In Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, how old is Santiago when the story begins? How do you know?

In
Paulo Coelho's novel , it can often times be misleading in trying
to ascertain the age of Santiago for he is often times referred to as "the boy." There
are probably several reasons for this. Quite literally in his culture, he may be considered a
boy because he has not chosen a "fixed" career and married. He may not have taken on
the responsibilities of a grown man in having a plan for his life. He is much like a child still
filled with dreams and a desire not to settle down (though as the story
progresses, he isexperiencing the first desires to stay in one place, with
a merchant's daughter). For the sake of the novel, he has not yet determined his Personal
Legend; at the beginning of the novel, he does not even know there is such a thing. So the sense
that he is a boy simply may indicate that in terms of searching out his destiny, Santiago has
not yet begun his journey.

As with most stories, we learn about our main
characters at the beginning of the novel, where we begin to form our initial impressions. As
with many first impressions, these perceptions will remain with the reader and should be
"in sync" with what the character does: this is certainly the case with
Santiago.

We meet a young "man" who knows what he
does not want, and vaguely what he does want: he
does not want to join the church as his family would have him do.
He does want to travel (and has since he was a small boy), and logically
decides that shepherding would provide him with this opportunity. And in keeping with this
persona, he comes to love and know his sheep, care for them and appreciate them. He is a good
person.

When the story begins, Santiago has found a ruined church, and it is
here that we learn that he provides shelter for his sheep and accounts for each onehe will even
search the entire next day if one sheep wanders away. (It his here that we see Santiago
presented as a Christ-like figure.)

When the boy wakens, we learn several
things: he is a "serious" reader, so we can assume that he is relatively smart. He has
had "the recurring dream" again, he is aware of an undefined energy that he shares
with his sheep and he has been with his sheep for two years.

It was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he
had spent the past two years...

Again, later, the boy
thinks of the two years he has traveled the "Andalusian terrain." And immediately
thereafter, he reveals his age:

He was planning, on this
visit, to explain to the girl how it was that a simple shepherd knew how to read. That he had
attended a seminary until he was sixteen...

So we know he
is at least eighteen, though he might be a littleolder.

Ironically, Santiago thinks to himself...

But
ever since he had been a child, he had wanted to know the world, and this was much more
important to him than knowing God...

As the story
progressesafter he meets Melchizedek and crosses the desert to the oasis where he will meet
Fatimahe will encounter the alchemist who will boast of Santiago's ability to change himself
into the wind, and here Santiago will meet God.

Though
he is referred to as a boy, it is only because he has not been tried by the world and found his
Personal Legend that he is not considered a man. By the novel's end, this is not the
case.