Siddhartha River Analysis

Siddhartha was raised in a life of luxury being raised as a prince since birth, he was one of the few people of his time who were able to receive an education consisting of the sciences, mathematics, art, and eventually at the behest of his father sports and archery. It has been written by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in Introduction to Buddhism that “He mastered all the traditional arts and sciences without needing any instruction. He knew sixty-four different languages, each with their own alphabet…” (Gyatso 4) he was seen as a genius and wise beyond his years once telling his father that he could “…count all the atoms in the world in the time it takes to draw a single breath.” (Gyatso 5) Siddhartha’s father, Śuddhodana, took great effort in blocking religion from Siddhartha

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

     Siddhartha first tries to follow the path of the Brahmins.  His father thinks of him as "a prince among Brahmins" (Hesse 4).  Siddhartha washes "in the daily bath of atonement" (Hesse 5) so that his soul might be cleansed of guilt in order to merge with the all-perfect being (Archie 60).  He also offers sacrifices to the gods.  The Brahmins teach him that Atman created the world and that this great god can be found by men only when they sleep (Hesse 7).  Despite the love and

How does the river function in the story? Is it a metaphor, a catalyst, or both? Is it a character?

At the beginning of the novel we see foreshadowing of Siddhartha’s constant tangle with conformity when it states “Govinda knew that he would not become an ordinary Brahmin… or just a stupid sheep amongst a large herd” (Hesse 4). This relates to the fact that Siddhartha doesn’t want to go through the motions of what the Brahmin’s are trying to teach. Rather he wants to find his self-fulfillment which he can only do by not conforming to ways that make him who he is not. The first instance of this is shown when Siddhartha confronts his father about leaving the house saying “With your permission, Father, I have come to tell you that I wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics.” (Hesse 10). At first his father rejects his son’s notion to leave, but after time has passed and Siddhartha remained where his father rejected him in

Siddhartha’s life was more of a journey, a journey filled with whimsical decisions and many questions; Siddhartha simply did as he pleased. After living this capricious lifestyle, he noticed that he felt empty inside. He wondered why he felt this way for a long time and decided to leave his current life. He abandoned all possessions and left his father in a quest to seek peace with the shramanas. Soon the cycle of the nature of Siddhartha was formed. Siddhartha would seek something and pursue that something blindly and by abandoning his previous lifestyle. It was not until he was an old man did he finally reach peace through the guidance of a river. Siddhartha’s life had changed immensely numerous amounts of times by the time he was old, but the change he experienced was not necessarily caused by of outside influences. He experienced change, but every change originated inside of him; of what he wanted to follow next. Of course, this still required Siddhartha to change to his new surroundings in every instance he obeyed new lifestyle. When he followed the shramanas, he left everything he had previously known and owned. When he left for the city, he completely changed his demeanor and became rich. Once again, when he lived by the river, he abandoned all possessions and former values. I believe that Siddhartha

The four stages of life choices, which favor both renunciation and world upholding, are 1) student 2) householder 3) forest hermit and 4) wandering ascetic (Ghose, 1/18/01). In the book, Siddhartha participated in each of these lifestyles for a significant amount of time. Unlike his father, Siddhartha did not want to be a Brahmin. He thought his calling

Siddhartha is constantly flowing down the river of life, "Certainly I have learned that from the river too; everything comes back/ You, too, Samana, will come back" (49). He sees that life is never stagnant. It is constantly changing, ebbing and flowing. It takes a lifetime to satisfy Siddhartha's hunger for religious fulfillment. Siddhartha is found relating to the river: "A chilly emptiness in the water reflected the

Siddhartha, in Herman Hesse's novel, Siddhartha, is a young, beautiful, and intelligent Brahmin, a member of the highest and most spiritual castes of the Hindu religion, and has studied the teachings and rituals of his religion with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Inevitably, with his tremendous yearning for the truth and desire to discover the Atman within himself he leaves his birthplace to join the Samanas. With the Samanas he seeks to release himself from the cycle of life by extreme self-denial but leaves the Samanas after three years to go to Gotama Buddha. Siddhartha is impressed by the blissful man but decides to lead his own path. He sleeps in the ferryman's hut and

In the beginning of the book, Siddhartha has a sudden realization that the traditional teachings of the Brahmins does not fulfill or help him in his quest for enlightenment, “He had begun to surmise that his venerable father and his other teachers, that these wise Brahmins had already conveyed the majority and the best part of their wisdom, that they had already poured out their plenty into his waiting vessel, and the vessel was not full, the mind was not satisfied, the soul was not calm, the heart was not stilled” (6-7). Despite his upbringings, he begins to stray away from the traditions and the expectations that both society and his father has for him. As a Brahmin, Siddhartha is part of a caste that is highly prestigious in the Hindu society and they are known for their intellect. Siddhartha was expected to become a priest and the follow the footsteps of his honorable father. However, he begins to nurture his own feelings which were not satisfied. The traditional teachings of the Brahmins seem so rigid and practiced. His feelings are analogous to a “vessel”, which is not full thus his heart and soul was not at ease. This is the

Siddhartha represents all of humanity, in that he is many things, yet he is himself. He is a Brahmin, a Samana, a ferryman, and he is Siddhartha still in all these things. Unlike Gregor, Siddhartha is very active in his quest for destiny. His choice to leave his father and all he had ever known is not influenced by any force other than the thirst for knowledge sending him on the quest for the meaning of life. Just as a sheep wanders in a pasture, Siddhartha wandered the wilderness in pursuit of his true self. He searched his soul to find his place in the world and the unity of all. He examined how his Self responded to hunger, pain, and all achings of the physical in order to reveal the strength of the spiritual. When Siddhartha entered into the world of “ordinary” people, he fed his physical being and through that discovered the weakness of his spiritual. Siddhartha finally quenched his thirst for knowledge at the river, where he found wisdom. Siddhartha knew who he was and at the river, he discovered why he had to go on the path that he did, and he found peace and discovered how he fit into the universe along with all other things. Siddhartha’s identity at that point had little to nothing to do with who he had been. Yes, he was once a Samana, a Brahmin, a ferryman, but what mattered was that he was now at

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

Siddhartha leaves his father’s teachings to follow his own path and apply the lessons he learned in a new setting; however, he comes to terms with the fact that enlightenment cannot be reached from the knowledge supplied by teachers or books. Siddhartha does not understand why he cannot reach enlightenment from his previous lifestyles until he comprehends that what is inhibiting him from reaching Nirvana is “Too much knowledge hindered him; too many holy verses, too many sacrificial rites, too much mortification of the flesh, too much doing and striving” (Hesse 80). Siddhartha gains knowledge from books and teachers in the beginning of his journey and finally obtains wisdom once he begins to learn from his experiences. In the pivotal moment when Siddhartha contemplates suicide, he grasps the concept that the river can serve as his teacher since all things are unified. Siddhartha has to experience different lifestyles and gain wisdom from them to find unity and peace in himself and his surroundings during his most desperate

9. The river is a vital symbol in this novel. What is the function of the river and how is it associated with

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