"Soon, Govinda, your friend will abandon this path of the shramanas in which he has accompanied you for so long. I suffer thirst, O Govinda, and on this long path of a shramana, my thirst has not grown any less. I have always thirsted for understanding; I have always been full of questions. Year after year, I asked questions of the Brahmins; year after year, I asked questions of the holy Vedas. Perhaps, O Govinda, it would have been just as good, just as clever, just as meaningful to address my questions to a tickbird or a chimpanzee. I have taken a long time - and I have not yet finished-to learn the following, Govinda: It is impossible to learn anything! In my opinion, that thing that we call 'learning' does not exist. The only thing that exists, my friend, is a knowing that is everywhere, which is atman, which is in me and in you and in every being. And I am beginning to believe that this knowing has no greater enemy than wanting to know, than learning" (Hesse 16). Throughout the entire book Siddhartha is searching for true knowledge, for an understanding that will bring fulfillment into his life. At this point in the book, Siddhartha is feeling as though he cannot learn anything more from these religious teachers, he questions, “...are we not going in a circle-we whose intention was to escape the circle of existence?” (Hesse 15). This circle, or repeating of things of the past irritates Siddhartha because he believes that he can become happier and find something greater in his life. Hesse shows that Siddhartha realizes now that he has to find his own absolute truth. Learning, or mastering something takes more than someone just teaching it to someone. One must experience this life for themselves for it to have any significance. Siddhartha ‘thirsts’ for understanding; he is dead without this knowledge, without the journey to find truth. Why does this matter so much to him? Is it not that most of his other peers stay searching in one way for their entire lives. Why is Siddhartha different? Although Siddhartha is talking to Govinda in this passage, this is a self-realization for Siddhartha as well. Hesse uses this passage to indirectly characterize Siddhartha. It shows the inner struggle of wanting to learn and experience. The repeated “I” shows that Siddhartha is very focused on his personal journey and still has not let go of his ego. This passage has the most usage of the word “I” in the entire book. Hesse uses this irony to show that Siddhartha has truly not learned what is most important to the Shramanas; losing one’s ego. The last sentence in this passage shows that the wanting to know often gets in the way of truly knowing. Siddhartha realizes that when one loses all he has learned from others, only then will he find true peace and happiness. He still wants to learn, but now he knows that he must learn, from himself, what true knowledge is. Any other teacher would not give him answers, he knows now that he must quench this thirst with a journey to find happiness and answers to his questions.
You had a strong point about how this passage gives information about Siddhartha’s ego and it made me think, does Siddhartha truly care about Govinda? Govinda always followed Siddhartha wherever he went but did Siddhartha only wanted him to follow so that he can satisfy his ego. The passion and loyalty that Govinda had for Siddhartha most probably boosted his ego further pushing him away from attaining true happiness. My claim can be supported by how Siddhartha finally achieved peace without Govinda who would have only boosted his ego. Without his friend admiring him, the only obstruction that blocked him from his goal was himself. Nice analysis of the passage, very well thought out.
This was an interesting passage and a well thought out analysis. I really like what you had to say about the last sentence of the passage, how when Siddhartha understands he must loose all he has learned from others, and only learn from within, as well as how you wrote about how wanting to know gets in the way of truly finding out. I thought this was a very insightful point that reflects on most of the book, of how Siddhartha spends this time wanting to know and attempting to learn from others, but only when he listens to himself with no attempt to be taught, does he actually learn. Another interesting point you made was with the I's and how they show Siddhartha's remaining hold on his ego, however I read this part as Siddhartha's first steps into learning from within, and from himself opposed to a reflection of his ego.
“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 forever and ever, would not nurse him, feed him, satisfy him. He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied” (Page 3). This quote shows that Siddartha no longer trusts the knowledge that he has been given by his friends, family, and religious leaders. Siddartha is growing apart from the society that he has grown up in, where generation after generation his people follow the same teachings in order to attain more knowledge about the world around them, and to attain a higher level of spirituality. He wants to explore the world around him through personal experiences, and is not content with the information that he is being fed. To the reader, Siddartha seems distant from his father from the beginning of the book. This may also show that his father and the people around him don't fully have his trust. This is shown on page 9: “The Brahmin saw that Siddhartha’s knees trembled slightly, but there was no trembling in Siddhartha’s face; his eyes looked far away. Then the father realized that Siddhartha could no longer remain with him at home – that he had already left him” (Page 9). This is when his father realizes that there is nothing that he can do to stop Siddartha questioning his beliefs and that he had to let Siddartha go and explore the world for himself. Hess may have used this quote to emphasize that the best way to learn things is through personal experience. This would explain why Siddartha and Govinda go to meet Gotama themselves, rather than listening to what he has taught and told others.
I agree that Siddhartha was wanting something more to explore for himself, but this is not one of the passages that i would have turned to. When he is ‘trembling,’ I think that it was not that he was necessarily questioning his father’s beliefs, but that he was infected with wanting to give up his life and to get closer to knowing Atman, his own soul. This is why he left because he didn't think he could truly reach enlightenment if he didn’t experience it for himself, like you mentioned. Siddhartha was not content with himself and this led to him realizing that none of the Brahmins had actually reached enlightenment. They were only practicing outward rituals, in Siddhartha’s view, so it wasn’t affecting Siddhartha’s heart. This passage is almost a foreshadow of what will happen with the ‘child people,’ that he would only focus on the outward image and achievements that he would forget about his inner soul and knowledge.
“But his friend, the brahmin’s son Govinda, loved him more than any other. He loved Siddhartha’s gaze and his sweet voice, he loved his way of walking and the complete grace of his movements; he loved everything Siddhartha did and said, but most of all, he loved his mind– his elevated, fiery thoughts, his burning will, his lofty inspiration. Govinda knew Siddhartha would never become an ordinary brahmin, a lazy purveyor of rituals, a greedy dealer in charms, a vain mouther of empty phrases, a base and devious priest, nor would he become a mindless good sheep in the common herd. Certainly he would not; and Govinda, too, would not become any of those things; he also would not become a brahmin like ten thousand others. His desire was to follow Siddhartha, the beloved, the magnificent. And if Siddhartha ever became a god, if he ever entered the light, then Govinda would follow him– as his friend, as his companion, as his servant, his spear bearer, his shadow. Yes, everyone loved Siddhartha. He aroused joy in everyone; he was a delight to all” (Hesse 4). This passage displays characterization of both Govinda and Siddhartha, as well as describing their relationship. Given that for most of the novel the reader is inside Siddhartha’s thoughts, listening to his criticism of himself and the world, it’s easy to forget how much the brahmins and shramanas revere him. Govinda is characterized by his utter admiration for Siddhartha, and serves as a reminder to the reader that the latter is spiritually gifted; even though this may not bring him any closer to enlightenment. In fact, he may have developed his strong ego that he so desperately wants to get rid of because of all the praise he received. The last line in the passage reiterates how Siddhartha was very respected by many people for his rare talents and wisdom. In addition, it acts as an antithesis to the next paragraph, which talks about Siddhartha’s lack of joy, contrary to the joy he gave to everyone else. Additionally, the reader finds out that Govinda is wise enough to see through the brahmins’ practices, correctly predicting that Siddhartha would not become a brahmin but find contentment through something else. On the other hand, Govinda is not as talented and visionary as his companion, always looking to him to lead, acting as his “shadow.” The use of the word “shadow” implies that he will never reach enlightenment. The word “shadow” is also seen multiple times on the previous page, and implies that Siddhartha will not reach fulfillment through being a brahmin. However, the reader sees that by the end, he will have attained nirvana while his friend Govinda has not.
I agree to the points you made on the analysis of this passage and you pointed out details that I have never thought about. You quickly stated that the last line of the passage was an antithesis of the next paragraph, but I would also like to point out that the graceful movements that Siddhartha possessed is also an antithesis to “…his elevated, fiery thoughts, his burning will, his lofty inspiration…” I believe Hesse applied these contradictions in order to explain the illusion of happiness which Siddhartha so earnestly tries to avoid. Without information of Siddhartha’s thoughts, the reader would think that he has a happy life because of all the things he had gained from his life, when in fact, he longed to seek true happiness. One would assume that if you had the love from everyone, that you had a happy and prosperous life. You had an insightful analysis of this passage, great job!
“Taught by the eldest shramana, Siddhartha practiced self-abnegation, practiced meditative absorption according to the new instructions of the shramanas. A heron flew over the bamboo grove, and Siddhartha became one with the heron in his mind, flew over forest and mountain, became a heron, ate fish, hungered with heron’s hunger, spoke a heron’s croaking language, died a heron’s death. There was a dead jackal lying on the sandy bank, and Siddhartha mind slipped into the carcass, became a dead jackal, lay on the shore, swelled up, stank, rotted, was torn to pieces by hyenas, flayed by vultures, became a skeleton, became dust, blew about in the fields. And Siddhartha’s mind returned, dead, rotten, reduced to dust, having tasted the dark drunkenness o the cycle of existence. With a new craving it lay in wait like a hunter for the gap where that cycle could have escaped, where the end of causation could begin, eternity without suffering. He mortified his senses, immolated his memory’ he slipped out of his ego into a thousand alien forms, became a beast, carrion, became stone, wood, water-yet each time when he awoke he found himself there again. By sunshine or by moonlight, he was once again ego, was pressed back into the cycle, felt craving, overcame the craving, felt craving anew.” (Hesse 13). The nuclear conflict within Siddhartha and the entire book is explained by this passage. Hesse conveys the conflict utilizing a nature motif not only in this passage but throughout the book as a hole. In this passage, Siddhartha is compared to a heron. Birds are commonly used as a figure for freedom and in this passage Hesse also uses this. The heron in this passage is a symbol to Siddhartha’s freedom as a person. But the heron, no matter how free it might be, will never be free from the chains of the cycle of existence. This chain not only holds the bird but also Siddhartha himself. Siddhartha wishes to break free from this chain, and this is the conundrum he faces throughout the book. Hesse also uses a jackal to relay the conflict. A jackal is powerful, strong and quick but is also chained by the cycle of existence. The jackal represents Siddhartha’s physical body and what will ultimately become of it. Like the jackal, Siddhartha has to eat and sleep every day in the endless cycle of existence disabling him to becoming truly happy. These specific symbols assisted in conveying the feelings of Siddhartha. Hesse display’s Siddhartha’s situation in an undesirable way to implant a negative feeling on the reader. He uses negative imagery to help relay how truly aimless life is. If Hesse used a more positive example like how our body can become a star or the nourishment for life to flourish, then Hesse would not succeed in helping the reader understand the conflict in the story. The use of words such as “torn” or “rotted” successfully gave a dissatisfying effect on the reader helping them to understand the conflict. This use of negative imagery creates an effect that manipulates the reader’s thoughts about life which leads them to have the same mindset as Siddhartha. The negative imagery connects the reader with the character and the reader can begin to relate their own life with Siddhartha’s.
This is a really clear and interesting insight, glad you shared it Felix. I thought what you said about how the entire conflict of the novel is explained within that one passage in the first chapter, really cool. I do agree with you on the use of negative imagery to help further convey the theme of life being pointless, but I do believe that if Hesse had chosen to use positive imagery to convey this theme, it would of worked just as well. This is because Hesse could of used positive imagery to further depict Siddhartha's desires and what he does not have in order for the reader to appreciate what Siddhartha wants even more, opposed to only using negative imagery to depict Siddhartha's loss and discontent. I also really found what you wrote about symbolism to be very insightful, the heron being a symbol for Siddhartha's freedom and his longing to break free and fly away works perfectly. As well as the symbol for the jackal symbolizing how Siddhartha feels chained down by his existing status at this part of the book before becoming enlightened.
Wow, you discussed some analyses I had never thought of before. The heron and the jackal weren’t just interesting uses of imagery to demonstrate his meditation, but very meaningful symbols that gave us characterization of Siddhartha. I somewhat concur with your idea that this passage conveys Siddhartha’s conflict with the cycle of existence; he cannot seem to overcome the inevitable sufferings and happenings of life, his inevitable need to give food and attention to his body. However, you did not address the importance of his ego, another big part of Siddhartha’s block in the way to enlightenment. Siddhartha’s spiritual talents have given him pride and arrogance, a self-importance that is never satisfied and, therefore, make him never fully content with life. Meditation and physical pain distract Siddhartha from this unsatisfied pride, but this ego always comes back. I really liked your analysis, though; it made me think!
"Yes everyone loved Siddhartha. He aroused joy in everyone, he was a delight to all. But Siddhartha was no joy to himself; he brought no pleasure to himself...he was beloved of everyone, a joy to all--but still there was no joy in his heart...Siddhartha had begun to breed discontent within himself. He had begun to feel that his father's love and his mother's love, and even the love of his friend Govinda, would not bring him enduring happiness, would not bring him contentment and satisfaction...the wise brahmins, had already shared with him the better part of their wisdom...his heart was not content" (Hesse 4). Siddhartha is introduced early in the novel as an unsatisfied and eager character. These traits of unhappiness and longing for truth and new meaning in the first chapter help the reader not only characterize Siddhartha as a complex character, but help foreshadow Siddhartha's journey towards enlightenment and satisfaction. This excerpt additionally introduces the reader to the relationships between characters. For instance in the quote “and even the love of his friend Govinda, would not bring him enduring happiness, would not bring him contentment and satisfaction.” reflects and foreshadows on the relationship that Siddhartha and Govinda share throughout his journey, as well as demonstrating the significance that Godiva plays in Siddhartha’s life, especially dealing with Siddhartha’s own satisfaction and happiness (something Siddhartha dedicates his life to change). Another interesting aspect of this excerpt is how no mention of Siddhartha loving anyone is present, only mentioning of how much everyone else loves him. This may have to do with Siddhartha’s lack of true love for anyone due to his worldly un-satisfaction and thirst for knowledge and truth. Siddhartha’s obsession with enlightenment and satisfaction may be blinding him from loving the world that he lives in back. At this point of the book readers are thrown right into Siddhartha’s life and deep dilemma, instantly creating a confusing and unsure mood to the introduction of the novel. While the introductory mood to Siddhartha may feel forced or at too quickly paced, this excerpt helps readers understand and establish the mindset for Siddhartha for the rest of the novel. It also supplies the reader with background knowledge of Siddhartha and can provide insight for the rest of his actions in the book, through this perspective of unhappiness and un-satisfaction established at this part of the novel.
“O exalted one nobody attains enlightenment through teaching...this is the reason I am going to continue my wandering-not to find another or a better teaching, for I know that one does not exist, but to leave behind all teachings and teachers and to attain my goal on my own or die.” (Hesse 28). Siddhartha does not believe that the followers of the Buddha will attain enlightenment, thus explaining why he did not join Govinda and the followers of Gotama. He believes that the only way to achieve enlightenment is for an individual to find it on their own. This is supported by the quote “O Venerable one, you will not be able to express to anyone through words and doctrine what happened to you in the moment of your enlightenment!” By this, Siddartha means to tell the Buddha that although these are the techniques and knowledge that he gained to achieve enlightenment, each person has to find their own way to these teachings in order to attain enlightenment. This comment is not meant to refute the teachings of the Buddha, but it is to say that he believes that the Shramanas that follow the Buddha can only reach a certain level of knowledge, before they will have to find their way on their own. Siddhartha also says that he believes that the Buddha’s teachings are not right for him because he thinks it would give him the illusion of having eliminated his ego, and that instead he would just be allowing his love for the Buddha, his teachings, and the other Shramanas into his ego. Since eliminating all sense of ego is Siddhartha’s goal, it would not make sense for him to have joined Gotama’s followers.
“The Buddha robbed me, thought Siddhartha, he robbed me, yet he gave me even more. He robbed me of my friend, who believed in me and now believes in him, who was my shadow and is now Gotama’s shadow. But he gave me Siddhartha, he gave me myself” (Hesse 29) One of the first things that stood out in this passage was the word robbed. Often robbed means by some sort of brutality or means of physically harming someone. In this passage, however, Hesse is explaining the physically pain that was caused Siddhartha by Govinda choosing to stay with Gotama. He was robbed of his second half, Siddhartha could always count on Govinda like he could count on hims shadow being there on a hot day. Govinda was like an affirmation to him up until this point. Through all of Siddhartha’s journey Govinda was right there. Not only was he robbed of a believer, but of a close friend. The second half of this passage deals with how Siddhartha finally realizes that he does not need the confirmation of a shadow if he is looking directly into the sun. His Enlightenment is what he is now searching for, he kept looking back to his friend, that he was so wrapped up in his ego, that he forgot about his ultimate goal. THis is what Gotama gave him; freedom to see himself and where he was going. Only he can find enlightenment for himself independently, without distraction or alteration to his theories. Siddhartha is responsible for no one else but himself. Hesse uses repetition of contrast to show the significance of the transfer of Govinda, or a follower, from Siddhartha to Gotama. Siddhartha first is harmed by this, but sees the freedom it bring and now he will find his own journey and be able to be an independant person.
