Analysis Of Hermann Hesse 's Siddhartha

Unlike many people he treated business as a game and did not stress over his failures and did not praise his success. As a result, Siddhartha was able to go from “rags to riches.” Over time however, Hesse writes, “Gradually, along with his growing riches, Siddhartha himself acquired some of the characteristics of the ordinary people, some of their childishness and some of their anxiety” (77). Though Siddhartha envied them for the one thing he lacked, the sense of importance with which they lived their lives.

The novel Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse, is about a guy named Siddhartha located in ancient India. His best friend, Govinda, are greatly involved in the elite Braham cast: Braham is an elite group of the highest god of Hinduism, which means they are viewed royalty and loaded with heaps of wealth. Siddhartha is the golden boy of his community: women dream of acquainting with him and men long to have his immense power and abundance. The main direct sight of Hindus focus on devotion to God or several gods. Even though Siddhartha endures meditation practices, takes the form of rituals and practices associated with images and sculptures of gods in home shrines, and participates in holy satisfaction, he still feels the emptiness in him not satisfying his needs. In order to obtain the inner peace that he wishes to seek, he tests new solutions to satisfy him, such as, Enlightenment. Enlightenment is defined as a man’s emergence from one’s self-incurred immaturity. The young Indian is very adapted to the Hindu ascetic, for the pressure the Brahim scholar instructs upon him. The only solution in times like these, Siddhartha and Govinda would mediate under the banyan tree.

Siddhartha resolved that he would first go to the Samanas, ascetics that hard lives of self-denial of all comforts and pleasures in order to rid themselves of desire and those emotions that would hinder them on the journey to discovering Atman. Although joining these extremist monks was a high ambition, Siddhartha knew that he would succeed as a Samana, for he believed that the path of the ascetic would aid him on his journey of self-discovery. As his time with the Samanas lengthened, Siddhartha began to take pride in the knowledge that he was not blinded by the material world like everybody else was; he saw the world for what it truly was -- bitter lies and misery. Despite the fact that Siddhartha was becoming a great Samana, revered by even the older monks, he felt that what he had learned from them he could have learned on his own and in less time. Once again, he was not satisfied with the path that he was on and aspired to achieve even greater heights by parting from the Samanas. This ambition is plainly displayed when Siddhartha’s friend Govinda, who had become a Samana as well, proclaimed that Siddhartha would have learned to walk on water had he stayed with the ascetics. Siddhartha simply says that he would “let old

Siddhartha also believed that the wise Brahmin teachers had already passed on to him the bulk of their knowledge. With that, one day he and Govinda went to a banyan tree to pronounce Om, the sacred Hindu syllable. When Siddhartha was done meditating he no longer felt that he could stay there any more. He felt that in order to achieve inner peace he had to move on. Asking Govinda to come with him, he decided to join a band of Samanas. When he goes home to ask for his father’s permission, his father thinks for a long time before denying his son his request. Siddhartha stands in the same place all night in defiance and upon much consideration, his father finally grants him permission to leave. The next morning, Siddhartha and Govinda leave with the group of Samanas.

Hesse personifies the river creating it into a character of its own which also guides Siddhartha down his final steps to salvation. Vasudeva, the ferryman, who sails his ferry across this river is known to be an enlightened character he is apart of the river who also guides Siddhartha to find himself and to learn from his travelings that it is one’s own discoveries and travels that influence the mind, soul, and body to become one and at peace to achieve Nirvana, an overall inner and exterior peace.

Siddhartha’s life was more of a journey, a journey filled with whimsical decisions and many questions; Siddhartha simply did as he pleased. After living this capricious lifestyle, he noticed that he felt empty inside. He wondered why he felt this way for a long time and decided to leave his current life. He abandoned all possessions and left his father in a quest to seek peace with the shramanas. Soon the cycle of the nature of Siddhartha was formed. Siddhartha would seek something and pursue that something blindly and by abandoning his previous lifestyle. It was not until he was an old man did he finally reach peace through the guidance of a river. Siddhartha’s life had changed immensely numerous amounts of times by the time he was old, but the change he experienced was not necessarily caused by of outside influences. He experienced change, but every change originated inside of him; of what he wanted to follow next. Of course, this still required Siddhartha to change to his new surroundings in every instance he obeyed new lifestyle. When he followed the shramanas, he left everything he had previously known and owned. When he left for the city, he completely changed his demeanor and became rich. Once again, when he lived by the river, he abandoned all possessions and former values. I believe that Siddhartha

Siddhartha follows his journey through various changes in pace and mood, as he enters the samsara as a samana or one without possessions, he believes he can “think, wait, and fast”(64). Yet Siddhartha’s previous upbringing as a Brahmin and a samana, he refuses to accept the materialistic wealth “his heart was not in business”. (69) Yet his need to please Kamala, his love teacher, he needs to earn money therefore, by earning money he pleases Kamala “It (business) was useful in order to bring him money for

