Conflicts In Herman Hesse'sAntigone And Siddhartha

As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha’s experience with the Samanas is not a fulfilling one. Hesse writes, “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened” (Pg-15). Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas, yet he was still unable to reach enlightenment. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha never saw or heard of a single person achieving enlightenment. Feeling disillusioned with the teachings of others, Siddhartha decided to leave the Samanas, and seek out the venerable Buddha. Siddhartha seeks out the Buddha and hears his sermon, but he ultimately decides to seek his own path to enlightenment. In leaving the Buddha, Siddhartha begins to follow a Buddhist path. Siddhartha says, “But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced he alone among hundreds of thousands" (Pg-34). In this part of his journey, Siddhartha realizes that no one can teach him how to achieve enlightenment. As Gautama did before him, Siddhartha heads out to find his own path to enlightenment.

Siddhartha’s journey to enlightenment can be described by three terms that are described in Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha goes through many challenges and suffers in his journey to reach Nirvana. He wants to be enlightened one, one without fear to anything. He wants to keep continue his path to Nirvana. He leaves everything behind and keeps going towards his goal. The terms are very significant in Siddhartha’s life because the word Om guides him to perfection and oneness, he goes through many challenges to reach Nirvana, and the term Samsara makes him keep going in his life.

Siddhartha loved his father and the teachings that were provided to him by his father, but he began to notice that the teachings were not bringing joy into his life at all. As the novel states, “He had begun to feel that the love of his father...would not always make him happy,...” (Hesse, 3), showed how Siddhartha searched for Enlightenment through his dad’s teachings but fell into realization that he could not find Enlightenment with his father. Therefore, he begged his father to let him leave the teachings and search elsewhere. His father agreed, and this restarted Siddhartha’s journey to search for Enlightenment by joining groups such as the Samana and the Buddha. Also, when Siddhartha decided to leave his father, he was also accompanied by his childhood friend, Govinda. Siddhartha decides to the leave the group that him and Govinda were a part and by doing this, he had to leave his childhood friend, Govinda,

“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.” (Oscar Wilde). For the week of deprivation, I wanted to choose something that was especially challenging for me. I wanted something that would unequivocally show how easy I would be to give into temptation. There was only one thing that fitted all of these jarring requirements and that one thing was junk food. Prior to our start of our deprivation week, I noticed my energy levels were constantly spiked and then completely drained in only a short period of time. I found myself always relying on a poptart or a bag of chips prior to any of my athletic activities since it gave me that quick and tenacious amount of energy. I wanted to see if by removing junk food and replacing it with healthy food, I would have the same amount of energy and it would last much longer. I decided to do this for not only my benefit but also for an insight of Siddhartha’s journey in Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha (1922).

Some people believe if you deprive yourself of your wants that you will find your path of enlightenment. In “ Siddhartha” a book written by Hermann Hesse, a man named Siddhartha goes through a series of deprivation, where he learns how to think, wait, and fast so he could achieve enlightenment.

The characters in a novel can make or break a story. In fact, some of the plot details, symbols, or themes will appear confusing or thoughtless solely if the characters are not properly worked into the novel. However, characters, when well thought-out, can also enhance a work of literature, pushing it beyond the realm of generic plots and simple, noncomplex themes and symbols. In the novel Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, the development of Characters such as Siddhartha, Govinda, and Vasudeva help the reader to better understand the central message that the author is trying to portray.

In Siddhartha, a spiritual novel by Hermann Hesse, a young, wealthy, and good looking man named Siddhartha leaves his home with his best friend Govina to become a Samana and find enlightenment. He and Govinda live with these religious ascetics who deny themselves food, sleep, and other comforts to find enlightenment, but after a few years, Siddhartha realizes that he will not find enlightenment with the Samanas. He and Govinda then travel to hear the teachings of the Buddha who is rumored to teach the path of enlightenment. Siddhartha & Govinda listens to these teachings, but Siddhartha finds inconsistencies and other issues with the Buddha’s teachings. Govinda decides to stay with the Buddha and follow his teachings, but Siddhartha decides to leave the Buddha, and his best friend. After Siddhartha leaves the Buddha, he begins to notice the nature around him “without any distrust” and Siddhartha was “concerned with the immediate” things and actions (46).

