The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Life of Pi by Yann Martel On his first voyage in 1492, when Christopher Columbus set out in search of India, he ended up landing in America on a small island in the Caribbean Sea instead of Asia. He then made numerous other journeys to the New World in search of riches, thinking of exploring a land already explored. He had discovered America, which represented the greatest wealth of all. This shows that when you go on a mission, you face several challenges along the journey, but in the end you can accomplish more than their goal. The novel The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, and the novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, both describe two journeys in which characters learn about life, survival, and patience. First, they understand themselves better, then they learn to communicate with nature. They then learn to face their fears and ultimately understand religion better. The first is about a young shepherd named Santiago, who has a recurring dream of a treasure in Egypt, for which he embarks on a journey to fulfill his personal legend with the help of a man who claims to be a king. The latter is about a boy named Pi, who is on a ship heading to Canada from India, which sinks, and he must learn to survive on a lifeboat with a tiger. Santiago and Pi both discover new ways to understand the meaning of life during their journey: they realize their strengths and weaknesses, communicate with other living beings, deal with their turmoil with logic, and their faith in God is strengthened. Santiago understands himself as he discovers his life's purpose on his journey to realize his personal legend, while Pi discovers his evil side, a side he never thought he would release. In The Alchems......middle of paper......oses of life, as Pi discovers his evil side. They both learn to communicate with the living beings around them, Santiago learns from his sheep and Pi learns from Richard Parker, the ferocious Bengal tiger. Then, Santiago fights his fears with faith while Pi reasons against his fears and ultimately, both strengthen their faith in God. The lesson that both novels can teach students is that in educational life it is better to give one hundred percent . The goal at that time would simply be to get the best grades, but what they don't realize is that this is what will get them into good colleges and, ultimately, help them get better jobs. The lesson is that students can first understand their potential, what they can or want to do, and then believe in themselves. They can fight their fears and, in the end, just have faith that they will reap what they have sown.