Values and Beliefs Formed Through Hardship: A Comparative Study

All Quiet on the Western Front and Siddhartha: Forming values and beliefs through hardship and life experiences Beliefs are one of the most complex, fascinating thought processes humans experience. Throughout your lifetime you will loose beliefs, and develop new beliefs. Although beliefs can be simple such as the belief in a value or person. They can also be complex and cause chaos, violence, acts of terror, or in severe cases even death. Beliefs are fascinating because they can be changed and manipulated in many ways through various reasons. In the modern novel All Quiet on the Western front, by Erich Remarque. the main protagonist Paul Bäumer experience lots of hardship from serving as a soldier in world war 1, which turns his good hearted

Siddhartha has A great deal of love and admiration for the ferryman already, claiming he “‘admired’” his “‘calm strength and focus’”(107). Which is why siddhartha goes back to him when he needs help. The ferryman allows Siddhartha to see the river as a teacher, put human perspectives on the river and tells siddhartha to learn from it. This experience greatly shapes siddhartha’s understanding and beliefs, and ultimately is what lets him reach enlightenment. This positive experience was not short,or fast, it was an extensive processes that was drawn out for years. Throughout his whole life siddhartha was seeking enlightenment and thanks to the river and the ferryman he finally realised "When someone is seeking...it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything...because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal."(113). Siddhartha's beliefs and thought process is reformed from the river and he realizes that seeking for something is a lost cause, when you are seeking for something your judgment is clouded and you get so wrapped up in seeking it you don't take everything else in around you. Where as finding something, you have it in your grasp

And All quiet being about the world war and its effect on the soldiers who fought it. There are many similar themes and points, Siddhartha is all based around Siddhartha's beliefs changing and him having different perspectives of the people around him, and the world around him. Similarly paul changes his beliefs and perspectives of the people around him, the war he is fighting, and even the enemy he is fighting. Both novels have similar theme, major life experiences form or tamper with their beliefs and perspectives. Although both siddhartha and paul have very different life experiences that form their new perspectives and beliefs, for paul it's killing another soldier, for Siddhartha it's almost killing himself and a river. It isn't about the type of life experiences either, it can be a good one or a bad one. Any major life experiences that humans have will change our perspective and beliefs. Paul came out of his experience killing an enemy soldier, realizing the solider was just like him, and that the war was pointless. Siddhartha came out of his life experiences realizing he had been living his life the wrong way and in order to find enlightenment he has to stop seeking and start finding. In both novels the main protagonist face major life experiences that end up shaping their beliefs and perspectives, eventually