Comparative Essay
By Bridget Belsher
In the film adaptation of the Motorcycle Diaries by Alberto Granado and Ernesto Guevara and the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the physical and mental challenges of crossing boundaries is shown through the use of irony, symbolism and the setting. Both are adventures about young men who leave home believing one thing and then come home changed completely.
Irony is evident when Guevara, leaves his home in order to not only volunteer at a leper colony for a time, but to travel across South America. However, on the way Guevara begins to understand how his family’s wealth comes at a cost. Furthermore he reaches a turning point which alters the course of history. Guevara set out to travel South America, but in the end it was so much more. In the film Guevara questions himself “How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?” This quote explores the inner workings of Guevara’s turmoil. Guevara has lived his whole life in a small world, and never venture out, despite the fact he is suppose to be glad he is well off, Guevara feels regret for what he didn’t see. What's more, this quote explores the remorse Guevara feels for not crossing the mental boundaries in the social hierarchy of South America, he feels that maybe if he had done something the world would be a better place. In the alchemist, Santiago leaves his home in order to seek his personal legend, but along the way he is confronted with the realities of the world he lives in. He begins to doubt himself along the way and he wonders whether or not he is truly capable of achieving his personal legend, yet every time he was about to give up something happened to change his mind. Ironically, in the end Santiago finds that his treasure was exactly where he started. Both the alchemist and the motorcycle diaries feature Spanish Main characters that start out believing one thing but in the end have a view on the world that is completely opposite. Furthermore Guevara and Santiago also both doubt themselves, thinking all is lost at certain point, yet ironically they always manage to pick themselves up and keep going. Both characters are crossing physical and mental boundaries; both are travelling to places they’d never thought they’d see and becoming people beyond there original façade of personality