Nicholas Rex : "Siddhartha sat erect and learned to hold his breath, learned to make do with only a little breath, learned to stop breathing. He learned, beginning from his breathing, to calm his heartbeat, learned to diminish the beating of his heart until it beat only a few times, hardly at all." (Hesse 12)
As Siddhartha breathes, he takes in new air, new fortunes: To speak, to contemplate, to experience, any path awaits him with a breath of air. As mentioned in this excerpt, Siddhartha has throttled his breath and heartbeat, which can be attributed to his life and the world in which he observes as a whole. Thus far in his spiritual journey, (but really, his physical, emotional, and spiritual journey are all one), Siddhartha has worked to tame his desires and bridle his passions for all emotion, carnal nature, enjoyment, and love. He has learned to “hold his breath”, to “stop breathing”, to “calm his heartbeat”, and to reduce his heartbeat to “beat only a few times, hardly at all”. These can be symbols mentioned up to the present in the book, such as the mentioning of all the people that loved him, the grace he emitted, the delight he spread, and even the discontent he was concerned with within himself. The mentionings of the various ways of breathing and the variance in heartbeat also can allude to foreshadowing of what lies in Siddhartha’s future. Moments of dissolution, confusion, and periods of oxygen deprived, life lacking, scraping along with the remainders of blood in the veins and air in the lungs await him. Siddhartha will experience times when he is a touch away from unconsciousness or calmly renewed with breath. Or perhaps he will enjoy the moments when his heart remains still, his lungs remain closed, his soul aching, dry, and shriveled. Siddhartha begins his life of individual discovery with the shramanas, moments of literal starvation and pain. It inflicts a mood for the rest of the novel, one of pure hunger and strong ravaging for the truth.
Chapters 3 & 4 “All of it, all the yellow and blue, the river and the forest, entered Siddhartha for the first time through his eyes. It was no longer the magical deception of Mara, was no longer the veil of Maya, was no longer the meaningless and arbitrary multiplicity of the world of appearances contemptuously derided by deep-thinking Brahmins, who scorned multiplicity and sought unity. Blue was blue, river was river, and even if in the blue and the river the divine and the one were alive in Siddhartha in a hidden way, it was still the divine way and intention to be yellow here blue here, sky here, forest here, and Siddhartha here. Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were in them, in them all” (Hesse 32). At this point in the book, Siddhartha is deep in thought after having recently left the Jeta Grove. He has just been awakened by the fact that all his life he had been seeking the atman, when he should have been learning about himself. This leads him to realize the value of the beautiful world around him. The discussion of meaning found in nature, such as “the river and the forest,” reflects the transcendentalist idea that immersing oneself in nature can lead to enlightenment. Indeed, it is an element of nature (the river) that helps bring Siddhartha to enlightenment by the end of the book. This is a little bit of foreshadowing, especially when the river is mentioned again later in the passage. Therefore, it can be said that the Siddhartha’s discovery of nature’s beauty is his first step towards reaching contentment. There are also several literary devices in this passage used in order to increase the climactic effect of his awakening. First of all, the sentences are long, flowing, and full of commas. This is done throughout the book to match up with Siddhartha’s rapidly moving thoughts. Furthermore, the long drawn-out sentences create unified thoughts that reflect the unity of the world. In this case, the run-on phrases about the colors, aspects of nature, and Siddhartha himself create a wholeness about them that makes them more meaningful. The use of parallel structure is also used in the repletion of “was no longer the…”, which puts emphasis on the fact that Siddhartha’s previous practices did not speak the truth. In addition, the words “yellow”, “blue”, “river”, and “forest” are used more than once to make the reader visualize the scenery and understand their importance.
“He looked around him as though he were seeing the world for the first time. The world was beautiful, full of colors, strange and enigmatic. Here was blue, here yellow, here green, the sky was in movement and so was the river; the forest was fixed in place and so were the hills-all beautiful, all mysterious and magical. And in the middle of it all was Siddhartha, the awakened one, on the path to himself. All of it, all the yellow and blue, the river and the forest, entered Siddhartha for the first time through his eyes. It was no longer the magical deception of Mara, was no longer the veil of the world of appearances contemptuously derided by deep-thinking brahmins, who scorned multiplicity and sought unity. Blue was blue, river was river, and even if in the blue and the river the divine way and intention to be yellow here, blue here, sky here, forest here, and Siddhartha here. Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were in them, in them all.”(Hesse 32) In this passage, Siddhartha leaves Govinda and continues his journey by himself. Primarily, the question to ask when analyzing this passage is, why Siddhartha would feel so happy when he had just lost his long life companion. Siddhartha’s ultimate goal in the story is to rid of his ego so that he can achieve true peace. But how would a person even create ego, let alone get rid of it? It is created when someone admires a person, then this admiration causes that person to feel important. This in fact is the case for Siddhartha. Govinda, who admired Siddhartha with a brotherly passion, unintentionally nurtures Siddhartha’s ego. Siddhartha was never conscious of this because he believes that Govinda is actually helping him attain true peace, when he is actually acting as an obstacle in front of him. The happiness he feels is actually the ego dying inside of him since the nutrient needed for it to thrive, which was Govinda, is finally gone. This characterization of Siddhartha is what Hesse wants to relay to the reader. In this passage, he uses the nature’s connection with peace motif and positive imagery to achieve this objective. At this passage, Siddhartha is closer to attaining true peace than ever before, with happiness as an evidence of it. Hesse associates nature with peace in this passage to help the reader understand the message he intends to convey. To apply emphasis that Siddhartha is closer to true peace, Hesse describes nature, a common symbol for peace. Siddhartha’s sudden heightened attention of nature indicates of his closeness to true peace. The motif allows the reader to know that Siddhartha is ironically in a positive mood. Confusion could have risen if Hesse did not use this motif. Hesse also use positive imagery to give the idea that Siddhartha was close to peace. “Forest”, “sky” and “river” were described in this passage not as solely to describe his surroundings but to help the reader connect themselves with Siddhartha. The positive imagery relaxes the reader which helps them understand how Siddhartha feels. Using the nature’s connection with peace motif and positive imagery, Hesse characterizes Siddhartha.
“From that moment, when the world melted away all around him, when he was alone like a lone star in the sky, from that moment of coldness and despondence, Siddhartha surfaced, more ego than before, more concentrated. He felt that this had been the final shudder of awakening, the last cramp of birth. And instantly he started walking again, started walking swiftly and impatiently, no longer to his home, no longer to his father, no longer back” (Hesse 39). Siddhartha has currently come to a realization of where he is in his life and has become more aware of himself, more than ever before. He is seeing how far he has come and is accepting that he doesn’t know where to go from there. This is an example of how he is dynamic and changes over the course of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha’s goal was to follow in his father’s footsteps and become the Atman. He was focused on changing himself and training to take that part. At this point, he notices that none of this training was helpful, it only took him further away from himself. He learns that finding himself and creating his own path was his future, not one created for someone else. Siddhartha ends his internal conflict of searching for his new path and starts wandering into new territory, starting his journey on his last stage of awakening. Even with this newfound peace, Siddhartha is troubled over the fact that he is completely and utterly alone on this journey. Before, he had friends and leaders to look up to and guide him through his life. Now, as Hesse writes about Siddhartha’s walk, it brings emotion to the reader, expressing his feeling of loneliness and abandonment. It relates to a humans fear of change and the unknown. As Siddhartha slowly paces into his future, it compares to the caution a person takes when trying something new and the fear of not knowing what will come next.
I agree with your point that Siddhartha has become more aware of himself, and also how you analyzed him as a dynamic character. I would disagree with the statement you made about Siddhartha realizing where he is in life. I think that at this point in the story Siddhartha is looking for a new path to enlightenment to follow, and becomes lost, before realizing that he must teach himself. I think Siddhartha realizes where he is in life and what path he must follow to attain enlightenment much later in the book. Siddhartha becomes lost in his search, and doesn't seem to find himself until he becomes unhappy with his life as a merchant and realizes he is no closer to enlightenment.
“He [Siddhartha] looked around him as though he were seeing the world for the first time. The world was beautiful, full of colors, strange and enigmatic. Here was blue, here yellow, here green, the sky was in movement and so was the river; the forest was fixed in place and so were the hills- all beautiful, all mysterious and magical. . . . Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were in them, in them all.” (Hesse 32) This is the first account and initial amazement that Siddhartha has when he sees the world through his worldly eyes. He recognizes all in the present, in its form, its value, its color and movement. Before, all love for the face value of objects had been scorned, it was taught that a deeper link between all must be sought. He once regarded the world as “Everything pretended to be meaning and happiness and beauty, but it was all only putrescence and decay.” (Hesse 12) But here is Siddhartha’s first encounter with the present connection in all of life, the breathing of colors and the smiling of Earthly features. Hesse’s use of imagery in this excerpt magnifies and paints the effect into the minds of the reader rather than just portraying the experience from Siddhartha’s eyes. The joy Siddhartha experiences in this short stint is quite a new sensation for him, which displays his dynamic values as a character, with his new opinions in polar opposition to remarks he once had made. This joy and quickening of his pace he receives during these few moments juxtapose what a natural response to what many would have felt shortly after departing, possibly forever, from a dear friend and perfected teacher. But with Siddhartha’s new found love in the natural world, in his ability to see things for what they are, he quickly moves on. Siddhartha is now becoming his own teacher, or at least no longer remaining a student of those teachers he feels lack the answers to their own questions. He is aware, of himself and his place, of the direction of his goal, and accepts the steps in order to attain that goal. He must experience, he must explore this new world in which he sees, he must no longer suppress what has been ignored, he must feel what is natural to feel.
Another example to support your analysis of Siddhartha’s realization is when he decides that although Govinda will join the Gotama’s followers, and although he realizes that the Buddha is enlightened, he decides not to join his followers. This shows that even though Siddhartha realizes that many of the Buddha’s teachings are important and valuable, he must find his own way to this knowledge, and being fed the knowledge from a teacher will not help him to achieve enlightenment. I also agree with your point that Hesse’s use of imagery in the passage that you chose helps the reader to relate to the feelings that Siddhartha is experiencing, rather than just seeing it through Siddhartha’s eyes.
“Such an Idea is far from my mind,” exclaimed Siddhartha. “May they all remain with the teaching, may they all reach their goal! It is not for me to judge, that I must choose and refuse. Liberation from ego is what we sramanas are seeking, O Exalted One. If I were your disciple, O Venerable One, I am afraid it might befall me that my ego would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would survive and grow great, for then I would make the teaching, my discipleship, my love of you, and the community of monks into my ego!” With a half smile, with an unshakable brightness and kindliness, Gotama looked the stranger in the eye and dismissed him with a scarcely visible gesture. “You are clever Sharma,” said the Venerable One. “You know how to speak cleverly, my friend. Beware of excessive cleverness!” The Buddha moved on, and his gaze and his half smile remained engraved in Siddhartha’s memory forever...No other teaching will seduce me since this teaching has not seduced me...But he gave me Sidhartha he gave me myself.” (Hesse 37) In this expert of Siddhartha, Siddhartha speaks with the Buddha in the forest and tells him how after witnessing his lecture, no lecture or person shall enlighten him. Infact after not being seduced by the Buddha, Siddhartha has a revelation that enlightenment must come from within, it cannot be taught nor learned, but rooted from one's inner self. Though what I find extremely interesting and ironic is that Siddhartha was only able to come to this conclusion or revelation of not needing help from others by experiencing The Buddha's teaching, even if he was unable to be enlightened by it. While Siddhartha may feel he has not learned from the Buddha he actually has been enlightened in the first step, being able to recognize that one must take self action towards enlightenment to be truly enlightened. In this excerpt Siddharth speaks about how he is not reciprocating The Buddha's teaching or any of Sharma teachings, this dissatisfaction foreshadows Siddhartha’s departure from the Sharmas and his continued voyage towards the city. Siddhartha wishes all the other monks good will and luck in reaching their goal including leaving behind his close friend Govinda. Though from my reading I feel that Siddhartha knows none of them will ever reach true enlightenment by learning from others teachings, but yet can't invite them onto his own journey of finding enlightenment without defeating his purpose. I feel like this can somewhat be seen as a selfish or egotistical action for Siddhartha in leaving his friend behind. Though I feel that this theme of having to leave loved ones behind in order to find enlightenment is seen many times throughout the book, such as Siddhartha leaving his friends and family to join the monks, Siddhartha leaving his friend Godiva and the sharma, and then Siddhartha leaving his wife Kamala and son. This theme is most likely used in the novel in order to demonstrate to the reader the intense feelings of giving away all worldly possessions and loves in order to truly find inner peace and love. These three occurrences represent basic Buddhist practices of abandonment from possessions and focus on self.
I didn’t really think about that; I guess I was so focused on Siddhartha reaching enlightenment that I didn’t realize how many loved ones he left behind. I somewhat disagree with your idea that Siddhartha leaving behind Govinda was out of selfishness. I believe that, like you said, Buddhism focuses on the self, and Siddhartha did not want to interfere with his friend’s path and newfound independence. In order for Siddhartha to be happy, he had to go on his own unique path, even if that meant parting with his companion. However, in my own personal opinion, leaving my loved ones would lead me to sadness, not happiness. At the same time though, Hesse has so thoroughly conveyed Siddhartha’s thoughts to us that I can connect with his troubles, even though my life situations are completely different. Thanks for sparking some new ideas!
In the chapter “Kamala”, Siddhartha is exposed to a new type of experience as he wanders on his own. This experience is unlike any other learning he has experiences with the Shramanas and his spiritual learning. Siddhartha is experiencing desire for the first time. Interestingly this is reflected in the name of the chapter, and another one of the characters in the story. Kamala and Kamaswami both have the word “Kama” in them. In Sanskrit “Kama” means desire. This desire includes pleasure of the senses, affection, and love, which is the theme of this chapter. The first example of Siddhartha's desire is shown on page 41: “She stood up and approached him...she put her left foot on top of his right and made the movement women make when they are enticing men to make love to them… Siddhartha felt his blood heating up...Siddhartha also felt longing and felt his sexuality stir...with a shudder he heard his inner voice, and the voice said no.” (Hesse 41). This quote shows the first event in this chapter in which Siddhartha started to experience desire for another person. This event marks the start of his journey into pleasures of the senses, passion, and longing. We know that this is his first experience with these emotions because Hesse states: “Siddhartha had never yet touched a woman, he hesitated a moment...”. Later in the chapter Siddhartha again shows his desire when he meets Kamala, but is turned away until he can come back with presentable clothing and gifts for her. Before he meets her, Hesse states that Siddhartha had now found an “aim”. This marks the end of his wandering and now Siddhartha will start to work towards a goal.
“On the night, sleeping in the straw hut of a ferryman by a river, Siddhartha had a dream. Godiva stood before him in a yellow ascetic’s robe. Godiva stood before him in a yellow ascetic’s robe. Godiva looked sad, and sadly asked, “Why have you abandoned me?” Then he embraced Govinda, threw his arms around him, and as he held him to his breast and kissed him, it was no longer Govinda but a woman, and a full breast popped out of the woman’s garment, on which Siddhartha rested his head and drank. The milk from this breast tasted sweet and strong. It tasted of woman and man, of sun and forest, of beast and flower, of every fruit, of every desire. It made one drunk and unaware.” (Hesse 50) This excerpt from Siddhartha takes place the night before Siddhartha departs from the monks and his friend Govinda. That night Siddhartha has a dream in which Govinda approaches him and is turned into a woman where Siddhartha drinks from her breast tasting enlightenment. I believe this dream represents Siddhartha’s mixed feelings in his longing for both women and desire, as well as true enlightenment and inner tranquility. Though Siddhartha knows he cannot have both, he knows he is leaving the shramanas and will most likely end his abandonment from pleasure and desire as he longs for more life experiences. This dream also foreshadows Siddhartha’s upcoming encounters with both the woman who invites him to have sex, as well as Kamala, the woman he impregnates. These sexual experiences Siddhartha encounters in the next few chapters demonstrate his disconnection and detach from finding his own enlightenment because Siddhartha knows one should distance themselves from life’s pleasures and emotions in order to reach enlightenment. However this disconnection and urge for women and pleasure are what leads him to the experiences of spiritual disconnect leading him back to his journey of enlightenment with experience. This dream is very significant for the rest of the book because it is the beginning of Siddhartha’s urges and thirst for woman opposed to enlightenment. In the dream Siddhartha sees Godiva in his robe, representing the conservative path to enlightenment, in which he then transformers into a woman where Siddhartha engages her. This represents Siddhartha’s focus transforming from enlightenment to pleasures. However when Siddhartha drinks from the woman’s breast he tastes enlightenment foreshadowing that his future experiences with pleasure and women will provide him with understanding, and will lead him onto the path of eventually reaching enlightenment.