Listening to the teachings of the Buddha, Govinda decides to join Gotama and his followers. However, while Siddhartha does not disagree with the teachings of Gotama, he does not believe that he will be granted enlightenment by pledging allegiance to him. Rather, through a conversation with the Buddha, Siddhartha discovers his biggest mistake – “nobody finds salvation through teachings” (Hesse 34). Contrary to the belief of others, Siddhartha discovers that he must “no longer try to escape from Siddhartha…no longer devote [his] thoughts to Atman and the sorrows of the world…no longer mutilate and destroy [himself]…no longer study…any other teachings” (Hesse 39). Although Siddhartha realizes that he has wasted a great deal of time seeking for salvation in all the wrong places, he finally discovers the key to enlightenment— Siddhartha must no longer fear himself, he must find himself, and learn from

Throughout the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha has an extraordinary passion for people and their well being. He is almost never selfish, something that very few people can claim. As he becomes prosperous in business, he becomes bored. With that boredom comes a contempt for people in general, especially people who were like him, bored and not really going anywhere in relation to their spirituality. Siddhartha had seen among the rich people in his culture, but he had never experienced it before. This aspect of Siddhartha’s life is something else that cannot be taught, but rather learned.

Govinda loved him more than anyone else. “Govinda wanted to follow him as his friend, his companion, his servant, his bearer, his shadow.” (pg.2) Siddhartha wanted Govinda to come with him on his way to seek for himself. Although he highly doubted going, he still went to be along with Siddhartha. “You have come” said Siddhartha and smiled.

Eventually, Siddhartha worked his way up to become one of the wealthiest people in the town. Unfortunately, the price for his riches was his ethics. Siddhartha adapted to the environment round him and he lost any enlightenment he ever had and became part of “the Child People”, which is what Siddhartha called anything that was lost in the trace of regular lifestyle. He became so dissatisfied with his life, not understanding why. He had all anyone could ask for right. He had a money and a beautiful woman who was now teaching him the ways of love. Then he realized why his life was so problematic at the time. He was dependent on only materialist items and ideas. “This whole world of Kamaswami-people had been but a game to him, a dance that one goes to see, a comedy.” (Hesse 67)

Throughout the entire novel, Siddhartha, was characterized as a diligent and devoted believer. Siddhartha was overwhelmed with the quest to discover and obtain enlightenment. In the introduction of the novel, Siddhartha was not content with his on-going spiritual practices. He decided to purse the path of becoming a Samana, he faithfully followed the Samana’s commands, but was still unsatisfied. He abandons the Samanas and starts a journey to seek Gotama. In one of Gotama’s lectures, Siddhartha concludes that in order to achieve enlightenment, oneself must experience it, not be instructed. Once again, he abandons Gotama and continues his journey. For the first time Siddhartha is alone and realizing how magnificent and ravishing the world around

Religion was never meant to provide a sense of independence. The literal meaning of the word religion is “to return to bondage.” It comes from two Latin words, the prefix re meaning, “to return” and the root ligare meaning, “to bind.” Religion directly contradicts being independent because the purpose of religion is to follow a doctrine and to be obedient to a higher power in hopes of providing meaning to the world. Whereas being independent means freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others. Independence requires not looking to others for one 's opinions or for guidance when making decisions. When one relies on a higher power for guidance throughout life, one is not independent. Instead, one sacrifices their

A meaningful life is derived upon seeking a greater purpose in life. This is apparent in Herman Hesse's work Siddhartha, in which Siddhartha is discontent with his life as a Brahmin. Siddhartha leaves his homes and the comforts of life in order to achieve Nirvana. Ultimately, this success is achieved due to Siddhartha's continued quest to find enlightenment.

Antigone and Siddhartha both attempt to address the conflict between the individual’s actions and its relation to familial obligations. Antigone by Sophocles addresses this by asserting the idea that one’s own moral views, whether it be based in religion or personal beliefs, are superior to the will of one’s family. Siddhartha addresses the individual versus family conflict by similarly asserting, one’s own beliefs should dictate actions. Both of these claims can be seen throughout the works, and will be addressed in this essay. In both works, the protagonist, decides to defy the will of their family members in accordance with their personal beliefs. However the works differ in how Siddhartha acted upon his personal beliefs in accordance with his ideas of the purpose of suffering, while Antigone acted upon a greater belief system as mandated by her gods. The viewpoints of both protagonists are similar in that both acted upon what they believed to be morally and universally correct. The relationship between the individual and others/society, as implicated by Siddhartha is more compelling. It essentially puts forth the idea that, one should act upon one’s own views of what is right, not as based upon a higher power. The work also utilizes spirituality and the connected nature of the universe as an argument to further the previously mentioned idea. The costs associated with hubris are addressed very differently in both works. Both works claim hubris as a positive force. One