I read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. When I first started reading, I thought I was reading about the Siddhartha who would later become the Buddha. *I went into the novel with wrong expectations and was thoroughly confused when Siddhartha began to take lessons from a courtesan, named Kamala, on sex. It was then that I started to think maybe this was not about the Buddha. I looked on the internet and discovered that it was not about Siddhartha/the Buddha. I was also surprised to find out that Gotama was the actual Buddha. I did not make the connection because of his name. I thought that they would call him the Buddha or Siddhartha instead of Gotama. I instead thought that Gotama was an enlightened monk but not the enlightened Buddha. I think that not having any background information about the subject made it hard to understand. I got the message sure, but I also wanted to learn more details about the Buddha as well as be able to really understand Buddhism. I really just wanted to know about the history of the Buddha. I went in expecting to learn about the Buddha and read a story from his point of view. I knew that the author was not the Buddha but I thought that the author had decided to write it from the Buddha’s opinion. I heard about the novel in Mrs. O’Hara’s class where we were beginning to learn about the Buddha. Buddhism sparked my interest so I decided to learn more on the subject and was disappointed when I read Siddhartha. I wanted more of a history lesson, than a novel.
*There is a lot of parallelism between the character Siddhartha and the story of the Buddha. Both Siddhartha and the Buddha came from a wealthy family where they were loved by many. They also both went and joined the ascetics. In the end of the novel, I belief that Siddhartha had reached enlightenment. I do not know that much about Buddhism so I cannot say for sure if Siddhartha had reached the same enlightenment that was so hard for the Buddha to achieve. Something that struck me about his enlightenment was that Siddhartha gained enlightenment from the river. I really enjoyed that because I think nature is something precious and I was able to relate to that in the novel. I could imagine myself in the character’s place. I understood what he meant when he said the river was talking to him. At one point, Siddhartha thinks the river is laughing at him which I thought seemed kind of harsh for the river to do because it is kind of put on a pedestal. I gave it human features and so looked at the river as a human being. I thought that the river would be like a saint-like human and so it struck me as mean that the river would laugh at him. Another thing that bothered me was Siddhartha’s son. The son runs away and before that he insults his father who only said kind words to him. Siddhartha just wanted to love his son but his son was selfish and bored and ran away. I believe that this had a message which was that people cannot control what others do and that sometimes someone has to sacrifice their happiness so that someone else can be happy. Siddhartha also did that to his own father when he left and never saw him again but it did not strike me as unusual until his own son did it to him. I thought maybe this reflected on the cyclical parts of Buddhism because it was sort of a cycle for father and son. A lot of themes in the novel have a lot to do with beliefs and religious aspects about Buddhism. I believe that if I had more of a background I would be able to grasp more of the themes that a Buddhist would pick up on. Since I do not know any of their beliefs, I probably missed a lot of the symbols.
I did think it was an interesting book. It made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen. I also thought that it would be predictable but I was wrong. I thought that the son of Siddhartha would come back but he doesn’t. I thought that he might so that there would be a happy ending and reunite. I kind of hoped I would learn more about what happened to him just because I got very curious. The ending was still good because Siddhartha’s childhood friend also reached enlightenment with the help of Siddhartha. They both reached enlightenment which they had worked on for their entire lives.
That’s a shame the book what not about the actual Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, I was looking forward to reading that. Is it based on a true story? Because that’s interesting that there is another Buddhist named Siddhartha searching for enlightenment, I wonder if that is a common name in countries where Buddhism is predominant, like Jesus in Hispanic countries. Also all the similarities between the two Siddharthas’ lives are intriguing, especially if it is not fictional. Gautama also had a significant revelation in a river, when he discovered the Middle Way, it would be interesting to learn if that river is also told as personified in some way. But it seems you still learnt a lot about Buddhism, which is good, but it will definitely make more sense once you’ve learnt more in World Religions. I don’t know about books about the Buddha, but I’ve read a few books about the Dalai Lama and they are all really interesting, telling all about his life, how he was chosen and what he does as the Dalai Lama, I think one might have been an autobiography. They were like coffee table books, so I don’t know if they are incredibly meritory, but they were really fascinating and informative.
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