At the start of the day, Siddhartha asked the host, the ferryman, to ferry him across the river. The ferryman ferried him on his bamboo raft; the broad expanse of water shimmered rosy in the morning glow. “This is a beautiful river,” said Siddhartha to his escort. “Yes,” said the ferryman, “A very beautiful river. I love it more than anything else. I often listen to it, I often look into its eyes, I have always learned from it. One can learn a lot from a river.” … “I expected no fare from you and no gift. You will give me the gift another time.” … “I have learned that too from the river; everything comes again! You too, samana, will come again. Now, farewell!” (Hesse 46). Siddhartha has just started his journey into his last stage of awakening and comes across a ferryman at a large river. This entire encounter foreshadows Siddhartha’s future of taking the ferryman’s job and following in his footsteps. The ferryman tells Siddhartha about how he listens to the river, something that he has never done. Hesse uses personification to describe the river, almost as if it were a god or someone of great importance. He claims that he looks into the river’s eyes and learns from it. This could only come from years of practice and focus, allowing the ferryman to make this level of connection with nature. The ferryman draws knowledge from the river, a knowledge that Siddhartha has yet to learn and will not learn until years pass. The river symbolizes his final stage before finding himself but he must go through many struggles before reaching these stages. The ferryman is much wiser than Siddhartha and acts as his mentor or teacher towards the end of the novel, just as Buddha did for Govinda earlier in the novel. At the end of the quote, the ferryman says that Siddhartha will give him a gift another time and that everything comes again, reflecting the belief of karma.
5/6 “(Siddhartha speaking to Kamala) ‘. . . Is Siddhartha not good enough for you as he is- with oil in his hair, but without clothes, without shoes, without money?’ Laughing, Kamala exclaimed: ‘No, estimable friend, he is not good enough yet. He must have clothes, beautiful clothes, handsome shoes, plenty of money in his purse- and gifts for Kamala.’ ” (Hesse 44) This is this the first pivotal experience Siddhartha has in city, the world of material, the place he once despised. This Siddhartha, with oil in his hair, beard shaven, hair combed, is ready and pursuing something beyond him, something he never before has sought after. Attaining items of monetary value have never attracted Siddhartha, however, with a brief introduction into this world of appearances by Kamala, it becomes very apparent that here, treatment and success are alluded by appearance. Kamala insists that Siddhartha return in her fashion, the world’s fashion, and Siddhartha’s lust and desire for love overpower him. The fine clothes, shoes, money, and gifts are all representations of the finest things the material world has to offer. Kamala is the proctor of those things and love. Love, this new sense and awareness of sensuality that Siddhartha has developed, from his observing of the rivers and forests to the goats and beetles, has created a craving within him. A craving for a filling to this void inside him, developing now that he has the realization on the immensity of the world. Kamala becomes Siddhartha’s goal, and though the world may never have been Siddhartha’s goal, it eventually creeps into and permeates every fiber of his life. How ironic that these menial, laughable things, as they once were to Siddhartha, gain power over his life to the point of total control and deep sorrow. As relating to all other walks of life Siddhartha has pursued thus far in his journey, he has complete focus and aspiration to achieve enlightenment. He believes happiness will come from pleasure, from pleasing the senses (his new found awareness to his senses). He is awakening, much like a newborn baby, becoming aware of a world, of sensations, pleasures that were before suppressed, or he was blind to.
I really resonated with your point of how he has now been introduced to the world of appearances. However, when i read this passage I also think this may show how Siddhartha is now becoming the follower and his new leader is Kamala. When Kamala sets the standards for the worldly thing Siddhartha must attain, Siddhartha is so enchanted by her love and her physical appearances that he will change his values for her. So I agree that his lust for Kamala has already has made him more like the world. Even though his clothes at this point do not reflect the world of appearances, his inner thoughts are already forming to their ways. This new environment unlike his past environments is based on the physical. Another aspect of this passage that I noticed was the repeated word of ‘without,’ Hesse could have just put it once at the beginning, but he decided to make the loss more effective by the repetition of this word. Similarly Hesse uses ‘beautiful’ and ‘handsome,’ to show the embellishment of this world and the grandness of the world that he is just being introduced to.
“One night, sleeping in the straw hut of a ferryman b a river, Siddhartha had a dream. Govinda stood before him in a yellow ascetic’s robe. Govinda looked sad, and sadly he asked, “Why have you abandoned me?” Then he embraced Govinda, threw his arms around him, and as he held him to his breast and kissed him, it was no longer Govinda but a woman, and a full breast popped out of the woman’s garment, on which Siddhartha rested his head and drank. The milk from this breast tasted sweet and strong. It tasted of woman and man, of sun and forest, of beast and flower, of every fruit, of every desire. It made one drunk and unaware.”(Hesse 39) Dreams in any type of literature commonly contains a message or an encrypted meaning. In this dream, Hesse conveys two messages about the plot of the story and a hidden character that is always at play but never directly mentioned. After this passage, Siddhartha will begin to fall into the temptations of the world; a situation that a man seeking for true peace would avoid. The dream about the woman is actually foreshadows his fall to temptation. The person who arguably leads him into this world of human desires is Kamala. She was the one who introduced him into the events that will lead him to spiritual depravity and in this dream, Hesse instead uses her milk as a metaphor for her influence on Siddhartha. Furthermore, the line “It made one drunk and unaware.” Also foreshadows what will happen to Siddhartha. He will end up becoming drunk in humanly desires and will be unaware of it for an extended period of time. But why would Govinda be inside of his dream. As explained by my earlier blog about Govinda feeding Siddhartha’s ego, this passage once against support that statement. In this passage, Hesse personifies Siddhartha’s ego and creates a hidden yet major character in the story. Govinda asking “Why have you abandoned me?” is actually Siddhartha’s ego speaking to him about why he had abandoned it. Ego then changes its form into a woman and the woman, as explained earlier foreshadows Kamala, will feed Siddhartha’s ego. Embracing the woman signifies Siddhartha’s losing battle against ego and his surrender to its myriad of instruments.
Chapters 5 & 6 “Now and then he sensed, deep in his breast, a faint, moribund voice, which faintly warned, softly complained– he could barely hear it. Then one day it came to his mind that he was leading a strange life, that the things he was occupied with were purely a game, that though he was in a cheerful frame of mind and sometimes felt happy, real life was passing him by without touching him. He was playing with his business dealings the way a juggler plays with balls; in the same way he played with the people around him, watched them, was amused by them. But he was not present to all this with his heart, with the wellspring of his being. That spring was running somewhere far away, running on unseen, and had nothing to do with his life anymore. More than once he recoiled from these thoughts, wishing it were possible for him to take part wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in the childish goings-on of everyday life, to be able really to live, really to act, really to enjoy life instead of merely being an observer watching it go by” (Hesse 56)
This passage serves to explain Siddhartha’s disconnectedness from the world and also to foreshadow to his later reckless downfall. First of all, Siddhartha fails to pay notice to his “inner voice”, or instinctive thought process that allows him to make wise decisions on his path to enlightenment. His failure to follow instinct foreshadows to his future fall into self-indulgence, caused by his dissatisfaction in life. The fact that most people can fully engage in life but Siddhartha views it as superficial shows that he is more insightful and different from most people at his core. Hesse uses a simile to interestingly portray this idea, comparing Siddhartha’s way of business to the casual play of a juggler, helping the reader understand just how unconcerned he is with worldly practices. The passage goes on to discuss how the “wellspring of his being”, Siddhartha’s true desire of reaching fulfillment, is distant and far from being reached. Hesse compares this idea to a stream of water in order to portray the pure spiritual path as a beautiful element of nature, contrary to the meaningless path of business and greed. In addition, the stream comparison gives the reader the feeling that Siddhartha’s true path is drifting away from him like a leaf in s stream, that his chance of reaching enlightenment dwindles for each day he ages. Furthermore, the long, drawn-out sentences also illustrate the idea of his life drifting by without any meaning or progress. Finally, the mention of Siddhartha being a mere observer of the world reflects his earlier fascination in observing elements of nature. He saw objects and organisms for what they were, rather than viewing them as deception from the truth. This appreciation for what is simply observed allows him to view the beautiful simplicity of the “child people’s” lives and wish he could be a part of it.
"...You love no one, is that so?" "That may well be," Siddhartha said tiredly. "I am like you. You too do not love; otherwise how could you practice love as an art? People of our type are perhaps incapable of love. The child people are capable of it; that is their secret"(Hesse 58). At this point in the novel, Siddhartha has lived with the 'child people' for a significant time. He has learned the ways of the rich and prideful. He has also learned the way of Kamala. Siddhartha's incapability to love shows that he has not truly become one of them. He still has his past life of a Shramama ingrained into his life now. The “child people” do not know any better because they do not have true knowledge. They are capable of live and even true happiness because they only care about their own self and often do not care about what they are doing to the people around them. Because of Kamaswami’s love for being a merchant, he knows what is best for his business and has no way of doing something different about the actions that he makes. Siddhartha never knows the ways of the “child people,” at this point, so is incapable of loving his job as a merchant the way that most people do, through success and defeat. Innocence of a child also plays a huge role in this passage and the book. Hesse uses the word ‘child’ to show how naive, unknowing, and the people’s lust for adventure. The secret of a child’s happiness, mentioned in this passage, is that they are unknowing about the problems of the world and only look at their bright spot in the world. This is what brings true love of something, only seeing it in a perfect light with no imperfections. Siddhartha strives to become this, “wishing it were possible for him to take part wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in the childish goings-on of everyday life”(Hesse 56-57). He wants to experience this world as it is and be just excited for each day like it was his first one. This last sentence really foreshadows the next chapter and the ones to come. Siddhartha from this point now wants know this secret and become carefree in his actions, not worrying like in his life before. At this point, the reader sees that for however long Siddhartha is in this new culture, that his beliefs are still present. Hesse also puts this interaction right after Kamala, “played a game,” with Siddhartha. This setting of the passage shows that Siddhartha is slowly getting out of his old beliefs, but is never truly free of knowledge. His thirst is still to know knowledge, where the ‘child people’ do not strive to know anything but personal gain. Child is a major motif throughout Part Two of the book, it appears when Siddhartha wishes to find peace and to start over. He wants to become like these people of no worries about life or knowledge.
Chapters 7, 8, & 9 I chose a couple of different quotes as evidence of the symbolism of the songbird. “Only by the morning light, with the first stirring of activity on the street, did he fall asleep and find for a few moments a partial deadening, a shred of sleep. In those few moments, he had a dream: In a golden cage Kamala had a small, rare songbird. He dreamed about the bird. He dreamed the bird, who otherwise always sang in the morning, was silent. Noticing this, he went over to the cage and looked inside. The little bird was dead and lay stiff on the bottom of the cage. He took it out, weighed it a moment in his hand, then threw it away onto the street outside. That moment a terrible fright took hold of him and his heart pained as though with this dead bird he had thrown away everything valuable and good” (Hesse 64). This moment marks the climax of Siddhartha’s life of wealth and misery. The songbird symbolizes Siddhartha’s spiritual side and inner voice, which he has for so long abandoned, and the fact that the bird ceases to sing represents the full abandonment of this voice. This rejection is further expressed when Siddhartha throws out the dead bird as if it is worthless. At this moment, Siddhartha suddenly and finally realizes how he has deserted his path to enlightenment that he had for so long forgotten. However, the bird could also be representative of the death of Siddhartha’s ego, as he will suggest later. The essence that had always been preventing him from reaching enlightenment was his ego. Now, his ego (the bird) finally dies, because of how much Siddhartha despises himself for falling into greed and self-indulgence. This loss of pride is what will allow him to soon be reborn and, by the end of the book, fulfill his life-long goal of contentment. “When she first received news of Siddhartha’s disappearance, she went to the window where she kept a rare songbird in a golden cage. She opened the door of the cage, took the bird out, and let it fly away. She looked after the flying bird for a long time”(67). This excerpt is evidence that Siddhartha profoundly affected Kamala as much as she affected him. Owning a rare songbird is evidence of greed and a desire for owning something worth a lot of money and power. The death of it in Siddhartha’s dream symbolized the death of his pride and greed. Likewise, Kamala’s release of this bird suggests that Siddhartha’s ascetic soul influenced her to lose interest in material items. Indeed, Siddhartha’s influence will be what motivates her to travel to Gotama at the time of his death. In addition, her release of the songbird symbolizes her acceptance of parting with Siddhartha, the one whom she loved so much, for she always knew that he would eventually leave the world of wealth and the child people.
“Siddhartha leaned his shoulder against it, laid his arms over the trunk, and gazed down into the green water that flowed endlessly by, gazed down and found himself wholly and completely filled with the desire to be rid of himself and sink beneath this water.” (Hesse 69) At this point in the story, Siddhartha realizes that the life of a rich merchant and his relationship with Kamala which had once given him an “aim”, was not satisfying him. Siddhartha yearned for a constant happiness that can only be attained through enlightenment and joy in non-material objects. He realizes that becoming a successful businessman and having a intimate relationship with Kamala could only ever bring him temporary happiness. Siddhartha also looks at his reflection and spits in the river in disgust. “he stared into the water, he saw the reflection of his face and spat at it.” (Hesse 69). When Siddhartha stared into the river and spits at his own reflection it further intensifies the notion that he can no longer stand what he has become, and his suicidal thoughts follow. Siddhartha is unhappy that through two different lifestyles; one in which he took joy in material objects, and one in which he took no joy in material objects, he has not found enlightenment. This has caused him to become confused as to which approach he should take in order to achieve enlightenment, and since neither has shown any promise, he thinks that he will never find enlightenment, and thus the only way to free himself of the agonies of the world is to take his own life.
“And Siddhartha’s new life, begun after his parting from Govinda, had likewise grown old; and so, with fleeting years. His life lost color and luster, and so stains and wrinkles gathered on him, and, deeply concealed, peeping out here and there and already ugly, disgust and disillusion waited. Siddhartha did not notice. He noticed only that the clear and certain inner voice, which had awoken him long ago and had always guided him in his luminous times, had now grown ill. The world had captured him: pleasure, lustfulness, sluggishness, and finally the vice that he had always scorned and scoffed at” (Hesse 70). Siddhartha has taken Kamala’s advice and has started living a life full of materials and greed. After a long period of time, he has finally realized the affect of this lifestyle on his body and mind. He is no longer the selfless man from before. After his introduction to this new stage of life, he has lost himself again and cannot return to his past mindset. After learning from the rich merchant, he began to favor posession and all of his efforts to impress Kamala, forced him to focus on money and objects instead of being happy with himself. He loved this luxurious life at first, but saw that it was changing him and he wanted his old self back. This is similar to how humans obsess over greed and believe that they will be happy if they have money, when in reality, money truly doesn’t buy happiness. Instead, it traps a person and tricks them into thinking they need more to be happy, creating an endless cycle of greed and addiction. Siddhartha proves this when he describes the difference between how he was before versus how he is now. He states that he was much happier when he owned nothing and was at peace with himself, which acts as a wake up call and allows him to break away from this life and continue on his path of finding himself.
“That he had felt that despair, that profoundest revulsion, and had not been broken by it, that the bird, that wellspring, that happy voice, was still alive in him--where his joy came from. That is why he was laughing; that is why his face was radiant beneath his graying hair. It is good, he thought, to experience directly for oneself what one has to understand...And now I know it, not only from memory, but with my eyes, my heart, my stomach. Good for me for knowing it!” (Hesse 77). Siddhartha at this point has just shaken off the shackles of being bonded to the ways of the material world. After he survives the thoughts of despair and suicide, he is able to walk away and truly grasp the meaning of life. He was still able to hear his inner soul, even if his outward appearance showed age and tiredness. The second half of this passage is that he is feeling these earthly draws. Siddhartha knew that all of these worldly cravings were bad and unhelpful in reaching enlightenment, but he did them anyways. It was his lesson to truly experience for oneself what is inherently the right or wrong thing to do. Hesse uses very possessive words in this passage. Words like, "his," and "my." This demonstrates to the reader that Siddhartha is outside of the situation and is merely commenting on his actions. This is significant because at this point Siddhartha is not in tune with his inner being, but is starting to pay more attention to knowledge once more. He has not reached the point of enlightenment, but has also left this past life behind. Using past tense in the paragraph above, Hesse switches to writing in present tense to show the change in emotion and his change into a new person once again. The songbird is a huge motif in this book, it shows the inner life of Siddhartha and his true knowledge of Atman. When Siddhartha had just previously left the material world he had thought this bird had died, that there was no more hope. This bird gave him joy. The joy in learning and true knowledge of his soul. The revival of the songbird parallels the revival of Siddhartha and the renewed want for knowledge and enlightenment.
