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.