PLOT:
- The story's exposition begins with Siddhartha and his best friend Govinda who study under the Brahmins to find their Selves. They both leave their lives to join the ascetics and become Samanas, but then everything changes after journeying to see Gotama, the Illustrious One (the Buddha). The plot's inciting incident occurs when Govinda and Siddhartha part ways. Govinda, who needed structure and teachings to find his way, left to study under the Buddha, while Siddhartha chose to learn through experience, because he believed that wisdom could not be taught, unlike knowledge. Siddhartha traveled across a river where he met a ferryman who becomes relevant at the end of the plot. He journeys to Kamala, a courtesan, who teaches him the art of love once he had been fully introduced and indulged into his new life called Samsara, which meant worldliness or suffering. After becoming disgusted with his life as a gambling merchant, he parted with Kamala and unexpectedly left her a child. Siddhartha found himself back at the river where he once crossed to make a new life, and he attempted suicide but only found Om, the peace that he had been looking for. He met Govinda and learned from the experience, but they parted ways once again. Being reborn again at the river, he became a ferryman and studied under Vasudeva, the wise ferryman from before. He learned to listen to the river and found the unity of all things. This all changed once Kamala was found dying by snake venom by their ferry. After her death, Siddhartha took care of his son that was with her, but his son was mischievous and ran away which caused him great grief. Although he had learned to love through his son, he also found himself back in Samsara where he longed for his son, until he learned to let go and listen to the river once again. Vasudeva helped him achieve Nirvana once more before he left a holy man. Siddhartha became known as a holy man himself and was visited for the last time by Govinda. They talked for a while, and Siddhartha enlightened Govinda. Siddhartha found the secret.
THEME:
- There are many themes to discuss in this short novel, but one major theme would be unity. At the end of the novel, Siddhartha tries to explain to Govinda how everything is one. Being a Buddhist myself, I understand these sayings, and although they are vague, they are true. In Siddhartha, every chain of event revolved in a spiral that could move both forward and backward. For example, Siddhartha left his father in grief as a boy just as Siddhartha's son ran away and caused him much grief. Also, Siddhartha was reborn a new man twice in the story, and both times through the crossing of the river. One could call it the repetition of history or once could call it reincarnation, but Siddhartha's life was influenced by both his past, his present, and his expected future, which unites the reality of all essences of time. Everything is related.
TONE:
- Hesse writes the piece masterfully using a very profound and insightful tone. Extremely profound phrases are found within the small piece of literature. Sayings like "Words do not express thoughts very well" or "Thoughts are matured feelings" or "One must find the source within one's Self, one must possess it" all give the reader something to think about. I probably spent more time thinking about the book than I actually did reading it. Wisdom simply flows through each word.
10 LITERARY ELEMENTS:
Here it goes... I used the Bantam Books edition of Siddhartha translated by Hilda Rosner.
1.) Direct Characterization: "Siddhartha - strong, supple-limbed, greeting her with complete grace (pg. 4)."
2.) Rhetorical Question: "But where was this Self, this innermost? (pg. 6)"
3.) Indirect Characterization: "A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self (pg. 35)."
4.) Simile: "...and the sickle-shaped moon floating like a boat in the blue (pg. 45)."
5.) Metaphor: "... when you throw a stone into the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom of the water. It is the same when Siddhartha has an aim, a goal. Siddhartha does nothing... but he goes through the affairs of the world like the stone through the water... he is drawn and lets himself fall (pg. 60)."
6.) Symbolization: Kamala's songbird symbolized Siddhartha (pg. 82). "He took it out, threw it away on the road, and at the same moment he was horrified and his heart ached as if he had thrown away with this dead bird all that was good and of value in himself."
7.) Parallelism: "How I hated myself, thwarted, poisoned, and tortured myself, made myself old and ugly (pg. 97)."
8.) Irony: Siddhartha caused his father grief, and his son in the future causes him much grief.
9.) Foreshadow: When the Buddha, Gotama, was about to die, it was foreshadowed that something bad would happen to a main character in the plot, namely, Kamala.
10.) Personification: The river was personified. "You have heard it laugh... but you have not heard everything (pg. 134)."
CHARACTERIZATION
1.)-Direct Characterization: Siddhartha was directly characterized at the beginning of the novel as strong and supple-limbed, and Kamala was directly characterized as a beautiful mistress.
- Indirect Characterization: Govinda was indirectly characterized by his friendliness and loyalty and word choice when around Siddhartha, and Gotama was indirectly characterized with the way he walked and the presence he emitted.
- Hesse used both direct and indirect characterization for just about every character in order to create a more lasting effect on his readers whenever his characters changed or acted or died.
2.)-Hesse's syntax and diction stayed the same throughout the novel. Nothing in particular could change his word choice; his style is very distinguished from other authors. He always wrote with simplicity while utilizing fair vocabulary and complex sentence structuring with great organization.
3.)-Siddhartha is about as round a character can get. Siddhartha is similar to myself in a sense. He is constantly thinking through everything, trying to better understand the purpose of his Self and the reason for life, why everything could possibly happen the way they do. He thinks of this while going through many different phases of life, from the Brahmin's son to the Samana to the merchant, to the gambler, to the lover, to the ferryman, to the holy man. What a life he has lived.
4.)- At one point, I felt like I identified with Siddhartha to a point where I placed myself into the story as Siddhartha as I read, which impacted me even further. I legitimately feel as though I had met myself within another time frame and setting, yet I am at the very beginning of his journey. "At that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever." To be honest, I just chose a random quotation from the story since they are all so profound. Although this quote is from the exposition of the story, and it does not portray the final ounces of wisdom that Siddhartha had received, it showed how he was himself and no other. It's funny how when we find ourselves feeling truly alone in the world, our true colors show. This is when we identify ourselves as thinkers, doers, pretenders, seekers, destroyers, etc... To be firmly yourself is to be true to yourself, and no matter how badly Siddhartha's path altered, his Self remained true until his goals turned into illusion and his mindset turned into expansion.
No comments:
Post a Comment