The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth...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 future...Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man are only separated by shadows, not through reality...Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence." (Hesse 87) In this excerpt in the 9th chapter of Siddhartha, The book describes an insightful characterization of the river. The book uses the river as a metaphor, or accurate comparison to life, explaining that like how all movements and fragments within a river are connected and in one continuous momentous movement, so is life and all of it’s inhabitants and physical properties. Siddhartha also uses the river for a metaphor for time. The line “Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man are only separated by shadows, not through reality” is describing how the river, like life has no beginning, middle, or end but instead just one extended continuous motion of life. I found this excerpt from the book to be the most interesting and my personal favorite so far in the book. This quote is a way represents or foreshadows to the reader what enlightenment is at least similar to for Siddhartha by the end of the book, as well as this quote makes the reader really think, and take the time to evaluate the exact words in the book, for it is through studying the river that Siddhartha is able to reach enlightenment. The way I interpreted this expert from the book is that life is more of a metaphor or has identical properties to water. Water has no beginning or end to it, but it can move and be carried like a river. Whether or not humans can grasp the idea of life not starting or ending is similar to how we may go through life how a river moves downstream, but regardless it eventually is just carried into a larger body of water that cycles through and will go through the river again. This means that there is no beginning, middle, or end similar to how the book describes Siddhartha’s different ages through his life not separated by reality or actual physical linear time, but “through shadows” meaning separated through physical points or places in a river or body of water in a cycled motion.
“The world had caught him-pleasure, greed, and indifference-and finally even the vice that he had always despised and derided as the most foolish of all, craving for possessions. Property-possessions and wealth-had finally also snared him. That, too, for him was no longer a game over empty trifles but had become a weight and a chain. By a strange and devious route, Siddhartha had fallen into the ultimate and most despicable of addictions-playing dice. From the time he ceased in his heart to be a shramana, Siddhartha began to gamble for money and precious objects with ever increasing zeal and passion. This was something he had formerly done lightheartedly and with a smile, just going along with a pastime of the child people. Now he was a feared player; he bet so high and brashly that few dared play with him.”(Hesse 62) In Siddhartha’s perpetual journey to attain enlightenment, he keeps an open mind about the different cultures of the world and is willing to assimilate with them in order to achieve his goal. Inevitably, his personality will change, making him a dynamic character. This passage is the epitome for showing his change in personality. According to this passage, when Siddhartha began gambling, he was only participating because the “child people” were all doing it. But he changed since then. Now at this point of the story, he is addicted to gambling as if he forgot about his former self. A peaceful forest deforested from the knowledge and values it accumulated. To further emphasize his new-found love for gambling, Hesse uses the words “zeal” and “passion”. These words are commonly used to describe a person’s actions in their long journey toward a valiant goal. In this instance, his goal is to win and attain as much money as possible, in the quickest way possible. Few would consider gambling an innocent goal. The Siddhartha in this passage is far from the Siddhartha in the beginning of the book. This passage also conveys to us Hesse’s thoughts about human nature. In three instances in this passage, Hesse passively blames outside forces to explain Siddhartha’s failings. “The world had caught him…”, “Property-possessions and wealth-had finally also snared him.” and “By a strange and devious route, Siddhartha had fallen…” This indicates that Hesse believes that humans to not belong to the world, but the world acts as the catalyst that leads them to an evil path. This belief goes hand in hand with the Christian belief that peoples’ true home is not earth. Hesse having devoted Christian parents grew up on Christian doctrines and this influence can be seen in his view about humans.
7/8/9 "Siddhartha leaned his shoulder against it, put his arm around the trunk, and gazed down into the green water, which kept flowing and flowing beneath him. Gazing down, he felt entirely filled with the wish to let go and go under in this water. In the water a dreadful emptiness mirrored a fearful emptiness in his soul. Yes, he was at the end. Nothing was left for himself but to snuff himself out . . . (Hesse 78)" The immensity of the emotion tasked on Siddhartha at this, the pinnacle of his life, is overbearing. The load of guilt, of wishing for the truth, searching for the path, of indulgence, and of the pains of a rotting man bear down on Siddhartha's conscience. As he reflects, both literally in the water and over his past: The path of a Brahmin, a samana, a merchant, and a lover, he feels the burden of his actions, a life that he feels so far has been total awry and in vain. The beginning of this passage begins with a complete detailed orientation of the actions and subjects of the outward setting. Quickly this complete focus shifts inward to Siddhartha's disrupted, erupting emotional state. The dramatic use of fatalistic language conjures up organic imagery in the reader, an immediate sense of hopelessness, of complete failure. The green water that flows beneath Siddhartha represents the goodness and truth of life that he has sought after his whole life, but never obtained. As each ripple has passed by he has stretched, each time in a different direction. Now he observes the water from above (in an elevated state that he has built himself upon), graceful, full of peace, an end. He sees death as the only way to envelope himself, to express his great desire, to spread all of himself out in hopes to soak up the knowledge contained in the fluidity of the green water. The "dreadful emptiness" of the water the only solace to the "fearful emptiness" of his soul. Siddhartha has visited the refiner's fire, withstood the refiner's fire, he has mined for elements to refine, he has been the refiner himself, and now endures the agony of soul wrought with the legacy of personal creation.
“Although he was nearer to perfection and bore his last wound, it nevertheless seemed to him that these people were his brothers. Their vanities, appetites, and absurd traits had lost their absurdity for him. These traits had become comprehensible, lovable; he even experienced them as worthy of respect. The blind love of a mother for her child, the ignorant, blind pride of a conceited father over his only little son, the raw hunger of vain, young women for jewelry and the admiring looks of men– all these impulses, all these childish qualities, all these simple and foolish but incredibly powerful, intensely vivid, forcefully dominant impulses and cravings were no longer childishness for Siddhartha. He saw that people live for them, achieve an endless amount for them, travel, wage war, suffer, and persevere for them. And he could love them for that. He saw life, that which is living, the indestructible essence, Brahman, in all of their passions, in each of their deeds. These people were worthy of love and admiration in their blind loyalty, in their blind strength and tenacity” (Hesse 100).
At this point in the novel, the reader can clearly see the profound change Siddhartha has undergone in his understanding of the world. He used to view people who did not follow religious discipline or understand wisdom as “child people”, and as people inferior to himself. Now, however, he sees the unity in the similar emotions of all beings, and views people as merely another beautiful part of the world. This revelation mirrors his awakening so many years before when he realized the beauty of nature rather than viewing it as deception; he now appreciates emotion and people in the same way. In addition, the mention of Brahman illustrates that Siddhartha no longer looks upon his previous lifestyles with disdain; rather, he sees the unity and similarities between all of them.
Not only does this passage reveal dynamic characterization of Siddhartha, but it also allows the reader to comprehend the perfection and completeness of life; one does not need to transcend it and become “wise,” but can merely be content with emotion and living in the moment. Hesse uses concrete examples, such as “the blind love of a mother for her child,” to evoke intense emotion and allow the reader to relate to this idea.
As seen in many other parts of the book, Hesse uses long sentences in this excerpt that are composed of lists. For example, he states that “people live for [impulses and cravings], achieve an endless amount for them,” etc. Listing lots of different examples and phrases that revolve around one idea make it more interesting and poetic than just stating that people are driven by impulses. Also, these long sentences make the reader feel like they’re reading one continuous idea, rather than a bunch of disconnected sentences. This creates a unity that is reflective of the unity of all life forms that Siddhartha is reveling about.
"He saw the face of a newly born child, red and full of wrinkles, ready to cry. He saw the face of a murderer, saw him plunge a knife into the body of a man; at the same moment he saw this criminal kneeling down, bound, and his head cut off by an executioner. He saw the naked bodies of men and women in postures and transports of passionate love. He saw corpses stretched out, still, cold, empty...He saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships to each other, all helping each other, loving, hating, destroying each other and become newly born. Each one of them was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that was transitory. Yet none of them died, they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another." (Hesse 121). In this excerpt from the last chapter of Siddhartha the reader is able to see Siddhartha witness all of life, both the beautiful and pure, as well as the damaged and horrible. Siddhartha sees the world for what it is in it’s most honest form, not necessarily good, or bad, but both in different forms in a cycle of different lives. Siddhartha claims that beings are not truly mortal, but will always be recycled and transformed in an almost reincarnation like cycle. I believe that Siddhartha isn't seeing the world as people being reincarnated or transformed into other people in a new life, but instead is claiming that all beings and people are united in one super being, saying we are all parts of one larger being or idea, like waves and ripples in a river, all continuous, intertwined, and unified with all parts around it. Some of us may be loving, some may be murderers, regardless together we all make up a united being. This quote is extremely significant in understanding Siddhartha’s ideas and theme of unity, which is commonly referenced throughout the novel in symbols and metaphors such as in water. In the last few chapters Siddhartha slowly gains more introspective of what he understands to be the world by sailing the river helping others get from one place to another. Also in this chapter Siddhartha goes back into the city to find his son, however Siddhartha decides otherwise in deciding to let his son experience the world on his own, allowing him to find his own meaning in the world away from his father similar to Siddhartha’s own life. This significant repetition is another great representation of unity, and how every person is united in the same cycle as everyone else. In this final chapter Siddhartha is able to find unity and enlightenment in which he can share that knowledge with others uniting himself with anyone willing to listen.
“After he has stood a long time at the garden gate, Siddhartha realized that the longing that had driven him to this place was a foolish one, that he could not help his son, that he ought not to cling to him” (Hesse 98). Siddhartha has now realized that there is no way for him to convince his son to stay. He realizes that his son will have to find his own path to enlightenment, if he chooses to do so. This is also where he realizes that the child people are consumed with wealth in material objects and lust. There is no way for him to explain to his son that this will only give him temporary happiness and that to achieve a complete state of happiness he must give up these desires and seek enlightenment. Siddhartha also had the same experience with his father when he was young. Siddhartha left home despite his father’s disapproval, in order to chase his desire (although his desire was enlightenment, rather than chasing lust and riches). Siddhartha attained enlightenment only after Kamala, the woman who introduced him to the world of material desire and lust, had passed away. This is also an interesting event in the book because as I mentioned in a previous blog post the stem Kama means desire in Sanskrit, and when Kamala dies, Siddhartha’s main tie to the world of lust and desire has been taken away from him. When his son runs away, he loses all ties to his previous lifestyle and attains enlightenment only a few days later while living with the ferryman and meditating over these occurrences.
“He felt now that he had completed his learning of how to listen. He had often heard all these things before, these many voiced in the river, but today he heard it in a new way...And everything together, all the voices, all the goals, all the striving, all the suffering, all the pleasure--everything together was the river of what is, the music of life...when he listened to all of them, the whole, when he perceived the unity, then the great song of a thousand voices formed one single word: OM, perfection” (Hesse 105). Siddhartha has completed his learning from his inner self, the river, and Vasudeva. This is where he finally can be free of his ego, he is not only hearing what is helpful to himself, but also what is there, what are in the lives of other people around him. Hesse shows Siddhartha’s life and how he has changed throughout the novel by listing the different things that Siddhartha sees in the river. He starts with voices, the voices of teachers, of sages, of his father. As this flows down the river, the image of goals and striving to achieve them come and go. His goal of removing his ego, and of loving. Hesse could mean multiple things with suffering and pleasure, suffering in the material world, with pleasures seeping into one's life and controlling their actions. All of these voices are not only Siddhartha’s voice, but also those of the world, of everyone who is alive. All of the voices fill the river, “...of joy and suffering, good and evil voices, laughing and lamenting voices, a hundred, a thousand voices” (Hesse 105). Hesse uses juxtaposition to show how even the complete opposites of somethings are together in nature and the material world. Siddhartha is often faced with these trials, either being on one or the other side of the scale. Everything is together, even stark opposites. Since this book is coming to an end, Hesse uses Siddhartha’s final realization to show how Siddhartha’s journey has come to an end. He has now become his own teacher and has reached the goal of inner enlightenment. All voices were the same, on the same journey he was on, but also all on their own journey, finding their own truth and knowledge through different aspects of life and their journey’s. Later in the novel, when Siddhartha is talking to Govinda, Govinda also sees the multiple aspects in Siddhartha’s life. While looking, he saw, “...other faces, many, a long series, a flowing river of faces, hundreds, thousands...yet all were Siddhartha” (Hesse 115). Siddhartha has become all-inclusive and has become one that knows all because he has now learned to listen to the world around him. Before, he only listened to what he wanted to hear or what he was suffering with, but now he knows truth and does not worry about the teachings of others. He knows that one can only find true wisdom from their inner self, although one can hear knowledge from a thousand voices.
“The river gazed at him with a thousand eyes, with green, with white, with crystalline, with sky blue eyes. How he loved the water, how it delighted him, how grateful he was to it! In his heart he heard the voice speaking, the newly awakened voice, and it said to him ‘Love this water! Stay with it! Learn from it!’ … But the secrets of the river, he saw only one today: it seized his soul. He saw the water running and running, constantly running, yet it was always there, was always and forever the same, and yet new every instant!” (Hesse 89). Hesse describes the river with great beauty and mystery, like it is above all humans and nature. He uses personification, saying that the river “gazed” at Siddhartha, making it sound like an actual person, a person that the Ferryman drew great knowledge from over the years and has learned many valuable lessons from it, one being the ability to listen. The Ferryman mentions that he had listened to the river for his whole life. This path of knowledge would soon be continued by Siddhartha as he enters his last stage, where he truly finds himself. Siddhartha sees small pieces of himself in the river, he chooses to study it because he is amazed by the beauty and simplicity of it’s existence. This relates to Siddhartha’s life when he describes the water running and flowing down the river. He claims that is stays the same but becomes new every instant. This is like how he has gone through many stages of life and is constantly changing internally. Siddhartha gets his inner voice back in this passage, indicating that he is back on track and is continuing his journey. Earlier in the novel, after he has lived with the child people and become accustomed to their lifestyle, he says he lost his voice that had always been there to guide him during his childhood. This is also the time that he loses focus and goes through a struggle. The river in a way represents Siddhartha as a whole, comparing his long journey with the natural flow of the water. Him working alongside the river and learning from it comes together to form his last stage of life.
“It was true, he had never been able to give himself completely. Never had he been able to forget himself and become love’s fool for another. His inability to do that, as it seemed to him in those days, was the main thing that separated him from the child people. But now, since his son had been with him, Siddhartha, too, had become altogether one of the child people, suffering for another person, loving another person, lost in love, a fool for love. Now, belatedly, he too felt, for the first time in his life, this strangest and strongest passion. He suffered from it, suffered pitifully, but was nevertheless touched by bliss, was in some way renewed and in some way richer.” (Hesse 95) In the United States society love is seen as a positive emotion, something everyone should embrace. But in this passage, Hesse writes as if love is for fools and that it blinds you from what is true happiness. To achieve this contradiction with today’s society he uses imagery. In this passage alone, Hesse utilizes the word “suffering” three times. The word “suffering” contains enormous negative power with it. Hesse harnesses this power in order to help the reader feel as if love is a foolish thing. But now in this passage, he begins to drive away from a fool’s love, he realizes how foolish it is to truly love someone. In the last line of the passage it explains how he feels renewed now that he knew about the dangers of love or how Hesse wrote it as “…touched by bliss…” Siddhartha’s curiosity was quenched, and this knowledge about love gave him happiness. Using the literary term, imagery, Hesse was able to convey this contrasting idea to society successfully. Also, this passage gives a deeper understanding of Siddhartha’s ego. Through many examples in the story, Siddhartha’s ego use various instruments in order to satisfy its needs. Siddhartha’s son is used as an instrument of his ego, but unlike the other forms of his ego, Siddhartha realizes how foolish he was. He realizes that what feeds his ego are people or things he develops a deep care for. He build his ego using other people because if others cared and loved him, like many characters in the book, he would feel more important. He feels “renewed” because he escaped from the temptations of ego
" 'You cannot love' [Kamala] had said to [Siddhartha], and he had agreed with her, and had likened himself to a star and the child people to falling leaves . . . Now he too, at this late time, felt this strongest and strangest passion, suffered from it, suffered woefully, and yet he was blissful, was somewhat renewed, was somewhat richer." (Hesse 107) Siddhartha has become a leaf in autumn. He once was a star, representing the newness of life, a bright streaking example. But as he has grown and rooted himself in this river, the seed of enlightenment once sown in him has blossomed, and now as he ages, his leaves begin to turn, but his knowledge remains ever increasing. This intense change from a man who once was incapable of love to a father with a love unfathomable shows Siddhartha's dynamic quality as a character. As he has grown, he has taken on more qualities of the child people: To love, to submit ones full will, to become fully enveloped in a cause. It seems the more like a child he becomes, the more simple and focused his thoughts are, revolving around one purpose, the more enlightened he has become. This motif explores the complexity of simplicity. A simple life which provides opportunities for action, reaction, and growth, rather than a life consumed with riches, busyness, and more response to external working elements beyond one's control. This relationship that Siddhartha has with his son is very one sided, while the father is polar the son remains static. Polar because the harder the son pulls, the harder he rebels and thrashes at his father's chains of compassion, the more his father is drawn to him. Siddhartha believes he can save his son, which stands as the largest barrier between Siddhartha and encompassing enlightenment. His son is a lesson for him, to let go, to let the untamed tame themselves, let the unbridled seek a master.
