Ryan McWeeney
5/12/15
Period G
Siddhartha Essay
Hermann Hesse’s novel “Siddhartha” is one of spiritual renewal and self discovery. The novel revolves around the life of one man named Siddhartha, who leaves his home and all earthly possessions in an attempt to find spiritual enlightenment. The novel contains many themes, including the relationship between wisdom and knowledge, spirituality, man’s relationship to the natural world, time, love, and satisfaction. To portray these themes, Hesse employs many different rhetorical devices, particularly diction, symbolism, and point of view. These devices allow us, as a reader, to reevaluate our lives and seek fulfillment in the same way that Siddhartha did.
One of the most important
…show more content…
themes in Siddhartha is the distinction between wisdom and knowledge. Throughout the novel, Siddhartha continually comes into conflict with the elders’ teachings about wisdom. He comes to believe that wisdom and knowledge are not interchangeable. Knowledge, he argues, can be taught, but wisdom is rooted in experience, which cannot be taught to a person. Siddhartha says in chapter 3, “But there is one thing which these so clear, these so venerable teachings do not contain: they do not contain the mystery of what the exalted one has experienced for himself.” Siddhartha was saying that although he respects the teachings of the buddha, these teachings cannot give experience to a person. Siddhartha explains that many people falsely consider knowledge and wisdom to be one and the same, even though they are independent of each other. In the story, Siddhartha closely links spirituality with wisdom. He firmly believes that only when one has achieved enlightenment is one truly wise. He says, “But where were the Brahmans, where the priests, where the wise men or penitents, who had succeeded in not just knowing this deepest of all knowledge but also to live it?” Siddhartha is saying that, although these men have the deepest of all knowledge, this does not lead to an true wisdom. Although these men have acquired vast amounts of knowledge, they never succeeded in finding true enlightenment, since wisdom and enlightenment are interrelated. To expresses this point, Siddhartha utilizes the rhetorical device of repetition. Siddhartha, by listing several different examples of men who fell short of finding true wisdom (The Brahmans, the priests, the wise men or penitents), gives some credibility to his statement, which goes against some of the fundamental principles of Buddhism. Another important theme of Siddhartha is man’s relationship to the natural world. When Siddhartha, although he initially scorns the natural world, eventually develops a newfound appreciation for his surroundings. Shortly after beginning a new phase in his life, Siddhartha experiences something close to an awakening, “He looked around, as if he was seeing the world for the first time. Beautiful was the world, colorful was the world, strange and mysterious was the world!” He gains a tremendous appreciation for the colors of the world, and the appearance of nature, “Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, the sky and the river flowed, the forest and the mountains were rigid, all of it was beautiful, all of it was mysterious and magical…” This newfound interest in the natural world helps Siddhartha to discover unity and attain enlightenment. The beautiful diction that the author uses in the above quotes helps us to experience what Siddhartha is experiencing, to realize the beauty in the world. The use of the words “mysterious,” and “beautiful,” help the reader to visualize the world from Siddhartha’s new found perspective. The author’s repetition of the description of the colors of the world, in particular, helps to point out an everyday blessing that we often overlook. We rarely ever take the time to experience the smallest details in the environment, and therefore we are missing out on experiencing a few blessings everyday. Time is also an important theme in Siddhartha.
Many of the characters in the story do not, mentally, experience time. The whole idea of “Time is an illusion,” plays an important role in Siddhartha’s life. After listening to the sound of the river, Siddhartha gains that insight that time is not dependent on past, present or future events, but rather interdependent of any human actions. In this sense, he compares time to a river, “That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the …show more content…
future.” In this quote, Siddhartha is saying that a river exists everywhere along its course at once, similar to time. He believes that time, like the river, exists everywhere at once. According to Siddhartha, the past, present and future are not separate but one unified state. This metaphor is an important literary device which helps the reader to understand Siddhartha’s new insight. Although this analogy may be hard for us to wrap our heads around, it succeeds in causing us to reconsider our view on time. By considering the past, present and future as one and the same, we gain a new outlook on the way that we experience space and time. Another important, but confusing, theme in the story is love.
