Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse which was published in 1922. Siddhartha is about the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, who becomes a ferryman’s apprentice before experiencing awakening and ultimately leaving society to become a Samana.
The major themes are Siddhartha’s quest for knowledge, his abandonment of society, and his understanding that all life is interconnected.
Siddhartha experiences many significant events during the course of his life. The first key event occurs when Siddhartha engages in sex with Kamala, an event that teaches Siddhartha some measure of fulfillment but also makes him aware that he will never be content as long as he defines himself through such moments of pleasure.
Siddhartha is the story of Siddhartha, a man who starts out as a Brahmin’s son with great luxury and power, but abandons it all to become an ascetic. His spiritual journey is portrayed beautifully through the use of Siddhartha’s character growth and values reflected in his experiences throughout the novel. This paper will examine Siddhartha’s journey through Siddhartha’s experiences with Kamala, Siddhartha’s son, Siddhartha’s friendship with Govinda, Siddhartha’s relationship with Siddartha Gotama (the Buddha), Siddhartha becoming the Samara-Brahmin and Siddartha leaving behind this life to become an ascetic.
Kamala is a courtesan who Siddhartha becomes fascinated by after knowing her for quite some time. He begins visiting her regularly and he falls in love with her. Siddhartha attempts to get close to Kamala more through his use of money than anything else, even though she has already had more than one lover. However, when Siddharth goes bankrupt due to his lavish lifestyle, Siddhartha attempts to break off his relationship with Kamala because Siddharth cannot provide for her as an impoverished Brahmin.
Siddhartha becomes close friends with Kamala and vows to return later in life when he once again has money. This is a theme that Siddhartha learns from his connection with Kamala: being so attached to material objects makes us lose sight of what truly matters in our lives. Siddhartha uses a great amount of his personal wealth not just to impress Kamala, but also other people who may be watching him through this extravagant lifestyle; showing Siddhartha’s discontentment within himself and how he struggles to come to terms with the life he currently leads.
Siddartha realizes that materialistic objects are fleeting and that Siddhartha’s preoccupation with them is preventing Siddhartha from finding fulfilment in Siddhartha’s life. Siddartha becomes infatuated with his son one day after Siddhartha meets Siddartha for the first time. Siddartha has never met him before, but he feels a certain connection to the boy, even though Siddharth does not share any blood relations with Siddartha.
Siddhatha becomes closely attached Siddartha after this encounter and wants to take care of him since they are both extremely similar people who have struggled throughout their lives to find themselves. Siddhartah wants to raise Siddha carefully, knowing that he will face some of the same issues as Siddhartha. Siddharth spends the entirety of Siddhartha’s life trying to teach Siddartha valuable lessons Siddhartha himself learned through Siddhartha’s own experiences.
Siddharta also feels he must make Siddha and example and show him that Siddhartah has become a better person than Siddhartha was because Siddhartah sees what mistakes he made throughout his life and wants to help Siddha avoid those same mistakes. Siddhatha realizes that becoming too attached to someone can be damaging for both them and yourself, as shown in this theme. Siddhaaratha knows the difficulties of raising a child, but does not want Siddhatha to suffer as much as he did growing up, so attempting to protect Siddhatha as much as Siddhartha can from those difficulties.
Siddhartha is very reluctant to give Siddha back to his biological parents because Siddhartha is so attached Siddhatha now feels comfortable raising Siddhara himself, but Siddhartah knows that he cannot since Siddha needs to learn who his biological parents are in order for Siddhaarth’s teachings to actually resonate with Siddhaaratha. Siddharta has already raised Siddha for the amount of time that Siddhartha would have wanted it to take, so his final lesson before leaving will be to hand Siddhaarath back over to the people who created him.
Siddhartha hears about a man named Gotama being enlightened and decides he must meet this phenomenal individual Siddhartha is so impressed Siddha hears of Siddha’s teachings that Siddhartha decides to become Siddharta’s disciple. Siddhartha feels as though he can learn from this man and Siddhaaratha is eventually ordained as a monk, although not with the Buddha himself. Siddhara becomes a very dedicated student of his teacher and believes everything Gotama says without doubting it at all, which leads to Siddhartha thinking highly of himself due to becoming Gotama’s pupil without giving anything back in return for his mentor.
This theme demonstrates how we should be skeptical about what we hear or read and use our own judgement rather than believing something based on its popularity alone. Siddhatha Gotama speak and immediately accepts Siddhartha as Siddha’s student, even before Siddhatha can prove himself worthy to Siddhartah. Siddhartah is so grateful after Siddhartha accepts Siddhataha as a student and Siddha feels he owes his teacher back for making Siddhartha feel like Siddhaarath is worth something and that Gotama truly believes in Siddharta.
There are many underlying themes throughout Siddhartha, all of which help create an image of what it means to be human and show the struggles we go through daily to find who we really are. Themes such as materialism versus spirituality, love versus lust versus love for your child, and skepticism versus blind acceptance. These themes interwoven between each other by using imagery of Siddhartha himself to create a feeling of Siddhaarth’s search for Siddhaaratha. Siddhatha Siddhartha is an extremely complex novel that can be analyzed from multiple angles, thus creating this thesis on Siddhara’s major themes.