"Soon, Govinda, your friend will abandon this path of the shramanas in which he has accompanied you for so long. I suffer thirst, O Govinda, and on this long path of a shramana, my thirst has not grown any less. I have always thirsted for understanding; I have always been full of questions. Year after year, I asked questions of the Brahmins; year after year, I asked questions of the holy Vedas. Perhaps, O Govinda, it would have been just as good, just as clever, just as meaningful to address my questions to a tickbird or a chimpanzee. I have taken a long time - and I have not yet finished-to learn the following, Govinda: It is impossible to learn anything! In my opinion, that thing that we call 'learning' does not exist. The only thing that exists, my friend, is a knowing that is everywhere, which is atman, which is in me and in you and in every being. And I am beginning to believe that this knowing has no greater enemy than wanting to know, than learning" (Hesse 16).
ReplyDeleteThroughout the entire book Siddhartha is searching for true knowledge, for an understanding that will bring fulfillment into his life. At this point in the book, Siddhartha is feeling as though he cannot learn anything more from these religious teachers, he questions, “...are we not going in a circle-we whose intention was to escape the circle of existence?” (Hesse 15). This circle, or repeating of things of the past irritates Siddhartha because he believes that he can become happier and find something greater in his life.
Hesse shows that Siddhartha realizes now that he has to find his own absolute truth. Learning, or mastering something takes more than someone just teaching it to someone. One must experience this life for themselves for it to have any significance. Siddhartha ‘thirsts’ for understanding; he is dead without this knowledge, without the journey to find truth. Why does this matter so much to him? Is it not that most of his other peers stay searching in one way for their entire lives. Why is Siddhartha different?
Although Siddhartha is talking to Govinda in this passage, this is a self-realization for Siddhartha as well. Hesse uses this passage to indirectly characterize Siddhartha. It shows the inner struggle of wanting to learn and experience. The repeated “I” shows that Siddhartha is very focused on his personal journey and still has not let go of his ego. This passage has the most usage of the word “I” in the entire book. Hesse uses this irony to show that Siddhartha has truly not learned what is most important to the Shramanas; losing one’s ego.
The last sentence in this passage shows that the wanting to know often gets in the way of truly knowing. Siddhartha realizes that when one loses all he has learned from others, only then will he find true peace and happiness. He still wants to learn, but now he knows that he must learn, from himself, what true knowledge is. Any other teacher would not give him answers, he knows now that he must quench this thirst with a journey to find happiness and answers to his questions.
You had a strong point about how this passage gives information about Siddhartha’s ego and it made me think, does Siddhartha truly care about Govinda? Govinda always followed Siddhartha wherever he went but did Siddhartha only wanted him to follow so that he can satisfy his ego. The passion and loyalty that Govinda had for Siddhartha most probably boosted his ego further pushing him away from attaining true happiness. My claim can be supported by how Siddhartha finally achieved peace without Govinda who would have only boosted his ego. Without his friend admiring him, the only obstruction that blocked him from his goal was himself. Nice analysis of the passage, very well thought out.
DeleteThis was an interesting passage and a well thought out analysis. I really like what you had to say about the last sentence of the passage, how when Siddhartha understands he must loose all he has learned from others, and only learn from within, as well as how you wrote about how wanting to know gets in the way of truly finding out. I thought this was a very insightful point that reflects on most of the book, of how Siddhartha spends this time wanting to know and attempting to learn from others, but only when he listens to himself with no attempt to be taught, does he actually learn. Another interesting point you made was with the I's and how they show Siddhartha's remaining hold on his ego, however I read this part as Siddhartha's first steps into learning from within, and from himself opposed to a reflection of his ego.
Delete“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 forever and ever, would not nurse him, feed him, satisfy him. He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied” (Page 3).
ReplyDeleteThis quote shows that Siddartha no longer trusts the knowledge that he has been given by his friends, family, and religious leaders. Siddartha is growing apart from the society that he has grown up in, where generation after generation his people follow the same teachings in order to attain more knowledge about the world around them, and to attain a higher level of spirituality. He wants to explore the world around him through personal experiences, and is not content with the information that he is being fed. To the reader, Siddartha seems distant from his father from the beginning of the book. This may also show that his father and the people around him don't fully have his trust. This is shown on page 9:
“The Brahmin saw that Siddhartha’s knees trembled slightly, but there was no trembling in Siddhartha’s face; his eyes looked far away. Then the father realized that Siddhartha could no longer remain with him at home – that he had already left him” (Page 9).
This is when his father realizes that there is nothing that he can do to stop Siddartha questioning his beliefs and that he had to let Siddartha go and explore the world for himself. Hess may have used this quote to emphasize that the best way to learn things is through personal experience. This would explain why Siddartha and Govinda go to meet Gotama themselves, rather than listening to what he has taught and told others.
I agree that Siddhartha was wanting something more to explore for himself, but this is not one of the passages that i would have turned to. When he is ‘trembling,’ I think that it was not that he was necessarily questioning his father’s beliefs, but that he was infected with wanting to give up his life and to get closer to knowing Atman, his own soul. This is why he left because he didn't think he could truly reach enlightenment if he didn’t experience it for himself, like you mentioned.
DeleteSiddhartha was not content with himself and this led to him realizing that none of the Brahmins had actually reached enlightenment. They were only practicing outward rituals, in Siddhartha’s view, so it wasn’t affecting Siddhartha’s heart. This passage is almost a foreshadow of what will happen with the ‘child people,’ that he would only focus on the outward image and achievements that he would forget about his inner soul and knowledge.
This was probably the greatest blog post of all time.
Delete“But his friend, the brahmin’s son Govinda, loved him more than any other. He loved Siddhartha’s gaze and his sweet voice, he loved his way of walking and the complete grace of his movements; he loved everything Siddhartha did and said, but most of all, he loved his mind– his elevated, fiery thoughts, his burning will, his lofty inspiration. Govinda knew Siddhartha would never become an ordinary brahmin, a lazy purveyor of rituals, a greedy dealer in charms, a vain mouther of empty phrases, a base and devious priest, nor would he become a mindless good sheep in the common herd. Certainly he would not; and Govinda, too, would not become any of those things; he also would not become a brahmin like ten thousand others. His desire was to follow Siddhartha, the beloved, the magnificent. And if Siddhartha ever became a god, if he ever entered the light, then Govinda would follow him– as his friend, as his companion, as his servant, his spear bearer, his shadow.
ReplyDeleteYes, everyone loved Siddhartha. He aroused joy in everyone; he was a delight to all” (Hesse 4).
This passage displays characterization of both Govinda and Siddhartha, as well as describing their relationship. Given that for most of the novel the reader is inside Siddhartha’s thoughts, listening to his criticism of himself and the world, it’s easy to forget how much the brahmins and shramanas revere him. Govinda is characterized by his utter admiration for Siddhartha, and serves as a reminder to the reader that the latter is spiritually gifted; even though this may not bring him any closer to enlightenment. In fact, he may have developed his strong ego that he so desperately wants to get rid of because of all the praise he received. The last line in the passage reiterates how Siddhartha was very respected by many people for his rare talents and wisdom. In addition, it acts as an antithesis to the next paragraph, which talks about Siddhartha’s lack of joy, contrary to the joy he gave to everyone else.
Additionally, the reader finds out that Govinda is wise enough to see through the brahmins’ practices, correctly predicting that Siddhartha would not become a brahmin but find contentment through something else. On the other hand, Govinda is not as talented and visionary as his companion, always looking to him to lead, acting as his “shadow.” The use of the word “shadow” implies that he will never reach enlightenment. The word “shadow” is also seen multiple times on the previous page, and implies that Siddhartha will not reach fulfillment through being a brahmin. However, the reader sees that by the end, he will have attained nirvana while his friend Govinda has not.
I agree to the points you made on the analysis of this passage and you pointed out details that I have never thought about. You quickly stated that the last line of the passage was an antithesis of the next paragraph, but I would also like to point out that the graceful movements that Siddhartha possessed is also an antithesis to “…his elevated, fiery thoughts, his burning will, his lofty inspiration…” I believe Hesse applied these contradictions in order to explain the illusion of happiness which Siddhartha so earnestly tries to avoid. Without information of Siddhartha’s thoughts, the reader would think that he has a happy life because of all the things he had gained from his life, when in fact, he longed to seek true happiness. One would assume that if you had the love from everyone, that you had a happy and prosperous life. You had an insightful analysis of this passage, great job!
Delete“Taught by the eldest shramana, Siddhartha practiced self-abnegation, practiced meditative absorption according to the new instructions of the shramanas. A heron flew over the bamboo grove, and Siddhartha became one with the heron in his mind, flew over forest and mountain, became a heron, ate fish, hungered with heron’s hunger, spoke a heron’s croaking language, died a heron’s death. There was a dead jackal lying on the sandy bank, and Siddhartha mind slipped into the carcass, became a dead jackal, lay on the shore, swelled up, stank, rotted, was torn to pieces by hyenas, flayed by vultures, became a skeleton, became dust, blew about in the fields. And Siddhartha’s mind returned, dead, rotten, reduced to dust, having tasted the dark drunkenness o the cycle of existence. With a new craving it lay in wait like a hunter for the gap where that cycle could have escaped, where the end of causation could begin, eternity without suffering. He mortified his senses, immolated his memory’ he slipped out of his ego into a thousand alien forms, became a beast, carrion, became stone, wood, water-yet each time when he awoke he found himself there again. By sunshine or by moonlight, he was once again ego, was pressed back into the cycle, felt craving, overcame the craving, felt craving anew.” (Hesse 13).
ReplyDeleteThe nuclear conflict within Siddhartha and the entire book is explained by this passage. Hesse conveys the conflict utilizing a nature motif not only in this passage but throughout the book as a hole. In this passage, Siddhartha is compared to a heron. Birds are commonly used as a figure for freedom and in this passage Hesse also uses this. The heron in this passage is a symbol to Siddhartha’s freedom as a person. But the heron, no matter how free it might be, will never be free from the chains of the cycle of existence. This chain not only holds the bird but also Siddhartha himself. Siddhartha wishes to break free from this chain, and this is the conundrum he faces throughout the book. Hesse also uses a jackal to relay the conflict. A jackal is powerful, strong and quick but is also chained by the cycle of existence. The jackal represents Siddhartha’s physical body and what will ultimately become of it. Like the jackal, Siddhartha has to eat and sleep every day in the endless cycle of existence disabling him to becoming truly happy. These specific symbols assisted in conveying the feelings of Siddhartha.
Hesse display’s Siddhartha’s situation in an undesirable way to implant a negative feeling on the reader. He uses negative imagery to help relay how truly aimless life is. If Hesse used a more positive example like how our body can become a star or the nourishment for life to flourish, then Hesse would not succeed in helping the reader understand the conflict in the story. The use of words such as “torn” or “rotted” successfully gave a dissatisfying effect on the reader helping them to understand the conflict. This use of negative imagery creates an effect that manipulates the reader’s thoughts about life which leads them to have the same mindset as Siddhartha. The negative imagery connects the reader with the character and the reader can begin to relate their own life with Siddhartha’s.
This is a really clear and interesting insight, glad you shared it Felix. I thought what you said about how the entire conflict of the novel is explained within that one passage in the first chapter, really cool. I do agree with you on the use of negative imagery to help further convey the theme of life being pointless, but I do believe that if Hesse had chosen to use positive imagery to convey this theme, it would of worked just as well. This is because Hesse could of used positive imagery to further depict Siddhartha's desires and what he does not have in order for the reader to appreciate what Siddhartha wants even more, opposed to only using negative imagery to depict Siddhartha's loss and discontent. I also really found what you wrote about symbolism to be very insightful, the heron being a symbol for Siddhartha's freedom and his longing to break free and fly away works perfectly. As well as the symbol for the jackal symbolizing how Siddhartha feels chained down by his existing status at this part of the book before becoming enlightened.
DeleteWow, you discussed some analyses I had never thought of before. The heron and the jackal weren’t just interesting uses of imagery to demonstrate his meditation, but very meaningful symbols that gave us characterization of Siddhartha. I somewhat concur with your idea that this passage conveys Siddhartha’s conflict with the cycle of existence; he cannot seem to overcome the inevitable sufferings and happenings of life, his inevitable need to give food and attention to his body. However, you did not address the importance of his ego, another big part of Siddhartha’s block in the way to enlightenment. Siddhartha’s spiritual talents have given him pride and arrogance, a self-importance that is never satisfied and, therefore, make him never fully content with life. Meditation and physical pain distract Siddhartha from this unsatisfied pride, but this ego always comes back. I really liked your analysis, though; it made me think!
Delete"Yes everyone loved Siddhartha. He aroused joy in everyone, he was a delight to all. But Siddhartha was no joy to himself; he brought no pleasure to himself...he was beloved of everyone, a joy to all--but still there was no joy in his heart...Siddhartha had begun to breed discontent within himself. He had begun to feel that his father's love and his mother's love, and even the love of his friend Govinda, would not bring him enduring happiness, would not bring him contentment and satisfaction...the wise brahmins, had already shared with him the better part of their wisdom...his heart was not content" (Hesse 4).
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha is introduced early in the novel as an unsatisfied and eager character. These traits of unhappiness and longing for truth and new meaning in the first chapter help the reader not only characterize Siddhartha as a complex character, but help foreshadow Siddhartha's journey towards enlightenment and satisfaction. This excerpt additionally introduces the reader to the relationships between characters. For instance in the quote “and even the love of his friend Govinda, would not bring him enduring happiness, would not bring him contentment and satisfaction.” reflects and foreshadows on the relationship that Siddhartha and Govinda share throughout his journey, as well as demonstrating the significance that Godiva plays in Siddhartha’s life, especially dealing with Siddhartha’s own satisfaction and happiness (something Siddhartha dedicates his life to change). Another interesting aspect of this excerpt is how no mention of Siddhartha loving anyone is present, only mentioning of how much everyone else loves him. This may have to do with Siddhartha’s lack of true love for anyone due to his worldly un-satisfaction and thirst for knowledge and truth. Siddhartha’s obsession with enlightenment and satisfaction may be blinding him from loving the world that he lives in back. At this point of the book readers are thrown right into Siddhartha’s life and deep dilemma, instantly creating a confusing and unsure mood to the introduction of the novel. While the introductory mood to Siddhartha may feel forced or at too quickly paced, this excerpt helps readers understand and establish the mindset for Siddhartha for the rest of the novel. It also supplies the reader with background knowledge of Siddhartha and can provide insight for the rest of his actions in the book, through this perspective of unhappiness and un-satisfaction established at this part of the novel.
“O exalted one nobody attains enlightenment through teaching...this is the reason I am going to continue my wandering-not to find another or a better teaching, for I know that one does not exist, but to leave behind all teachings and teachers and to attain my goal on my own or die.” (Hesse 28).
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha does not believe that the followers of the Buddha will attain enlightenment, thus explaining why he did not join Govinda and the followers of Gotama. He believes that the only way to achieve enlightenment is for an individual to find it on their own. This is supported by the quote “O Venerable one, you will not be able to express to anyone through words and doctrine what happened to you in the moment of your enlightenment!” By this, Siddartha means to tell the Buddha that although these are the techniques and knowledge that he gained to achieve enlightenment, each person has to find their own way to these teachings in order to attain enlightenment. This comment is not meant to refute the teachings of the Buddha, but it is to say that he believes that the Shramanas that follow the Buddha can only reach a certain level of knowledge, before they will have to find their way on their own. Siddhartha also says that he believes that the Buddha’s teachings are not right for him because he thinks it would give him the illusion of having eliminated his ego, and that instead he would just be allowing his love for the Buddha, his teachings, and the other Shramanas into his ego. Since eliminating all sense of ego is Siddhartha’s goal, it would not make sense for him to have joined Gotama’s followers.
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Delete“The Buddha robbed me, thought Siddhartha, he robbed me, yet he gave me even more. He robbed me of my friend, who believed in me and now believes in him, who was my shadow and is now Gotama’s shadow. But he gave me Siddhartha, he gave me myself” (Hesse 29)
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things that stood out in this passage was the word robbed. Often robbed means by some sort of brutality or means of physically harming someone. In this passage, however, Hesse is explaining the physically pain that was caused Siddhartha by Govinda choosing to stay with Gotama. He was robbed of his second half, Siddhartha could always count on Govinda like he could count on hims shadow being there on a hot day. Govinda was like an affirmation to him up until this point. Through all of Siddhartha’s journey Govinda was right there. Not only was he robbed of a believer, but of a close friend.
The second half of this passage deals with how Siddhartha finally realizes that he does not need the confirmation of a shadow if he is looking directly into the sun. His Enlightenment is what he is now searching for, he kept looking back to his friend, that he was so wrapped up in his ego, that he forgot about his ultimate goal. THis is what Gotama gave him; freedom to see himself and where he was going. Only he can find enlightenment for himself independently, without distraction or alteration to his theories. Siddhartha is responsible for no one else but himself.
Hesse uses repetition of contrast to show the significance of the transfer of Govinda, or a follower, from Siddhartha to Gotama. Siddhartha first is harmed by this, but sees the freedom it bring and now he will find his own journey and be able to be an independant person.
