Siddharta's Journey to Self Enlightenment

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Siddhartha is a novel about the ultimate quest every man must take in life. The protagonist Siddhartha is on a quest of the self. The ultimate question, why are we here? He is on a quest to lose one self and find Nirvana. Which religion or way of living is the most divine? He is also on a quest to achieve enlightenment. The author of this novel is Hermann Hesse. He was born in the German Empire in the year of 1877. He wrote Siddhartha in 1922. It has similarities to many other works of the same time period and from the same region. Just like other novels of the same time the themes are clear. Which are issues of religion, morality, and love. In the end we learn it is just the circular cycle of life. The book takes place in India and has many Hindu and Buddhist practices in it. It is said that Hesse wrote many of his books all while trying to cure his “life sickness”. In this analysis I will give a summary of the story, give my analysis of the story, and compare it to other literary works of the same period and location.
Siddhartha is the son of a Hindu priest. His Father is a Brahmin and as a young Brahmin, Siddhartha's role in life is to work only on reaching enlightenment or Nirvana as they call it. This quest for Nirvana is one that we will follow Siddhartha on throughout this novel. It is similar to From Deep Woods to Civilization where the main character, an Indian is raised to be at peace with his surroundings and nature. “After arriving at a reverent sense of the pervading presence of the Spirit and Giver of Life, and a deep consciousness of the brotherhood of man, the first thing for me to accomplish was to adapt myself perfectly to natural things—in other words, to harmonize myself with nature (Eastman).” It seems that the journey of a young Brahmin and a young Native American were indeed quite the same. Siddhartha is very talented young Brahmin. He is better other students at all things. He knows how to meditate. He could say the sacred Om, and do his sacrificial prayers as required. Siddhartha is still not happy with the way of life he was living as a Brahmin. Not only that but he never met anyone else who had achieved Nirvana.

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