Throughout the novel, Siddhartha’s experiences with love change dramatically. The effects of love also differ greatly at different points in the story. On one hand, Siddhartha’s love for his son appears to stand in the way of his quest for enlightenment. Also, Siddhartha eventually begins to question the love that his father and mother showed him. Although he is grateful for their love, and admires them because of it, “Siddhartha had started to nurse discontent in himself, he had started to feel that the love of his father and the love of his mother, and also the love of his friend, Govinda, would not bring him joy for ever and ever.” Siddhartha is not saying that love is a bad thing, but rather that it should not be confused with happiness and fulfillment. On the other hand, Siddhartha also comes to believe that he cannot experience true enlightenment without having love for the whole world. He says, “I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all resistance, in order to learn how to love the world.” Here, Siddhartha is connecting his love for the world with perfection and unity. By learning to love all of creation, he will advance further down his path to fulfillment. Love and perfection, he explains, go hand in hand and cannot ever be
separated. Finally, the last important theme present in Siddhartha is satisfaction. From the beginning of the story through the end, Siddhartha is continually dissatisfied with his life. His desire for satisfaction was became his one goal, “A goal stood before Siddhartha, a single goal: to become empty…” This goal drove Siddhartha to leave his old life behind and search for true wisdom and enlightenment. Not until this one goal was accomplished would Siddhartha feel that his life was complete. “Once all of my self was overcome and had died, once every desire and every urge was silent in the heart, then the ultimate part of me had to awake…” Here, Siddhartha is saying that once he overcame his worldly desires and attachments, then he would truly discover himself and reveal his innermost being. Siddhartha is clearly an extremely philosophical novel. Its deep reflections and thought provoking ideas help to stir up the reader’s imagination and interest. Although it has buddhist roots, Siddhartha is a good novel for any faith denomination. Its teachings can help the reader to reevaluate their life, and to consider their own quest for spiritual enlighten
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, follows a young man through his path of enlightenment Siddhartha is born and raised in India by family of the Brahmins class He has a best friend named Govinda, who loves him very much, just like everyone else does Siddhartha is considered to be the golden child of his community He is the best at everything that he does and everyone wants to befriend him His father makes sure to protect Siddhartha from all the wrong things in the world He doesn 't get to see the real world and all of the bad things it has, only the goods He believes he isn’t learning anything from this and can not grow Through this story we follow Siddhartha in finding himself through Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Path
A mythical beast who finds meaning in killing and a questioning wanderer who cannot find meaning in being: both John Gardener's Grendel and Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha grow and develop spiritually, yet their authors use vastly different styles to convey these changes.
In this paper, I will be explaining how Siddhartha had arrived at the Four Noble Truths. The first paragraph contains how Siddhartha’s life was full of suffering, pain, and sorrow. The second paragraph will be the cause of suffering is the desire for things that are really illusions in Siddhartha’s life. Following, in the third paragraph I will be explaining how the only way to cure suffering is to overcome desire. Finally, I will be explaining that the only way to overcome desire is to follow the Eightfold Path.
For Siddhartha, he “had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace, satisfy and suffice him. He had begun to suspect that his worthy father and his other teachers, the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom [but] his soul was not at peace.” (Hesse 3). Siddhartha has all the love he needs in life, yet he has a true desire to understand the world around him.
...his son. The boy is the first person that he had ever truly loved. The boy despises life with his father and never listens or is nice to his father. Finally the boy can no longer live a poor simple life and runs away. Siddhartha wants to follow but the old ferryman tells him not to. It is then that he realizes it is just as when he was a boy and hated his father so and wanted nothing but to be out from under his roof. I suppose it is this way with most Father and Sons. Finally his friend the old ferryman led him to the river for one more lesson. He told him to listen and asked what he heard. It took awhile but finally he heard that the river first had happiness, joy, and sorrow. Then when he listened closer he heard the ‘om”, and he knew he had reached enlightenment. The old ferryman saw his friend finally achieve enlightenment and he walked into the woods to die.
Siddhartha is a much respected son of a Brahmin who lives with his father in ancient India. Everyone in their town expects Siddhartha to act like his father and become successful. Although he lives a very high quality life, Siddhartha is dissatisfied and along with his best friend Govinda- wants nothing more than to join the group of wandering ascetics called Samana’s. This group starves themselves, travels almost naked and must beg for the food they survive on. This group of people believes that to achieve enlightenment and self-actualization: body image, health, physical and material desires must be thrown away. Although this is the life Siddhartha wished for himself, he soon discovers that it is not the right choice for him. Near desolation, Siddhartha happens upon a river where he hears a strange sound. This sound signifies the beginning of the life he was born to live – the beginning of his true self. Hesse uses many literary devices to assure Siddhartha’s goal of self-actualization and creates a proper path for that success.
