Hesse,Herman.+Siddhartha

Siddhartha Author: Herman Hesse By: Emma Shawver, 8th Grade

Siddhartha is a fictional story about a young boy embarking on his journey to enlightenment and the many changes he encounters along the way. Herman Hesse’s through his unique style of writing does a great job of conveying Siddhartha’s struggle with finding himself.

Things always came easily to Siddhartha, so excelling at things was never his problem. He always had more of a problem with being unfulfilled with the direction his life was going in. he also never really connected to anyone very deeply. So when he sets out to change all of this he finds that sometimes you have to look within yourself, instead of to others for enlightenment.

When Siddhartha decides to begin his journey he is faced with the problem of leaving the only home he ever knew, because Siddhartha was a Brahman and had a very stable system of life and excelled at all of his teachings. So, when Siddhartha decided to leave the comfort of his life he knew the path ahead would be a difficult one. After he had finally convinced his father that the path of the brahmen was not fit for him, Siddhartha set off with his companion, Govinda to the forest to seek the Samanas.

The path of the Samanas was a difficult one, because the Samanas believe that in order to become one with the spiritual leader you must rid yourself of all human emotion and the ability to feel pain or hunger or thirst. When Siddhartha chose this path he knew of the pain he would endure but he decided it was worth it if he became enlightened. So Siddhartha suffered through countless tests of endurance and one day he found that although he would soon reach what the Samanas thought of as enlightenment he would not consider this accomplishment completely satisfying.

After countless other attempts at enlightenment, Siddhartha finds that while following someone else’s path may work for some, he needs to define enlightenment for him to feel completely satisfied.

Herman Hesse’s style of writing is very unique and very powerful. His words convey such deep emotions allowing you to connect with the character. “He looked down and was completely filled with the desire to let himself go and be submerged in the water. A chilly emptiness in the water reflected emptiness in his soul. Yes’ he was at the end’ there was nothing left for him but to efface himself, to destroy the unsuccessful structure of his life, to throw it away, mocked by the gods.” Is a particularly moving quote from this book.

I enjoyed this book because I felt that it was easy to connect with the emotional side of Siddhartha’s journey. I also feel that Siddhartha’s struggles were believable and that the problems he faces were real and could actually occur in life. I would persuade anyone to read this book if they are looking for a short’ but sweet story of Siddhartha’s journey to find himself.