Nicholas Rex : "Siddhartha sat erect and learned to hold his breath, learned to make do with only a little breath, learned to stop breathing. He learned, beginning from his breathing, to calm his heartbeat, learned to diminish the beating of his heart until it beat only a few times, hardly at all." (Hesse 12)
ReplyDeleteAs Siddhartha breathes, he takes in new air, new fortunes: To speak, to contemplate, to experience, any path awaits him with a breath of air. As mentioned in this excerpt, Siddhartha has throttled his breath and heartbeat, which can be attributed to his life and the world in which he observes as a whole. Thus far in his spiritual journey, (but really, his physical, emotional, and spiritual journey are all one), Siddhartha has worked to tame his desires and bridle his passions for all emotion, carnal nature, enjoyment, and love. He has learned to “hold his breath”, to “stop breathing”, to “calm his heartbeat”, and to reduce his heartbeat to “beat only a few times, hardly at all”. These can be symbols mentioned up to the present in the book, such as the mentioning of all the people that loved him, the grace he emitted, the delight he spread, and even the discontent he was concerned with within himself. The mentionings of the various ways of breathing and the variance in heartbeat also can allude to foreshadowing of what lies in Siddhartha’s future. Moments of dissolution, confusion, and periods of oxygen deprived, life lacking, scraping along with the remainders of blood in the veins and air in the lungs await him. Siddhartha will experience times when he is a touch away from unconsciousness or calmly renewed with breath. Or perhaps he will enjoy the moments when his heart remains still, his lungs remain closed, his soul aching, dry, and shriveled.
Siddhartha begins his life of individual discovery with the shramanas, moments of literal starvation and pain. It inflicts a mood for the rest of the novel, one of pure hunger and strong ravaging for the truth.
Chapters 3 & 4
ReplyDelete“All of it, all the yellow and blue, the river and the forest, entered Siddhartha for the first time through his eyes. It was no longer the magical deception of Mara, was no longer the veil of Maya, was no longer the meaningless and arbitrary multiplicity of the world of appearances contemptuously derided by deep-thinking Brahmins, who scorned multiplicity and sought unity. Blue was blue, river was river, and even if in the blue and the river the divine and the one were alive in Siddhartha in a hidden way, it was still the divine way and intention to be yellow here blue here, sky here, forest here, and Siddhartha here. Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were in them, in them all” (Hesse 32).
At this point in the book, Siddhartha is deep in thought after having recently left the Jeta Grove. He has just been awakened by the fact that all his life he had been seeking the atman, when he should have been learning about himself. This leads him to realize the value of the beautiful world around him. The discussion of meaning found in nature, such as “the river and the forest,” reflects the transcendentalist idea that immersing oneself in nature can lead to enlightenment. Indeed, it is an element of nature (the river) that helps bring Siddhartha to enlightenment by the end of the book. This is a little bit of foreshadowing, especially when the river is mentioned again later in the passage. Therefore, it can be said that the Siddhartha’s discovery of nature’s beauty is his first step towards reaching contentment.
There are also several literary devices in this passage used in order to increase the climactic effect of his awakening. First of all, the sentences are long, flowing, and full of commas. This is done throughout the book to match up with Siddhartha’s rapidly moving thoughts. Furthermore, the long drawn-out sentences create unified thoughts that reflect the unity of the world. In this case, the run-on phrases about the colors, aspects of nature, and Siddhartha himself create a wholeness about them that makes them more meaningful. The use of parallel structure is also used in the repletion of “was no longer the…”, which puts emphasis on the fact that Siddhartha’s previous practices did not speak the truth. In addition, the words “yellow”, “blue”, “river”, and “forest” are used more than once to make the reader visualize the scenery and understand their importance.
“He looked around him as though he were seeing the world for the first time. The world was beautiful, full of colors, strange and enigmatic. Here was blue, here yellow, here green, the sky was in movement and so was the river; the forest was fixed in place and so were the hills-all beautiful, all mysterious and magical. And in the middle of it all was Siddhartha, the awakened one, on the path to himself. All of it, all the yellow and blue, the river and the forest, entered Siddhartha for the first time through his eyes. It was no longer the magical deception of Mara, was no longer the veil of the world of appearances contemptuously derided by deep-thinking brahmins, who scorned multiplicity and sought unity. Blue was blue, river was river, and even if in the blue and the river the divine way and intention to be yellow here, blue here, sky here, forest here, and Siddhartha here. Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were in them, in them all.”(Hesse 32)
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, Siddhartha leaves Govinda and continues his journey by himself. Primarily, the question to ask when analyzing this passage is, why Siddhartha would feel so happy when he had just lost his long life companion. Siddhartha’s ultimate goal in the story is to rid of his ego so that he can achieve true peace. But how would a person even create ego, let alone get rid of it? It is created when someone admires a person, then this admiration causes that person to feel important. This in fact is the case for Siddhartha. Govinda, who admired Siddhartha with a brotherly passion, unintentionally nurtures Siddhartha’s ego. Siddhartha was never conscious of this because he believes that Govinda is actually helping him attain true peace, when he is actually acting as an obstacle in front of him. The happiness he feels is actually the ego dying inside of him since the nutrient needed for it to thrive, which was Govinda, is finally gone. This characterization of Siddhartha is what Hesse wants to relay to the reader. In this passage, he uses the nature’s connection with peace motif and positive imagery to achieve this objective.
At this passage, Siddhartha is closer to attaining true peace than ever before, with happiness as an evidence of it. Hesse associates nature with peace in this passage to help the reader understand the message he intends to convey. To apply emphasis that Siddhartha is closer to true peace, Hesse describes nature, a common symbol for peace. Siddhartha’s sudden heightened attention of nature indicates of his closeness to true peace. The motif allows the reader to know that Siddhartha is ironically in a positive mood. Confusion could have risen if Hesse did not use this motif. Hesse also use positive imagery to give the idea that Siddhartha was close to peace. “Forest”, “sky” and “river” were described in this passage not as solely to describe his surroundings but to help the reader connect themselves with Siddhartha. The positive imagery relaxes the reader which helps them understand how Siddhartha feels. Using the nature’s connection with peace motif and positive imagery, Hesse characterizes Siddhartha.
“From that moment, when the world melted away all around him, when he was alone like a lone star in the sky, from that moment of coldness and despondence, Siddhartha surfaced, more ego than before, more concentrated. He felt that this had been the final shudder of awakening, the last cramp of birth. And instantly he started walking again, started walking swiftly and impatiently, no longer to his home, no longer to his father, no longer back” (Hesse 39).
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha has currently come to a realization of where he is in his life and has become more aware of himself, more than ever before. He is seeing how far he has come and is accepting that he doesn’t know where to go from there. This is an example of how he is dynamic and changes over the course of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha’s goal was to follow in his father’s footsteps and become the Atman. He was focused on changing himself and training to take that part. At this point, he notices that none of this training was helpful, it only took him further away from himself. He learns that finding himself and creating his own path was his future, not one created for someone else. Siddhartha ends his internal conflict of searching for his new path and starts wandering into new territory, starting his journey on his last stage of awakening. Even with this newfound peace, Siddhartha is troubled over the fact that he is completely and utterly alone on this journey. Before, he had friends and leaders to look up to and guide him through his life. Now, as Hesse writes about Siddhartha’s walk, it brings emotion to the reader, expressing his feeling of loneliness and abandonment. It relates to a humans fear of change and the unknown. As Siddhartha slowly paces into his future, it compares to the caution a person takes when trying something new and the fear of not knowing what will come next.
I agree with your point that Siddhartha has become more aware of himself, and also how you analyzed him as a dynamic character. I would disagree with the statement you made about Siddhartha realizing where he is in life. I think that at this point in the story Siddhartha is looking for a new path to enlightenment to follow, and becomes lost, before realizing that he must teach himself. I think Siddhartha realizes where he is in life and what path he must follow to attain enlightenment much later in the book. Siddhartha becomes lost in his search, and doesn't seem to find himself until he becomes unhappy with his life as a merchant and realizes he is no closer to enlightenment.
Delete“He [Siddhartha] looked around him as though he were seeing the world for the first time. The world was beautiful, full of colors, strange and enigmatic. Here was blue, here yellow, here green, the sky was in movement and so was the river; the forest was fixed in place and so were the hills- all beautiful, all mysterious and magical. . . . Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were in them, in them all.” (Hesse 32)
ReplyDeleteThis is the first account and initial amazement that Siddhartha has when he sees the world through his worldly eyes. He recognizes all in the present, in its form, its value, its color and movement. Before, all love for the face value of objects had been scorned, it was taught that a deeper link between all must be sought. He once regarded the world as “Everything pretended to be meaning and happiness and beauty, but it was all only putrescence and decay.” (Hesse 12) But here is Siddhartha’s first encounter with the present connection in all of life, the breathing of colors and the smiling of Earthly features. Hesse’s use of imagery in this excerpt magnifies and paints the effect into the minds of the reader rather than just portraying the experience from Siddhartha’s eyes. The joy Siddhartha experiences in this short stint is quite a new sensation for him, which displays his dynamic values as a character, with his new opinions in polar opposition to remarks he once had made. This joy and quickening of his pace he receives during these few moments juxtapose what a natural response to what many would have felt shortly after departing, possibly forever, from a dear friend and perfected teacher. But with Siddhartha’s new found love in the natural world, in his ability to see things for what they are, he quickly moves on.
Siddhartha is now becoming his own teacher, or at least no longer remaining a student of those teachers he feels lack the answers to their own questions. He is aware, of himself and his place, of the direction of his goal, and accepts the steps in order to attain that goal. He must experience, he must explore this new world in which he sees, he must no longer suppress what has been ignored, he must feel what is natural to feel.
Another example to support your analysis of Siddhartha’s realization is when he decides that although Govinda will join the Gotama’s followers, and although he realizes that the Buddha is enlightened, he decides not to join his followers. This shows that even though Siddhartha realizes that many of the Buddha’s teachings are important and valuable, he must find his own way to this knowledge, and being fed the knowledge from a teacher will not help him to achieve enlightenment. I also agree with your point that Hesse’s use of imagery in the passage that you chose helps the reader to relate to the feelings that Siddhartha is experiencing, rather than just seeing it through Siddhartha’s eyes.
Delete“Such an Idea is far from my mind,” exclaimed Siddhartha. “May they all remain with the teaching, may they all reach their goal! It is not for me to judge, that I must choose and refuse. Liberation from ego is what we sramanas are seeking, O Exalted One. If I were your disciple, O Venerable One, I am afraid it might befall me that my ego would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would survive and grow great, for then I would make the teaching, my discipleship, my love of you, and the community of monks into my ego!”
ReplyDeleteWith a half smile, with an unshakable brightness and kindliness, Gotama looked the stranger in the eye and dismissed him with a scarcely visible gesture.
“You are clever Sharma,” said the Venerable One.
“You know how to speak cleverly, my friend. Beware of excessive cleverness!”
The Buddha moved on, and his gaze and his half smile remained engraved in Siddhartha’s memory forever...No other teaching will seduce me since this teaching has not seduced me...But he gave me Sidhartha he gave me myself.” (Hesse 37)
In this expert of Siddhartha, Siddhartha speaks with the Buddha in the forest and tells him how after witnessing his lecture, no lecture or person shall enlighten him. Infact after not being seduced by the Buddha, Siddhartha has a revelation that enlightenment must come from within, it cannot be taught nor learned, but rooted from one's inner self. Though what I find extremely interesting and ironic is that Siddhartha was only able to come to this conclusion or revelation of not needing help from others by experiencing The Buddha's teaching, even if he was unable to be enlightened by it. While Siddhartha may feel he has not learned from the Buddha he actually has been enlightened in the first step, being able to recognize that one must take self action towards enlightenment to be truly enlightened. In this excerpt Siddharth speaks about how he is not reciprocating The Buddha's teaching or any of Sharma teachings, this dissatisfaction foreshadows Siddhartha’s departure from the Sharmas and his continued voyage towards the city. Siddhartha wishes all the other monks good will and luck in reaching their goal including leaving behind his close friend Govinda. Though from my reading I feel that Siddhartha knows none of them will ever reach true enlightenment by learning from others teachings, but yet can't invite them onto his own journey of finding enlightenment without defeating his purpose. I feel like this can somewhat be seen as a selfish or egotistical action for Siddhartha in leaving his friend behind. Though I feel that this theme of having to leave loved ones behind in order to find enlightenment is seen many times throughout the book, such as Siddhartha leaving his friends and family to join the monks, Siddhartha leaving his friend Godiva and the sharma, and then Siddhartha leaving his wife Kamala and son. This theme is most likely used in the novel in order to demonstrate to the reader the intense feelings of giving away all worldly possessions and loves in order to truly find inner peace and love. These three occurrences represent basic Buddhist practices of abandonment from possessions and focus on self.
I didn’t really think about that; I guess I was so focused on Siddhartha reaching enlightenment that I didn’t realize how many loved ones he left behind. I somewhat disagree with your idea that Siddhartha leaving behind Govinda was out of selfishness. I believe that, like you said, Buddhism focuses on the self, and Siddhartha did not want to interfere with his friend’s path and newfound independence. In order for Siddhartha to be happy, he had to go on his own unique path, even if that meant parting with his companion. However, in my own personal opinion, leaving my loved ones would lead me to sadness, not happiness. At the same time though, Hesse has so thoroughly conveyed Siddhartha’s thoughts to us that I can connect with his troubles, even though my life situations are completely different. Thanks for sparking some new ideas!
DeleteIn the chapter “Kamala”, Siddhartha is exposed to a new type of experience as he wanders on his own. This experience is unlike any other learning he has experiences with the Shramanas and his spiritual learning. Siddhartha is experiencing desire for the first time. Interestingly this is reflected in the name of the chapter, and another one of the characters in the story. Kamala and Kamaswami both have the word “Kama” in them. In Sanskrit “Kama” means desire. This desire includes pleasure of the senses, affection, and love, which is the theme of this chapter. The first example of Siddhartha's desire is shown on page 41:
ReplyDelete“She stood up and approached him...she put her left foot on top of his right and made the movement women make when they are enticing men to make love to them… Siddhartha felt his blood heating up...Siddhartha also felt longing and felt his sexuality stir...with a shudder he heard his inner voice, and the voice said no.” (Hesse 41).
This quote shows the first event in this chapter in which Siddhartha started to experience desire for another person. This event marks the start of his journey into pleasures of the senses, passion, and longing. We know that this is his first experience with these emotions because Hesse states: “Siddhartha had never yet touched a woman, he hesitated a moment...”.
Later in the chapter Siddhartha again shows his desire when he meets Kamala, but is turned away until he can come back with presentable clothing and gifts for her. Before he meets her, Hesse states that Siddhartha had now found an “aim”. This marks the end of his wandering and now Siddhartha will start to work towards a goal.
“On the night, sleeping in the straw hut of a ferryman by a river, Siddhartha had a dream. Godiva stood before him in a yellow ascetic’s robe. Godiva stood before him in a yellow ascetic’s robe. Godiva looked sad, and sadly asked, “Why have you abandoned me?” Then he embraced Govinda, threw his arms around him, and as he held him to his breast and kissed him, it was no longer Govinda but a woman, and a full breast popped out of the woman’s garment, on which Siddhartha rested his head and drank. The milk from this breast tasted sweet and strong. It tasted of woman and man, of sun and forest, of beast and flower, of every fruit, of every desire. It made one drunk and unaware.” (Hesse 50)
ReplyDeleteThis excerpt from Siddhartha takes place the night before Siddhartha departs from the monks and his friend Govinda. That night Siddhartha has a dream in which Govinda approaches him and is turned into a woman where Siddhartha drinks from her breast tasting enlightenment. I believe this dream represents Siddhartha’s mixed feelings in his longing for both women and desire, as well as true enlightenment and inner tranquility. Though Siddhartha knows he cannot have both, he knows he is leaving the shramanas and will most likely end his abandonment from pleasure and desire as he longs for more life experiences. This dream also foreshadows Siddhartha’s upcoming encounters with both the woman who invites him to have sex, as well as Kamala, the woman he impregnates. These sexual experiences Siddhartha encounters in the next few chapters demonstrate his disconnection and detach from finding his own enlightenment because Siddhartha knows one should distance themselves from life’s pleasures and emotions in order to reach enlightenment. However this disconnection and urge for women and pleasure are what leads him to the experiences of spiritual disconnect leading him back to his journey of enlightenment with experience. This dream is very significant for the rest of the book because it is the beginning of Siddhartha’s urges and thirst for woman opposed to enlightenment. In the dream Siddhartha sees Godiva in his robe, representing the conservative path to enlightenment, in which he then transformers into a woman where Siddhartha engages her. This represents Siddhartha’s focus transforming from enlightenment to pleasures. However when Siddhartha drinks from the woman’s breast he tastes enlightenment foreshadowing that his future experiences with pleasure and women will provide him with understanding, and will lead him onto the path of eventually reaching enlightenment.