In conclusion, in Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, a young Brahmin man leaves home on a quest for spiritual enlightenment. Throughout his journey, Siddhartha proves he is a heroic figure. He accurately follows the steps in Joseph Campbell’s “Heroic Quest Model” from his call to adventure, to his freedom to live. Siddhartha also collaborates with numerous dictionary definitions of a hero. Siddhartha’s admired qualities such as courage, bravery, and nobility within Campell’s “Heroic Quest Model” define him as a hero.
In the novel Siddhartha, Herman Hesse used other characters to let Siddhartha grow both intellectually and spiritually. During the course of his journey, Siddhartha encountered many people and experienced different ways of living and thinking about life. Each person taught him something about himself and the world around him.
The novel, Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse focuses on a young man named Siddhartha and his lifelong pursuit to attain enlightenment. Throughout his endeavor, Siddhartha follows the way of rejection and doctrines from the Samanas and Gautama the Buddha, respectively. Soon enough, however, Siddhartha realizes that following the path of others is hopeless, and he starts to look within himself to gain wisdom and become enlightened. By looking at and listening to the river, Siddhartha begins to realize who he actually is through the visions and voices that appear from the river. This helps bring Siddhartha to the conclusion that gaining wisdom is completely different than gaining knowledge. Hesse suggests, via Siddhartha, that wisdom, unlike knowledge, cannot be passed on or taught. Siddhartha’s character serves to display how wisdom can only be found through the self.
The role of teachers in Hesse’s exceptional work of fiction is to aid in the achievement of the ultimate knowledge, while not taking the pupil directly there, instead giving him the skill set necessary to achieve what the student, in this case Siddhartha, feels is that ultimate knowledge.
Siddhartha's path lead him through constant re-evaluations, keeping him focused on himself. He began as the son of a wealthy Brahmin, sheltered from the real world and any experience with it, but having the best education he could obtain. He began his life at home, as a thinker, possessing wisdom and thoughts he had yet to earn through experience.
In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a classic novel about enlightenment, the main character, Siddhartha, goes on a lifelong journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Siddhartha encounters many who try to teach him enlightenment, undoubtedly the most important being the Buddha himself. Although Siddhartha rejects the Buddha's teachings, saying that wisdom cannot be taught, we can see, nevertheless, that along his journey for understanding Siddhartha encounters the Four Noble Truths that are a central theme in Buddhism: suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the middle path.
Leaving his family and past behind, Siddhartha sets out on the path to enlightenment. In order to reach enlightenment to its purest point, Siddhartha follows a unique direction by going through his own path of life experiences, rather than the eightfold path. In 1922, the novel “Siddhartha” written by Herman Hesse takes place in 625 BC sharing the struggles of a young man, Siddhartha, reaching enlightenment. Throughout his journey three influential people stumble upon his path and teach him different aspects of life. Each situation he experiences has a specific reasoning and lesson behind it. There may be bumps in the road, but they are certainly pushing him towards his goal. He learns the ups and downs of life, whether he was experiencing
Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse, is a novel about a man's progression towards his goal to center his life with a combination of peace and balance. Many of the displayed philosophies can be applied to today's world. Through my reading, I noticed many similarities between my life and Siddhartha's. First, Siddhartha felt a need for independence, that to truly be happy with his success, he must attain his achievements in his own way, and not others. Even though, he feels he must acquire this by himself, he tries to be as removed from his human side as possible. Only later does he learn that individuality and freedom from necessity must be united to procure his objectives and free him from his imperfections. Second, Siddhartha discovers that things and riches do not bring happiness. They are only temporary. No matter the extent of wealth a person has this never satisfies the insatiable need for possessions. Lastly, Siddhartha found that balance is the key to peace and happiness. Although a simplistic teaching, it is very complex to learn and apply. In my life, I can relate to his path and lessons, because I feel the same struggles and battles with attaining serenity.
Throughout the novel Siddhartha written by Hermann Hesse, there are many archetypes present that can compare to Occidental literature. An archetype is a worldly recognized symbol in a work of literature that many believe every book is based off of. An archetype can be a character, a tradition, a story or image that recurs in different works in different cultures. Archetypal criticism focuses on those patterns that commonly occur. It is clear that Hesse includes many archetypes from start to finish in his novel Siddhartha including the characters he creates, the river, and the meditation “Om” which can easily be compared to symbols and characters all throughout literature.