domingo, 29 de agosto de 2010

Radical Change on Siddhartha's life




Throughout the book Siddhartha was always asking some questions form himself about what he is doing on earth and what's the purpose of it. At the beginning of the story Siddhartha was a young boy who leave home in order to convert into a Samana. His friend Govinda followed him. Siddhartha had a glorious time learning with the Samana new things. He learned to "hold his breath and quite his heartbeat" (Hesse, 14). But, there was something that didn’t satisfy to Siddhartha so we wanted to continue his way and turn to be part of Gotama. The same things happen when Siddhartha was with Gotama so he leaves and this time his friend Govinda stayed. Siddhartha continued with the thirstiness to know more about the world so he met Kamala, a beautiful woman that taught Siddhartha the art of love and luxury. Kamala to his lover presented a merchant called Kamaswami. He was rich and had a big house with merchants. Kamaswami told Siddhartha what he heard about him  " that he was a Brahmin, a learned man, but he seek service with a merchant" (Hesse, 63). So Siddhartha worked and with time he was rich and full of joy, he give money and advice to needed people and everyone loved him. But suddenly he disappears from his live and wants to live with the ferryman who was neither rich nor poor. Vasudeva the ferryman taught many things to Siddhartha about the river and how to listen to it. Siddhartha was pleased with all even though he missed the pleasures he had when we was rich.

In the beginning of the book Siddhartha the main character was a very religious person that enjoyed the simple life, but suddenly when he had the privilege of working and winning money he changes totally in his behavior and manners. He gives al types of pleasures and his life was surrounded of all kind of things he could ever imagine so he suffered a real change in the book. 

More Info about Siddhartha's life click           HERE

viernes, 27 de agosto de 2010

Questions


While I was searching  for some images on the internet I noticed that each picture that I saw about Siddhartha he was either sitting on a flower of carrying a flower and I came with some questions in mind

What type of flower is?
what does it represent? does it have to do with the religion? does it have something to do with the meditation?
Also I noticed the way he is sitting
Why he is sitting that way?
I can helps to concentrate?

Themes & Symbols from the book

 Themes:
The definition of theme is a unifying or main idea that is found in a work of art and literature.
One theme I find was religion because Siddhartha throughout his journey wanted to find himself by being Buddhist and fasting.
Existentialism is also a theme because the Buddha when he finds himself he also tries to explain what is his purpose on earth and why he is doing there.
Symbols:
A symbol is an object used to represent abstract meanings. Ex: red hunting hat= that represents individuality (Book: The Catcher in the Rye)

Throughout the book we find many symbols. One of them is 

THE RIVER= is the representation of life and how it changes. It also says the life is a path or a journey that someone travels with time and have many transformations. The river also make sounds that are not so clear but as the ferryman told Siddhartha "The river knows everything; one can learn from it and taught to listen". (Hesse, 105) Also Siddhartha with experience from the ferryman herd the river "laugh" (Hesse, 134)
Therefore another theme is 

GOVINDA= It represents friendship. The Buddha and Govinda even though they went through separate ways when they were kids each time they saw each other grown up and everything they recognize each other and talk about their lives. Also when Govinda had "her path often hard and dark” asked for help to his esteemed friend Siddhartha. (Hesse, 149)

SIDDHARTHA'S SON= It represents conflicts in life. This is because the son when it came to Siddhartha hands he didn't love his father much and escape from home. The father worried decided to search for him because he loved him very much no matter if is was treated badly by his own son.

Buddhism







Buddhism is considered a type of religion but also a way of living. Siddhartha  was a philosopher that changed people's way of living and acting. He was the founder of this religion and had many disciples that followed him. Buddha as they used to call Siddhartha started his life as a prince convincing himself that life was perfect, but certainly then after looking the real suffering of the world he quit his role as prince and became a monk. Later on his teachings became famous on India. Siddhartha in his young years learned three arts "Fasting, waiting and thinking". (Hesse, 95)


For more information about Buddhism and Siddhartha you can enter this link:


Buddhism