At the start of the day, Siddhartha asked the host, the ferryman, to ferry him across the river. The ferryman ferried him on his bamboo raft; the broad expanse of water shimmered rosy in the morning glow. “This is a beautiful river,” said Siddhartha to his escort. “Yes,” said the ferryman, “A very beautiful river. I love it more than anything else. I often listen to it, I often look into its eyes, I have always learned from it. One can learn a lot from a river.” … “I expected no fare from you and no gift. You will give me the gift another time.” … “I have learned that too from the river; everything comes again! You too, samana, will come again. Now, farewell!” (Hesse 46). Siddhartha has just started his journey into his last stage of awakening and comes across a ferryman at a large river. This entire encounter foreshadows Siddhartha’s future of taking the ferryman’s job and following in his footsteps. The ferryman tells Siddhartha about how he listens to the river, something that he has never done. Hesse uses personification to describe the river, almost as if it were a god or someone of great importance. He claims that he looks into the river’s eyes and learns from it. This could only come from years of practice and focus, allowing the ferryman to make this level of connection with nature. The ferryman draws knowledge from the river, a knowledge that Siddhartha has yet to learn and will not learn until years pass. The river symbolizes his final stage before finding himself but he must go through many struggles before reaching these stages. The ferryman is much wiser than Siddhartha and acts as his mentor or teacher towards the end of the novel, just as Buddha did for Govinda earlier in the novel. At the end of the quote, the ferryman says that Siddhartha will give him a gift another time and that everything comes again, reflecting the belief of karma.
ReplyDelete5/6
ReplyDelete“(Siddhartha speaking to Kamala) ‘. . . Is Siddhartha not good enough for you as he is- with oil in his hair, but without clothes, without shoes, without money?’ Laughing, Kamala exclaimed: ‘No, estimable friend, he is not good enough yet. He must have clothes, beautiful clothes, handsome shoes, plenty of money in his purse- and gifts for Kamala.’ ” (Hesse 44)
This is this the first pivotal experience Siddhartha has in city, the world of material, the place he once despised. This Siddhartha, with oil in his hair, beard shaven, hair combed, is ready and pursuing something beyond him, something he never before has sought after. Attaining items of monetary value have never attracted Siddhartha, however, with a brief introduction into this world of appearances by Kamala, it becomes very apparent that here, treatment and success are alluded by appearance. Kamala insists that Siddhartha return in her fashion, the world’s fashion, and Siddhartha’s lust and desire for love overpower him. The fine clothes, shoes, money, and gifts are all representations of the finest things the material world has to offer. Kamala is the proctor of those things and love. Love, this new sense and awareness of sensuality that Siddhartha has developed, from his observing of the rivers and forests to the goats and beetles, has created a craving within him. A craving for a filling to this void inside him, developing now that he has the realization on the immensity of the world. Kamala becomes Siddhartha’s goal, and though the world may never have been Siddhartha’s goal, it eventually creeps into and permeates every fiber of his life. How ironic that these menial, laughable things, as they once were to Siddhartha, gain power over his life to the point of total control and deep sorrow. As relating to all other walks of life Siddhartha has pursued thus far in his journey, he has complete focus and aspiration to achieve enlightenment. He believes happiness will come from pleasure, from pleasing the senses (his new found awareness to his senses). He is awakening, much like a newborn baby, becoming aware of a world, of sensations, pleasures that were before suppressed, or he was blind to.
I really resonated with your point of how he has now been introduced to the world of appearances. However, when i read this passage I also think this may show how Siddhartha is now becoming the follower and his new leader is Kamala. When Kamala sets the standards for the worldly thing Siddhartha must attain, Siddhartha is so enchanted by her love and her physical appearances that he will change his values for her. So I agree that his lust for Kamala has already has made him more like the world. Even though his clothes at this point do not reflect the world of appearances, his inner thoughts are already forming to their ways. This new environment unlike his past environments is based on the physical.
DeleteAnother aspect of this passage that I noticed was the repeated word of ‘without,’ Hesse could have just put it once at the beginning, but he decided to make the loss more effective by the repetition of this word. Similarly Hesse uses ‘beautiful’ and ‘handsome,’ to show the embellishment of this world and the grandness of the world that he is just being introduced to.
“One night, sleeping in the straw hut of a ferryman b a river, Siddhartha had a dream. Govinda stood before him in a yellow ascetic’s robe. Govinda looked sad, and sadly he asked, “Why have you abandoned me?” Then he embraced Govinda, threw his arms around him, and as he held him to his breast and kissed him, it was no longer Govinda but a woman, and a full breast popped out of the woman’s garment, on which Siddhartha rested his head and drank. The milk from this breast tasted sweet and strong. It tasted of woman and man, of sun and forest, of beast and flower, of every fruit, of every desire. It made one drunk and unaware.”(Hesse 39)
ReplyDeleteDreams in any type of literature commonly contains a message or an encrypted meaning. In this dream, Hesse conveys two messages about the plot of the story and a hidden character that is always at play but never directly mentioned.
After this passage, Siddhartha will begin to fall into the temptations of the world; a situation that a man seeking for true peace would avoid. The dream about the woman is actually foreshadows his fall to temptation. The person who arguably leads him into this world of human desires is Kamala. She was the one who introduced him into the events that will lead him to spiritual depravity and in this dream, Hesse instead uses her milk as a metaphor for her influence on Siddhartha. Furthermore, the line “It made one drunk and unaware.” Also foreshadows what will happen to Siddhartha. He will end up becoming drunk in humanly desires and will be unaware of it for an extended period of time.
But why would Govinda be inside of his dream. As explained by my earlier blog about Govinda feeding Siddhartha’s ego, this passage once against support that statement. In this passage, Hesse personifies Siddhartha’s ego and creates a hidden yet major character in the story. Govinda asking “Why have you abandoned me?” is actually Siddhartha’s ego speaking to him about why he had abandoned it. Ego then changes its form into a woman and the woman, as explained earlier foreshadows Kamala, will feed Siddhartha’s ego. Embracing the woman signifies Siddhartha’s losing battle against ego and his surrender to its myriad of instruments.
Chapters 5 & 6
ReplyDelete“Now and then he sensed, deep in his breast, a faint, moribund voice, which faintly warned, softly complained– he could barely hear it. Then one day it came to his mind that he was leading a strange life, that the things he was occupied with were purely a game, that though he was in a cheerful frame of mind and sometimes felt happy, real life was passing him by without touching him. He was playing with his business dealings the way a juggler plays with balls; in the same way he played with the people around him, watched them, was amused by them. But he was not present to all this with his heart, with the wellspring of his being. That spring was running somewhere far away, running on unseen, and had nothing to do with his life anymore. More than once he recoiled from these thoughts, wishing it were possible for him to take part wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in the childish goings-on of everyday life, to be able really to live, really to act, really to enjoy life instead of merely being an observer watching it go by” (Hesse 56)
This passage serves to explain Siddhartha’s disconnectedness from the world and also to foreshadow to his later reckless downfall. First of all, Siddhartha fails to pay notice to his “inner voice”, or instinctive thought process that allows him to make wise decisions on his path to enlightenment. His failure to follow instinct foreshadows to his future fall into self-indulgence, caused by his dissatisfaction in life. The fact that most people can fully engage in life but Siddhartha views it as superficial shows that he is more insightful and different from most people at his core. Hesse uses a simile to interestingly portray this idea, comparing Siddhartha’s way of business to the casual play of a juggler, helping the reader understand just how unconcerned he is with worldly practices.
The passage goes on to discuss how the “wellspring of his being”, Siddhartha’s true desire of reaching fulfillment, is distant and far from being reached. Hesse compares this idea to a stream of water in order to portray the pure spiritual path as a beautiful element of nature, contrary to the meaningless path of business and greed. In addition, the stream comparison gives the reader the feeling that Siddhartha’s true path is drifting away from him like a leaf in s stream, that his chance of reaching enlightenment dwindles for each day he ages. Furthermore, the long, drawn-out sentences also illustrate the idea of his life drifting by without any meaning or progress.
Finally, the mention of Siddhartha being a mere observer of the world reflects his earlier fascination in observing elements of nature. He saw objects and organisms for what they were, rather than viewing them as deception from the truth. This appreciation for what is simply observed allows him to view the beautiful simplicity of the “child people’s” lives and wish he could be a part of it.
"...You love no one, is that so?"
ReplyDelete"That may well be," Siddhartha said tiredly. "I am like you. You too do not love; otherwise how could you practice love as an art? People of our type are perhaps incapable of love. The child people are capable of it; that is their secret"(Hesse 58).
At this point in the novel, Siddhartha has lived with the 'child people' for a significant time. He has learned the ways of the rich and prideful. He has also learned the way of Kamala. Siddhartha's incapability to love shows that he has not truly become one of them. He still has his past life of a Shramama ingrained into his life now. The “child people” do not know any better because they do not have true knowledge. They are capable of live and even true happiness because they only care about their own self and often do not care about what they are doing to the people around them.
Because of Kamaswami’s love for being a merchant, he knows what is best for his business and has no way of doing something different about the actions that he makes. Siddhartha never knows the ways of the “child people,” at this point, so is incapable of loving his job as a merchant the way that most people do, through success and defeat.
Innocence of a child also plays a huge role in this passage and the book. Hesse uses the word ‘child’ to show how naive, unknowing, and the people’s lust for adventure. The secret of a child’s happiness, mentioned in this passage, is that they are unknowing about the problems of the world and only look at their bright spot in the world. This is what brings true love of something, only seeing it in a perfect light with no imperfections.
Siddhartha strives to become this, “wishing it were possible for him to take part wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in the childish goings-on of everyday life”(Hesse 56-57). He wants to experience this world as it is and be just excited for each day like it was his first one. This last sentence really foreshadows the next chapter and the ones to come. Siddhartha from this point now wants know this secret and become carefree in his actions, not worrying like in his life before. At this point, the reader sees that for however long Siddhartha is in this new culture, that his beliefs are still present.
Hesse also puts this interaction right after Kamala, “played a game,” with Siddhartha. This setting of the passage shows that Siddhartha is slowly getting out of his old beliefs, but is never truly free of knowledge. His thirst is still to know knowledge, where the ‘child people’ do not strive to know anything but personal gain. Child is a major motif throughout Part Two of the book, it appears when Siddhartha wishes to find peace and to start over. He wants to become like these people of no worries about life or knowledge.
Chapters 7, 8, & 9
ReplyDeleteI chose a couple of different quotes as evidence of the symbolism of the songbird.
“Only by the morning light, with the first stirring of activity on the street, did he fall asleep and find for a few moments a partial deadening, a shred of sleep. In those few moments, he had a dream:
In a golden cage Kamala had a small, rare songbird. He dreamed about the bird. He dreamed the bird, who otherwise always sang in the morning, was silent. Noticing this, he went over to the cage and looked inside. The little bird was dead and lay stiff on the bottom of the cage. He took it out, weighed it a moment in his hand, then threw it away onto the street outside. That moment a terrible fright took hold of him and his heart pained as though with this dead bird he had thrown away everything valuable and good” (Hesse 64).
This moment marks the climax of Siddhartha’s life of wealth and misery. The songbird symbolizes Siddhartha’s spiritual side and inner voice, which he has for so long abandoned, and the fact that the bird ceases to sing represents the full abandonment of this voice. This rejection is further expressed when Siddhartha throws out the dead bird as if it is worthless. At this moment, Siddhartha suddenly and finally realizes how he has deserted his path to enlightenment that he had for so long forgotten.
However, the bird could also be representative of the death of Siddhartha’s ego, as he will suggest later. The essence that had always been preventing him from reaching enlightenment was his ego. Now, his ego (the bird) finally dies, because of how much Siddhartha despises himself for falling into greed and self-indulgence. This loss of pride is what will allow him to soon be reborn and, by the end of the book, fulfill his life-long goal of contentment.
“When she first received news of Siddhartha’s disappearance, she went to the window where she kept a rare songbird in a golden cage. She opened the door of the cage, took the bird out, and let it fly away. She looked after the flying bird for a long time”(67).
This excerpt is evidence that Siddhartha profoundly affected Kamala as much as she affected him. Owning a rare songbird is evidence of greed and a desire for owning something worth a lot of money and power. The death of it in Siddhartha’s dream symbolized the death of his pride and greed. Likewise, Kamala’s release of this bird suggests that Siddhartha’s ascetic soul influenced her to lose interest in material items. Indeed, Siddhartha’s influence will be what motivates her to travel to Gotama at the time of his death. In addition, her release of the songbird symbolizes her acceptance of parting with Siddhartha, the one whom she loved so much, for she always knew that he would eventually leave the world of wealth and the child people.
“Siddhartha leaned his shoulder against it, laid his arms over the trunk, and gazed down into the green water that flowed endlessly by, gazed down and found himself wholly and completely filled with the desire to be rid of himself and sink beneath this water.” (Hesse 69)
ReplyDeleteAt this point in the story, Siddhartha realizes that the life of a rich merchant and his relationship with Kamala which had once given him an “aim”, was not satisfying him. Siddhartha yearned for a constant happiness that can only be attained through enlightenment and joy in non-material objects. He realizes that becoming a successful businessman and having a intimate relationship with Kamala could only ever bring him temporary happiness. Siddhartha also looks at his reflection and spits in the river in disgust. “he stared into the water, he saw the reflection of his face and spat at it.” (Hesse 69). When Siddhartha stared into the river and spits at his own reflection it further intensifies the notion that he can no longer stand what he has become, and his suicidal thoughts follow. Siddhartha is unhappy that through two different lifestyles; one in which he took joy in material objects, and one in which he took no joy in material objects, he has not found enlightenment. This has caused him to become confused as to which approach he should take in order to achieve enlightenment, and since neither has shown any promise, he thinks that he will never find enlightenment, and thus the only way to free himself of the agonies of the world is to take his own life.
“And Siddhartha’s new life, begun after his parting from Govinda, had likewise grown old; and so, with fleeting years. His life lost color and luster, and so stains and wrinkles gathered on him, and, deeply concealed, peeping out here and there and already ugly, disgust and disillusion waited. Siddhartha did not notice. He noticed only that the clear and certain inner voice, which had awoken him long ago and had always guided him in his luminous times, had now grown ill. The world had captured him: pleasure, lustfulness, sluggishness, and finally the vice that he had always scorned and scoffed at” (Hesse 70). Siddhartha has taken Kamala’s advice and has started living a life full of materials and greed. After a long period of time, he has finally realized the affect of this lifestyle on his body and mind. He is no longer the selfless man from before. After his introduction to this new stage of life, he has lost himself again and cannot return to his past mindset. After learning from the rich merchant, he began to favor posession and all of his efforts to impress Kamala, forced him to focus on money and objects instead of being happy with himself. He loved this luxurious life at first, but saw that it was changing him and he wanted his old self back. This is similar to how humans obsess over greed and believe that they will be happy if they have money, when in reality, money truly doesn’t buy happiness. Instead, it traps a person and tricks them into thinking they need more to be happy, creating an endless cycle of greed and addiction. Siddhartha proves this when he describes the difference between how he was before versus how he is now. He states that he was much happier when he owned nothing and was at peace with himself, which acts as a wake up call and allows him to break away from this life and continue on his path of finding himself.
ReplyDelete“That he had felt that despair, that profoundest revulsion, and had not been broken by it, that the bird, that wellspring, that happy voice, was still alive in him--where his joy came from. That is why he was laughing; that is why his face was radiant beneath his graying hair.
ReplyDeleteIt is good, he thought, to experience directly for oneself what one has to understand...And now I know it, not only from memory, but with my eyes, my heart, my stomach. Good for me for knowing it!” (Hesse 77).
Siddhartha at this point has just shaken off the shackles of being bonded to the ways of the material world. After he survives the thoughts of despair and suicide, he is able to walk away and truly grasp the meaning of life. He was still able to hear his inner soul, even if his outward appearance showed age and tiredness.
The second half of this passage is that he is feeling these earthly draws. Siddhartha knew that all of these worldly cravings were bad and unhelpful in reaching enlightenment, but he did them anyways. It was his lesson to truly experience for oneself what is inherently the right or wrong thing to do.
Hesse uses very possessive words in this passage. Words like, "his," and "my." This demonstrates to the reader that Siddhartha is outside of the situation and is merely commenting on his actions. This is significant because at this point Siddhartha is not in tune with his inner being, but is starting to pay more attention to knowledge once more.
He has not reached the point of enlightenment, but has also left this past life behind. Using past tense in the paragraph above, Hesse switches to writing in present tense to show the change in emotion and his change into a new person once again.
The songbird is a huge motif in this book, it shows the inner life of Siddhartha and his true knowledge of Atman. When Siddhartha had just previously left the material world he had thought this bird had died, that there was no more hope. This bird gave him joy. The joy in learning and true knowledge of his soul. The revival of the songbird parallels the revival of Siddhartha and the renewed want for knowledge and enlightenment.