As one of the final major characters that Siddhartha encounters, Vasudeva is the ferryman who lives on the banks of the river, transporting people across. Once Siddhartha becomes Vasudeva’s apprentice, he is taught the practical skill of being the ferryman, but is also taught how to listen to the river’s never ending wisdom. Although Vasudeva seldom speaks, his infrequent messages are very powerful. Vasudeva has an aura of peace and joy that radiates off of him, and credits the aforementioned feelings to the river on which he stays on. Vasudeva rose. “It is late,” he said, “let’s go to sleep. I can’t tell you that other thing, oh friend. You’ll learn it, or perhaps you know it already. See, I’m no learned man, I have no special skill in speaking, I also have no special skill in thinking. All I’m able to do is to listen and to be godly, I have learned nothing else. If I was able to say and teach it, I might be a wise man, but like this I am only a ferryman, and it is my task to ferry people across the river. I have transported many, thousands; and to all of them, my river has been nothing but an obstacle on their travels. They travelled to seek money and business, and for weddings, and on pilgrimages, and the river was obstructing their path, and the ferryman’s job was to get them quickly across that obstacle. But for some among thousands, a few, four or five, the river has stopped being an obstacle, they have

Siddhartha represents all of humanity, in that he is many things, yet he is himself. He is a Brahmin, a Samana, a ferryman, and he is Siddhartha still in all these things. Unlike Gregor, Siddhartha is very active in his quest for destiny. His choice to leave his father and all he had ever known is not influenced by any force other than the thirst for knowledge sending him on the quest for the meaning of life. Just as a sheep wanders in a pasture, Siddhartha wandered the wilderness in pursuit of his true self. He searched his soul to find his place in the world and the unity of all. He examined how his Self responded to hunger, pain, and all achings of the physical in order to reveal the strength of the spiritual. When Siddhartha entered into the world of “ordinary” people, he fed his physical being and through that discovered the weakness of his spiritual. Siddhartha finally quenched his thirst for knowledge at the river, where he found wisdom. Siddhartha knew who he was and at the river, he discovered why he had to go on the path that he did, and he found peace and discovered how he fit into the universe along with all other things. Siddhartha’s identity at that point had little to nothing to do with who he had been. Yes, he was once a Samana, a Brahmin, a ferryman, but what mattered was that he was now at

Siddhartha knows that his Self had merged into unity because he listened to the river. When listening to the river, Siddhartha hears all voices of sorrow, laughter, and all of the teachers that he has had. All of the thousand voices merged together into one song and sang perfection- Om. Hesse says, “...the same smile appeared on Siddhartha’s face. His wound was healing, his pain was dispersing; his Self had merged into unity” (Hesse 136). From this excerpt one can interpret that Siddhartha is content and has found peace in his life, the wound that was formed from his son was now gone, and had finally found peace.

In Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, a young Brahmin in the wealthier part of India, approximately three thousand years ago, decides to set a goal onto his life. He decides to journey along the path of enlightenment and reach Nirvana, a state of total bliss. His dear friend, Govinda, accompanies him on this journey. Siddhartha sets out to seek the path to enlightenment, but it is long and difficult. Along the way, he grows spiritually and intellectually from a young seeking Brahmin, to an old, wise, and content ferryman with the knowledge of

Siddhartha is constantly flowing down the river of life, "Certainly I have learned that from the river too; everything comes back/ You, too, Samana, will come back" (49). He sees that life is never stagnant. It is constantly changing, ebbing and flowing. It takes a lifetime to satisfy Siddhartha's hunger for religious fulfillment. Siddhartha is found relating to the river: "A chilly emptiness in the water reflected the

The ferryman came to rescue Siddhartha from his agony of his son’s suddenly departure. They both went back to their home in the ferry. As a great friend, the ferryman did not spoke a word about this issue, but always showed support to his dear friend in his depression. “Even bad people, even thieves and robbers have children and love them, and are being loved by them, all except for me” (125). As time passed, Siddhartha’s heart was still hurt as he watched travelers with their children on board. He felt envious of others, and wounded by the pain.

     Siddhartha first tries to follow the path of the Brahmins.  His father thinks of him as "a prince among Brahmins" (Hesse 4).  Siddhartha washes "in the daily bath of atonement" (Hesse 5) so that his soul might be cleansed of guilt in order to merge with the all-perfect being (Archie 60).  He also offers sacrifices to the gods.  The Brahmins teach him that Atman created the world and that this great god can be found by men only when they sleep (Hesse 7).  Despite the love and

Born as the Brahmins Son, Siddhartha was surrounded by the luxuries and privileges of someone that has a supreme role in the caste system. The concept of Siddhartha's life is represented by the river comes into motion as we see the river being implemented in the early stages of the book as Herman Hesse describes Siddhartha’s childhood. Different actions, his childhood revolved around the river that Siddhartha grew up in but most importantly he performs his rituals and his holy offerings. “ Suntanned