Blog #3 Siddhartha: Character Analysis

Character Analysis

During the course of the book, I realized that Siddhartha is a constantly changing man.  He makes the largest changes to his lifestyle.  As Siddhartha transforms his lifestyle, his points of view change too, but his goal to experience enlightenment persists throughout the story.

Siddhartha begins in the story as the son of the Brahmin living a lavish life in a palace.  He is admired by both men and women.  He is raised by his parents to become a prince among the Brahmins and stay within the upper-class bubble (second paragraph, page two).  Siddhartha begins to feel discontent, because he doesn't want to achieve enlightenment through teachers anymore, but instead, through himself.  This is where Siddhartha's spiritual quest begins.  

Siddhartha decides to go live with the Samanas which are a group of wandering beggars (third paragraph, page six).  The character makes a grand transformation from wealth to almost extreme poverty.  With the Samanas, Siddhartha thinks that he will be able to eliminate his Self as well as his materialism to achieve inner peace (second paragraph, page 11) .  Still dissatisfied, Siddhartha decides to leave the Samanas to go somewhere else and reach his goal through a different path (fourth paragraph, page 18).  

When Siddhartha leaves the Samanas, he accompanies his friend Govinda to Gotama the Buddha.  Siddhartha stays with Gotama for a while until he realizes that he doesn't want to submit himself to discipleship. 

 Siddhartha goes to a town where the lady he falls in love with, Kamala, gets him in contact with a wealthy merchant to give him a job (second paragraph, page 49).  Siddhartha speaks with the merchant and is able to get the job.  This is the time in the story where Siddhartha breaks away from his quest for enlightenment, and instead, embarks on a quest to marry Kamala (third paragraph, page 50).  

In his job as a businessman, Siddhartha is able to build large wealth.  Siddhartha returns to the life of pleasures and riches.  After a night of heavy drinking and gambling, Siddhartha concludes that he has never experienced true happiness and that his life is not full of value (fourth line, page 67).  Siddhartha returns to simplicity by leaving his life of wealth behind to go to the forest.  By freeing himself from all possessions, desires, and experiencing profound sorrow, Siddhartha thinks he could find himself.  

After carefully analyzing the character's journey throughout the book, I can affirm that Siddhartha is in a constant struggle of choosing lifestyles, because he repeatedly goes from rich to poor and vice versa.  I can infer that the wealthy lifestyle distracts him from reaching his goal of enlightenment because as a businessman, he focused on marrying Kamala, not achieving enlightenment.  On the other hand, I think that the simple lifestyle centers him on reaching enlightenment as he is not distracted with pleasures nor materialistic endeavors.  In my opinion, I think Siddhartha will only be able to achieve inner peace through a poor, solitary lifestyle where he can experience enlightenment without entering discipleship.

Based on Siddhartha's changing lifestyle, two questions arose in my mind.

In what circumstances will Siddhartha end up in (rich or poor)? 
How will Siddhartha's experiences in the rich and poor life shape him to achieve enlightenment?