Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

[themanwtheplan]

Anyone else read Siddhartha?

NOTE: For anyone who has not yet read the book this message is a "SPOILER"

Siddhartha is a piece of historical fiction, written in biblical simplicity.

I just read it for school and am really enthused to talk about it.

My english class just went over the literary devices and such. My teacher deserves most of the credit for this one...

Siddhartha is broken up into three sections equal in length (4 chapters each).

In the first part Siddhartha is with his father, the Samanas, Govinda and Gotama Buddha. is what Siddhartha's life will be. It is almost the thesis of the story.

The second part of the book is relative to the antithesis of the first part. Siddhartha learns how to make money from Kamaswami, and learns how to make love passionately from Kamala.

The third part of the book is like the synthesis of the first two parts. Siddhartha uses the knowledge he has gained in each part and combines it into one world. That is to say that Siddhartha takes all the good and evil from the first to parts and puts it together.

Siddhartha, a believer in reincarnation, expresses to Govinda in the end that the body will eventually die, but the soul will live on...

This was very thought provoking to me. I'm sure there are deeper interpretations, but thats what I got out of it with the help of my english teacher.

 

[RitalinKid]

My g/f read it, and she says it's about finding your own path to enlightenment. "Do you concur?"

 

[novella]

I think Siddhartha falls in directly with the tradition of Goethe's Faust and also with Thomas Mann's novels, that is, philosophical and psychological exploration of the nature and purpose of man's life. I don't know what this trajectory of literature is called in German, but it seems to be a well-established tradition.

I find it interesting that the moral lessons and degeneration/redemption build on one another but are somehow inconclusive.

Maybe this makes no sense?

Hesse seems to be popular in times of cultural crisis. Do you think he's ripe for a revival?

 

[themanwtheplan]

Ahhh... yes!

My g/f read it, and she says it's about finding your own path to enlightenment. "Do you concur?"

Yeah, exactly, its more than meditation and introspection. Siddhartha has a friend, Govinda, who proves to be more of a devotee than anything. However, the friends part when reaching the "the Illustrious" Gotama Buddha. Govinda enthusiasticly follows this new leader, while it is just another teacher to Siddhartha. Siddhartha remains loyal to his Self, and even deeper, loyal to his soul.