College Admissions Essay: Rising Tide

In Siddhartha, the symbol of the river far surpasses all others in importance. Suggesting fluidity as well as the paradoxical union of permanence and flux - it seems to remain always constant, although the individual drops of water of which it is composed are constantly changing. The river is an age-old symbol suggesting eternity and

The opening line “I’ve Known Rivers” (1) describes the narrator of the way a grandpa tells a grandchild a story. This gives the impressions he has lived a long life and spent quality time on the river and is about to share his story. One could argue that he has grown wise and intelligent because of his age and known what life had to offer. The narrator uses a simile to compare the age of the river to the age of the earth “ancient as the world” (2). This comparison establishes the river being as old as the planet. Next, there is a metaphor that tells the reader that the world and rivers are older than human beings “flow of blood in human veins” (3). The reader can make the correlation that we are the same as rivers. Human veins have the same look as rivers and blood flow through the veins just like water flowing down a river. The narrator compares the depth of his soul with the depth of water with “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” (4). We can refer to the depths of African Americans history and their overall existence on the earth. Rivers take years to erode the soil below and is always becoming deeper and deeper. The narrator is telling the reader that after all the racism he has seen has taken something out of him mentally and physically. His thoughts become mentally exhausted and just keeps flowing just like rivers. The idea of

When we were talking about the river in Siddhartha yesterday, I felt a dull, ringing-in-my-ears kind of understanding. An understanding that wasn't complete, but there was some little piece of it hanging down, waiting for me to grasp it -- begging me, with tears in its eyes, for me to grasp it, but I couldn't quite do it. I understand that the river is the unification of everything. It is eternal, and seductive. A big part of me would really like to live by a river and be a ferry-person. That would be peaceful and honest and simple. I am seduced by that river life, because I love what the river flows for. I think about the linear myth of time, and the Left Brainchild of Self, as opposed to the river, to the Jill Bolte Taylor

The geography of rivers is important to their symbolism in this story. Antonio’s river starts from a lake, a place of no morals; studies prove that infants are selfish beyond belief, and so is water at its birth. His river carries the water to the ocean, the place where all water lands, carrying the blood and salt and debris that it picks up on its long journey. All high rivers go to the ocean, no matter how many lakes they go through. The ocean is where water goes to die, until its spirit, in clean water, is carried through the clouds back into the frigid mountain lakes, where it is born again. This is the cycle of water, and the cycle of life.

of the river. We find that in many civilizations rivers represent life and the path we take

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.

Using scientific prose, Barry reveals his deep interest in the unusual physical properties of the river. Its natural characteristics are what sets it apart; the Mississippi does not conform to standards set by other rivers. Instead, it exceeds most major rivers in variation, depth, and volume. In fact, the Mississippi is so outstanding that “theories and techniques that apply to other rivers … simply do not work on the lower Mississippi” (Barry 25-28). Looking beyond its external features, the river also contains an intricate internal system unlike any other. In addition to the complicated internal circumstances that normally occur within rivers, the Mississippi also stands out because of its “size, its sediment load, its depth, variations in its bottom” and “its ability to cave in the riverbank and slide sideways for miles” (Barry 20-23). As he describes the unusual corporeal aspects of the Mississippi, Barry brings to light his own wonder in the face of such a daunting natural force. Characterizing the river with its physical properties allows

As Antonio deepens his understanding of the river and the forces of nature that surround it, he begins to understand the human journey and his destiny.

Insignificant droplets of water plunging to the ground, gradually elaborating into a system which proclaims its existence with such scintillation and momentous significance, the river. The river that carries the same inexorable rate which we live our lives by, parallels to the current of an unstoppable river. Shifted to different directions by the different obstacles encountered, the river finds different routes to get to the destination it desires and life mimics its nature as many avenues close and others open. But the river carries on and does not pass through the same obstacle twice, it does not struggle or brawl the happenings opposed to it, it simply takes another path and learns from its mistakes. The river symbolizes life. In the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. The river plays a significant role on a reflective surface which redirects his actions into the eyes of the protagonist, Siddhartha.

Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings . . . There were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this

The river represents the period between life and death. Another part of this symbol is the air representing life and under the rocks and waterfall representing death. Just as the transition from life to death is in motion, so is the rushing of the water. Both have a beginning and an ending point, but the part in the middle is constantly moving, swirling and churning. As the girl loses hope for survival and the waterfall is approaching, the narrator states, “[S]he becomes part of the river” (45). The girl now crosses over the borderline of life and death, and she is about to be swallowed up by the falls of death and can never return to life. However, when the diver goes into the river to save her, he comes out saying that “he’d never enter that river again” (47). He encounters the spiritual eccentricity of the edge of death when he looks into lifeless girl’s animated eyes, and he can not fathom that experience. Another symbol that is introduced twice is the gurgle of the aquarium, which symbolizes the attempt to understand nature’s cycle of life. As she floats downstream, the girl remembers “her sixth-grade science class, the gurgle of the aquarium at the back of the room”(45). During this moment, all of her thoughts are puzzled, and she cannot understand the death awaiting her. Later on, after sleepless nights, the diver is in the empty school where “the only sound the gurgle of the aquarium” (48). This moment is the point at which he decides

Survival, both its temporary means and its ultimate permanence, is certainly a theme throughout this story, and the river is the most obvious metaphorical representation. Among the undulant hillsides, the river remains steady

These two quotes express how important the river is to Siddhartha, and to the whole book. The river is the tipping point, it brings Siddhartha out of his previous mindset of many, suicide and hopelessness and awakens him to a stage of curiosity, and is back on his path to

With Vasudeva, Siddhartha begins spiritually as a child. By destroying his old Self, Siddhartha is no longer hindered by "too much knowledge...too much doing and striving." (99) Thus, as a child Siddhartha begins to hear the river, and learn from it. In his education, the concept of time repeatedly arises. The river is seen as always flowing and changing, just as the world does. Siddhartha comes to understand that life is transitory, a cycle that is eternally repeating. Looking at the river, it is made of water, water from the rains. Before that, the water was in the clouds, the air, evaporated from the river. Travelling from sky to earth, brook to river, the river is always present. The only change is how it is reflected in the ephemeral life. The continual flow from one to another illustrates the principle of timelessness.

Growing up in an agricultural environment, alongside a small community with a supportive family, I matured into a confident, determined individual with strong family values.