The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth...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 future...Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man are only separated by shadows, not through reality...Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence." (Hesse 87) In this excerpt in the 9th chapter of Siddhartha, The book describes an insightful characterization of the river. The book uses the river as a metaphor, or accurate comparison to life, explaining that like how all movements and fragments within a river are connected and in one continuous momentous movement, so is life and all of it’s inhabitants and physical properties. Siddhartha also uses the river for a metaphor for time. The line “Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man are only separated by shadows, not through reality” is describing how the river, like life has no beginning, middle, or end but instead just one extended continuous motion of life. I found this excerpt from the book to be the most interesting and my personal favorite so far in the book. This quote is a way represents or foreshadows to the reader what enlightenment is at least similar to for Siddhartha by the end of the book, as well as this quote makes the reader really think, and take the time to evaluate the exact words in the book, for it is through studying the river that Siddhartha is able to reach enlightenment. The way I interpreted this expert from the book is that life is more of a metaphor or has identical properties to water. Water has no beginning or end to it, but it can move and be carried like a river. Whether or not humans can grasp the idea of life not starting or ending is similar to how we may go through life how a river moves downstream, but regardless it eventually is just carried into a larger body of water that cycles through and will go through the river again. This means that there is no beginning, middle, or end similar to how the book describes Siddhartha’s different ages through his life not separated by reality or actual physical linear time, but “through shadows” meaning separated through physical points or places in a river or body of water in a cycled motion.
ReplyDelete“The world had caught him-pleasure, greed, and indifference-and finally even the vice that he had always despised and derided as the most foolish of all, craving for possessions. Property-possessions and wealth-had finally also snared him. That, too, for him was no longer a game over empty trifles but had become a weight and a chain. By a strange and devious route, Siddhartha had fallen into the ultimate and most despicable of addictions-playing dice. From the time he ceased in his heart to be a shramana, Siddhartha began to gamble for money and precious objects with ever increasing zeal and passion. This was something he had formerly done lightheartedly and with a smile, just going along with a pastime of the child people. Now he was a feared player; he bet so high and brashly that few dared play with him.”(Hesse 62)
ReplyDeleteIn Siddhartha’s perpetual journey to attain enlightenment, he keeps an open mind about the different cultures of the world and is willing to assimilate with them in order to achieve his goal. Inevitably, his personality will change, making him a dynamic character. This passage is the epitome for showing his change in personality. According to this passage, when Siddhartha began gambling, he was only participating because the “child people” were all doing it. But he changed since then. Now at this point of the story, he is addicted to gambling as if he forgot about his former self. A peaceful forest deforested from the knowledge and values it accumulated. To further emphasize his new-found love for gambling, Hesse uses the words “zeal” and “passion”. These words are commonly used to describe a person’s actions in their long journey toward a valiant goal. In this instance, his goal is to win and attain as much money as possible, in the quickest way possible. Few would consider gambling an innocent goal. The Siddhartha in this passage is far from the Siddhartha in the beginning of the book.
This passage also conveys to us Hesse’s thoughts about human nature. In three instances in this passage, Hesse passively blames outside forces to explain Siddhartha’s failings. “The world had caught him…”, “Property-possessions and wealth-had finally also snared him.” and “By a strange and devious route, Siddhartha had fallen…” This indicates that Hesse believes that humans to not belong to the world, but the world acts as the catalyst that leads them to an evil path. This belief goes hand in hand with the Christian belief that peoples’ true home is not earth. Hesse having devoted Christian parents grew up on Christian doctrines and this influence can be seen in his view about humans.
7/8/9
ReplyDelete"Siddhartha leaned his shoulder against it, put his arm around the trunk, and gazed down into the green water, which kept flowing and flowing beneath him. Gazing down, he felt entirely filled with the wish to let go and go under in this water. In the water a dreadful emptiness mirrored a fearful emptiness in his soul. Yes, he was at the end. Nothing was left for himself but to snuff himself out . . . (Hesse 78)"
The immensity of the emotion tasked on Siddhartha at this, the pinnacle of his life, is overbearing. The load of guilt, of wishing for the truth, searching for the path, of indulgence, and of the pains of a rotting man bear down on Siddhartha's conscience. As he reflects, both literally in the water and over his past: The path of a Brahmin, a samana, a merchant, and a lover, he feels the burden of his actions, a life that he feels so far has been total awry and in vain.
The beginning of this passage begins with a complete detailed orientation of the actions and subjects of the outward setting. Quickly this complete focus shifts inward to Siddhartha's disrupted, erupting emotional state. The dramatic use of fatalistic language conjures up organic imagery in the reader, an immediate sense of hopelessness, of complete failure.
The green water that flows beneath Siddhartha represents the goodness and truth of life that he has sought after his whole life, but never obtained. As each ripple has passed by he has stretched, each time in a different direction. Now he observes the water from above (in an elevated state that he has built himself upon), graceful, full of peace, an end. He sees death as the only way to envelope himself, to express his great desire, to spread all of himself out in hopes to soak up the knowledge contained in the fluidity of the green water. The "dreadful emptiness" of the water the only solace to the "fearful emptiness" of his soul.
Siddhartha has visited the refiner's fire, withstood the refiner's fire, he has mined for elements to refine, he has been the refiner himself, and now endures the agony of soul wrought with the legacy of personal creation.
“Although he was nearer to perfection and bore his last wound, it nevertheless seemed to him that these people were his brothers. Their vanities, appetites, and absurd traits had lost their absurdity for him. These traits had become comprehensible, lovable; he even experienced them as worthy of respect. The blind love of a mother for her child, the ignorant, blind pride of a conceited father over his only little son, the raw hunger of vain, young women for jewelry and the admiring looks of men– all these impulses, all these childish qualities, all these simple and foolish but incredibly powerful, intensely vivid, forcefully dominant impulses and cravings were no longer childishness for Siddhartha. He saw that people live for them, achieve an endless amount for them, travel, wage war, suffer, and persevere for them. And he could love them for that. He saw life, that which is living, the indestructible essence, Brahman, in all of their passions, in each of their deeds. These people were worthy of love and admiration in their blind loyalty, in their blind strength and tenacity” (Hesse 100).
ReplyDeleteAt this point in the novel, the reader can clearly see the profound change Siddhartha has undergone in his understanding of the world. He used to view people who did not follow religious discipline or understand wisdom as “child people”, and as people inferior to himself. Now, however, he sees the unity in the similar emotions of all beings, and views people as merely another beautiful part of the world. This revelation mirrors his awakening so many years before when he realized the beauty of nature rather than viewing it as deception; he now appreciates emotion and people in the same way. In addition, the mention of Brahman illustrates that Siddhartha no longer looks upon his previous lifestyles with disdain; rather, he sees the unity and similarities between all of them.
Not only does this passage reveal dynamic characterization of Siddhartha, but it also allows the reader to comprehend the perfection and completeness of life; one does not need to transcend it and become “wise,” but can merely be content with emotion and living in the moment. Hesse uses concrete examples, such as “the blind love of a mother for her child,” to evoke intense emotion and allow the reader to relate to this idea.
As seen in many other parts of the book, Hesse uses long sentences in this excerpt that are composed of lists. For example, he states that “people live for [impulses and cravings], achieve an endless amount for them,” etc. Listing lots of different examples and phrases that revolve around one idea make it more interesting and poetic than just stating that people are driven by impulses. Also, these long sentences make the reader feel like they’re reading one continuous idea, rather than a bunch of disconnected sentences. This creates a unity that is reflective of the unity of all life forms that Siddhartha is reveling about.
"He saw the face of a newly born child, red and full of wrinkles, ready to cry. He saw the face of a murderer, saw him plunge a knife into the body of a man; at the same moment he saw this criminal kneeling down, bound, and his head cut off by an executioner. He saw the naked bodies of men and women in postures and transports of passionate love. He saw corpses stretched out, still, cold, empty...He saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships to each other, all helping each other, loving, hating, destroying each other and become newly born. Each one of them was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that was transitory. Yet none of them died, they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another." (Hesse 121). In this excerpt from the last chapter of Siddhartha the reader is able to see Siddhartha witness all of life, both the beautiful and pure, as well as the damaged and horrible. Siddhartha sees the world for what it is in it’s most honest form, not necessarily good, or bad, but both in different forms in a cycle of different lives. Siddhartha claims that beings are not truly mortal, but will always be recycled and transformed in an almost reincarnation like cycle. I believe that Siddhartha isn't seeing the world as people being reincarnated or transformed into other people in a new life, but instead is claiming that all beings and people are united in one super being, saying we are all parts of one larger being or idea, like waves and ripples in a river, all continuous, intertwined, and unified with all parts around it. Some of us may be loving, some may be murderers, regardless together we all make up a united being. This quote is extremely significant in understanding Siddhartha’s ideas and theme of unity, which is commonly referenced throughout the novel in symbols and metaphors such as in water. In the last few chapters Siddhartha slowly gains more introspective of what he understands to be the world by sailing the river helping others get from one place to another. Also in this chapter Siddhartha goes back into the city to find his son, however Siddhartha decides otherwise in deciding to let his son experience the world on his own, allowing him to find his own meaning in the world away from his father similar to Siddhartha’s own life. This significant repetition is another great representation of unity, and how every person is united in the same cycle as everyone else. In this final chapter Siddhartha is able to find unity and enlightenment in which he can share that knowledge with others uniting himself with anyone willing to listen.
ReplyDelete“After he has stood a long time at the garden gate, Siddhartha realized that the longing that had driven him to this place was a foolish one, that he could not help his son, that he ought not to cling to him” (Hesse 98).
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha has now realized that there is no way for him to convince his son to stay. He realizes that his son will have to find his own path to enlightenment, if he chooses to do so. This is also where he realizes that the child people are consumed with wealth in material objects and lust. There is no way for him to explain to his son that this will only give him temporary happiness and that to achieve a complete state of happiness he must give up these desires and seek enlightenment. Siddhartha also had the same experience with his father when he was young. Siddhartha left home despite his father’s disapproval, in order to chase his desire (although his desire was enlightenment, rather than chasing lust and riches). Siddhartha attained enlightenment only after Kamala, the woman who introduced him to the world of material desire and lust, had passed away. This is also an interesting event in the book because as I mentioned in a previous blog post the stem Kama means desire in Sanskrit, and when Kamala dies, Siddhartha’s main tie to the world of lust and desire has been taken away from him. When his son runs away, he loses all ties to his previous lifestyle and attains enlightenment only a few days later while living with the ferryman and meditating over these occurrences.
“He felt now that he had completed his learning of how to listen. He had often heard all these things before, these many voiced in the river, but today he heard it in a new way...And everything together, all the voices, all the goals, all the striving, all the suffering, all the pleasure--everything together was the river of what is, the music of life...when he listened to all of them, the whole, when he perceived the unity, then the great song of a thousand voices formed one single word: OM, perfection” (Hesse 105).
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha has completed his learning from his inner self, the river, and Vasudeva. This is where he finally can be free of his ego, he is not only hearing what is helpful to himself, but also what is there, what are in the lives of other people around him. Hesse shows Siddhartha’s life and how he has changed throughout the novel by listing the different things that Siddhartha sees in the river. He starts with voices, the voices of teachers, of sages, of his father. As this flows down the river, the image of goals and striving to achieve them come and go. His goal of removing his ego, and of loving. Hesse could mean multiple things with suffering and pleasure, suffering in the material world, with pleasures seeping into one's life and controlling their actions. All of these voices are not only Siddhartha’s voice, but also those of the world, of everyone who is alive.
All of the voices fill the river, “...of joy and suffering, good and evil voices, laughing and lamenting voices, a hundred, a thousand voices” (Hesse 105). Hesse uses juxtaposition to show how even the complete opposites of somethings are together in nature and the material world. Siddhartha is often faced with these trials, either being on one or the other side of the scale. Everything is together, even stark opposites.
Since this book is coming to an end, Hesse uses Siddhartha’s final realization to show how Siddhartha’s journey has come to an end. He has now become his own teacher and has reached the goal of inner enlightenment. All voices were the same, on the same journey he was on, but also all on their own journey, finding their own truth and knowledge through different aspects of life and their journey’s.
Later in the novel, when Siddhartha is talking to Govinda, Govinda also sees the multiple aspects in Siddhartha’s life. While looking, he saw, “...other faces, many, a long series, a flowing river of faces, hundreds, thousands...yet all were Siddhartha” (Hesse 115). Siddhartha has become all-inclusive and has become one that knows all because he has now learned to listen to the world around him. Before, he only listened to what he wanted to hear or what he was suffering with, but now he knows truth and does not worry about the teachings of others. He knows that one can only find true wisdom from their inner self, although one can hear knowledge from a thousand voices.
“The river gazed at him with a thousand eyes, with green, with white, with crystalline, with sky blue eyes. How he loved the water, how it delighted him, how grateful he was to it! In his heart he heard the voice speaking, the newly awakened voice, and it said to him ‘Love this water! Stay with it! Learn from it!’ … But the secrets of the river, he saw only one today: it seized his soul. He saw the water running and running, constantly running, yet it was always there, was always and forever the same, and yet new every instant!” (Hesse 89). Hesse describes the river with great beauty and mystery, like it is above all humans and nature. He uses personification, saying that the river “gazed” at Siddhartha, making it sound like an actual person, a person that the Ferryman drew great knowledge from over the years and has learned many valuable lessons from it, one being the ability to listen. The Ferryman mentions that he had listened to the river for his whole life. This path of knowledge would soon be continued by Siddhartha as he enters his last stage, where he truly finds himself. Siddhartha sees small pieces of himself in the river, he chooses to study it because he is amazed by the beauty and simplicity of it’s existence. This relates to Siddhartha’s life when he describes the water running and flowing down the river. He claims that is stays the same but becomes new every instant. This is like how he has gone through many stages of life and is constantly changing internally. Siddhartha gets his inner voice back in this passage, indicating that he is back on track and is continuing his journey. Earlier in the novel, after he has lived with the child people and become accustomed to their lifestyle, he says he lost his voice that had always been there to guide him during his childhood. This is also the time that he loses focus and goes through a struggle. The river in a way represents Siddhartha as a whole, comparing his long journey with the natural flow of the water. Him working alongside the river and learning from it comes together to form his last stage of life.
ReplyDelete“It was true, he had never been able to give himself completely. Never had he been able to forget himself and become love’s fool for another. His inability to do that, as it seemed to him in those days, was the main thing that separated him from the child people. But now, since his son had been with him, Siddhartha, too, had become altogether one of the child people, suffering for another person, loving another person, lost in love, a fool for love. Now, belatedly, he too felt, for the first time in his life, this strangest and strongest passion. He suffered from it, suffered pitifully, but was nevertheless touched by bliss, was in some way renewed and in some way richer.” (Hesse 95)
ReplyDeleteIn the United States society love is seen as a positive emotion, something everyone should embrace. But in this passage, Hesse writes as if love is for fools and that it blinds you from what is true happiness. To achieve this contradiction with today’s society he uses imagery. In this passage alone, Hesse utilizes the word “suffering” three times. The word “suffering” contains enormous negative power with it. Hesse harnesses this power in order to help the reader feel as if love is a foolish thing. But now in this passage, he begins to drive away from a fool’s love, he realizes how foolish it is to truly love someone. In the last line of the passage it explains how he feels renewed now that he knew about the dangers of love or how Hesse wrote it as “…touched by bliss…” Siddhartha’s curiosity was quenched, and this knowledge about love gave him happiness. Using the literary term, imagery, Hesse was able to convey this contrasting idea to society successfully.
Also, this passage gives a deeper understanding of Siddhartha’s ego. Through many examples in the story, Siddhartha’s ego use various instruments in order to satisfy its needs. Siddhartha’s son is used as an instrument of his ego, but unlike the other forms of his ego, Siddhartha realizes how foolish he was. He realizes that what feeds his ego are people or things he develops a deep care for. He build his ego using other people because if others cared and loved him, like many characters in the book, he would feel more important. He feels “renewed” because he escaped from the temptations of ego
" 'You cannot love' [Kamala] had said to [Siddhartha], and he had agreed with her, and had likened himself to a star and the child people to falling leaves . . . Now he too, at this late time, felt this strongest and strangest passion, suffered from it, suffered woefully, and yet he was blissful, was somewhat renewed, was somewhat richer." (Hesse 107)
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha has become a leaf in autumn. He once was a star, representing the newness of life, a bright streaking example. But as he has grown and rooted himself in this river, the seed of enlightenment once sown in him has blossomed, and now as he ages, his leaves begin to turn, but his knowledge remains ever increasing.
This intense change from a man who once was incapable of love to a father with a love unfathomable shows Siddhartha's dynamic quality as a character. As he has grown, he has taken on more qualities of the child people: To love, to submit ones full will, to become fully enveloped in a cause. It seems the more like a child he becomes, the more simple and focused his thoughts are, revolving around one purpose, the more enlightened he has become. This motif explores the complexity of simplicity. A simple life which provides opportunities for action, reaction, and growth, rather than a life consumed with riches, busyness, and more response to external working elements beyond one's control.
This relationship that Siddhartha has with his son is very one sided, while the father is polar the son remains static. Polar because the harder the son pulls, the harder he rebels and thrashes at his father's chains of compassion, the more his father is drawn to him. Siddhartha believes he can save his son, which stands as the largest barrier between Siddhartha and encompassing enlightenment. His son is a lesson for him, to let go, to let the untamed tame themselves, let the unbridled seek a master.