The Alchemist: Imagery

The author uses imagery in his novel because it would be fairly hard to describe how Santiago "hears" some inanimate things tell him what to do. For example, he sometimes tries to listen to his heart, and then his heart actually talks to him. This happens many times throughout the story. The things that do it are his heart, the desert, the wind, the sun, and the Soul of the World.
It would be challenging to try to tell the reader how Santiago can use signs to get messages from those inanimate things. So the author uses personifacation to make it easier for him to tell the reader about the signs that Santiago is getting from those inanimate things that tell him what to do and/or how to do it.