maktub

Throughout The Alchemist the word maktub is used repeatedly by many different characters. The word, defined by the Crystal Merchant to Santiago, means "it is written" (59). The word is generally used when Santiago is about to start a new quest or a new journey in his life. It almost seems like an assurance to Santiago, letting him see the bigger picture and helping him remember the role of fate. As we learned in class, fate tends to cooperate with the hero who is achieving his quest. "It is written" (59) seems to mean it is written in your future, which reinforces the idea of the Soul of the World and the Hand that Wrote All, or the idea of God.