Robert E. Lee and The Alchemist Metaphor

               Robert E. Lee never achieved his personal legend. In terms consistent with the metaphors in Paulo Coehlo’s fable The Alchemist, Lee chose to stay with his sheep instead, out of a sense of duty.

               Lee knew early that he wanted a career in the military, and to that end enrolled in West Point. He graduated with 98.33% of total grade points available, the second-highest as of 1978 (below an 1884 graduate my source fails to name) (Manchester, 54). He served in the Spanish-American War as captain in the engineers’ corps (Long, 53) and there are plenty of glowing reports of Lee’s performance from his commanding officers, several of which begin by admitting they know others have already written about Lee’s excellence but feel they have to record the following anyway (the source was heavily biased). This is early in his career and in Coelho’s metaphor would be the universe conspiring to propel Lee towards his legend.

               In the same war Lee met General Scott, who plays the part of the King of Salem, aiding Lee in developing his career and doing his best to convince him to take the right path to his legend. As states and officers were choosing sides for the Civil War, Scott did his best to convince Lee it would be in his best interest to stay with the Union. There was no way the Confederates could have won the war, and Lee had to see it was hopeless. Anyone who managed to stay awake long enough in history classes knows the Confederates had a long list severe, sometimes crippling disadvantages, including population deficiency, a level of industrialization below what was needed to keep up with the North’s war factories, and dependency on foreign trade that their meager naval strength could not protect against the warships of the Union. The Confederates lacked the resources for more than one offensive while the Union, under Ulysses Grant, was able to do nothing but. Grant was not the first choice for the top Union commander. Lee had been approached before the war officially began, at President Lincoln’s insistence (Long 92), but refused to abandon his home state of Virginia, his sheep. In Coelho’s metaphor sheep are whatever a person feels responsible for, and feels they cannot drop for the sake of pursuing their personal legend. The choice would cost Lee his home, which would become Arlington National Cemetery, and his military career.

               He may have lost a shot at the presidency. Lee was a popular, natural leader before the war. Otherwise he would not still be in our school textbooks. Had he stayed with the Union he would have become a war hero, and war heroes are very often elected to presidency. Eisenhower and Washington did it. Ulysses Grant managed it, despite past problems with alcohol and a rather less illustrious military record (O’Brian). Lee likely would have been better for the country. Grant accomplished little his first term and his second was plagued by economic troubles and administration scandals (O’Brian). The South would also have taken more kindly to Lee governing the United States, as he was one of them, easing the process of Reconstruction. Fear for his home state kept Lee from his personal legend.

·        Virginia=sheep
·        General Scott=King of Salem, tried to keep him on track

Works Cited

Manchester, William. American Caesar. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978. Print.

This book is actually an extensive biography of Douglas Macarthur, but frequently compares its subject to Lee and in some places was more detailed than Lee’s own biography.

Long, A.L. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee. Secaucus, NJ: The Blue and Gray Press, 1983. Print.

For some reason, when I picked up this book I expected it have been written by Lee himself. The lack of author name on the front cover adds to this illusion. However, it is revealed in the preface this was actually written by a close friend of Lee, as Lee had decided only later in life to write a memoir and died before he could begin. Long can write nothing bad about Lee and admits in the preface he had great personal respect for the general. Subsequent lack of detail is slightly suspicious.

O’Brian, Steven G. “Ulysses S. Grant.” ABC-Clio. Web. 19 May 2014.

               Self-explanatory.