Siddhartha

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1922

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Essay Topics

Quiz

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The River

The historical Gautama Buddha is said to have found enlightenment on the bank of the Lilajan River in India, and the importance of the river in Hesse’s Siddhartha parallels this. The river is a powerful symbol in the book and is almost a character in itself, with a whole chapter named for it. The river is personified, given active abilities and senses: “The river looked at him with a thousand eyes—green, white, crystal, sky-blue” (79). It is able to speak and express emotions in response to humans: “The river laughed.”(102). The river is in tune with Siddhartha and his state of mind. Siddhartha returns to the river at various times during his quest, drawn back to it by his happy memory of his first time there. The river becomes part of his path, and in the second part of the book it accompanies him continuously, as he recognizes its importance in his life: “May my present path, my new life, start from there!”(79).

Siddhartha returns to the river when he seeks solace and peace, It restores him and accompanies him in his awakenings, so it represents shelter and calm. The river’s most powerful role is as a teacher and, along with Vasudeva’s guidance, Siddhartha is able to learn a great deal from it, eventually reaching a complete understanding of the world. In his lowest moment, after leaving the city, the river reveals Om to him and dissuades him from suicide. When his son leaves, it is by crossing the river and taking the raft and oar with him. Here, the river symbolizes the irreparable gap between Young Siddhartha and his father.

Later, the happiest and calmest part of his life is spent living beside Vasudeva and working on the river. Siddhartha learns the importance of listening from the river, and from Vasudeva, whose skill in this respect impress him. “Is it not true, my friend, that the river has many voices?” (84), asks Siddhartha, recognizing that the river pronounces Om when “one is successful in hearing all its ten thousand voices at the same time?” (84). The river’s flow and its place in the water cycle represent life and time, the nature of which Siddhartha perceives as he stares into the water and is shown the unity of the world at the end of the story.

The Smile

The historical Buddha is often represented with his peaceful and enigmatic smile, and the importance and power of such a smile is a key motif in Siddhartha. When the protagonist first sees Gotama, his smile is described as gentle, inward, and secret. After his personal encounter with him, Siddhartha remains impressed by his half-smile: “I would like to look and smile like that […] so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious” (29). The smile becomes the physical expression of Siddhartha’s goal.

Smiles, the mouth, and the lips are mentioned frequently in the book. Siddhartha often smiles in a mocking way at Govinda, and he smiles to himself when he is happy. Kamala’s seductive, fig-like lips tease, excite, and teach the young man. The atrophy of that beautiful mouth as she lies on her deathbed leads him to reflect on the passage of time and “the indestructibleness of every life, the eternity of every moment” (89).

Words and the teachings that they form are another iteration of the importance of the mouth. Siddhartha rejects the utterances and laws handed down by authoritative figures. He gives more credit to teachers like Vasudeva, who offer their learners the silence in which to come to their own conclusions. The ferryman, his wise and exemplary mentor, also has the smile that Siddhartha admires, and he is eventually able to replicate it: “His smile was radiant as he looked at his friend, and now the same smile appeared on Siddhartha’s face. His world was healing, his pain was dispersing; his Self had merged into Unity” (105). Siddhartha has attained the smile of the Buddha.

Om

The importance of Om is encapsulated in the verse Siddhartha recites while still at home with his Brahmin parents: “Om is the bow, the arrow is the soul” (7).

Although Siddhartha knows how to pronounce the sound Om at the beginning of the book, he embarks on a quest to truly understand and feel the Divine and the Oneness of the world, which are the essence of the symbol. His quest can be said to be a quest for Om. Throughout his journey, the sound and its central role in his story are revealed. However, while in the city, living the life of sensual, material pleasures, the sound evades him and it is rarely mentioned in the chapters where he moves away from the spiritual life. His existence during this period takes him far from Om: “The holy fountain-head which had once been near and which had once sung loudly within him, now murmured softly in the distance” (59).

Om returns to Siddhartha at his lowest moment, when he is about to let himself fall into the river: “It was one word, one syllable […] the ancient beginning of Brahmin prayers, the holy Om, which had the meaning of ‘the Perfect One’ or ‘Perfection’” (69). He sleeps and dreams of Om, and on awakening he feels reborn. Thereafter, Siddhartha undergoes the experiences that will teach him most and lead to his final enlightenment. This is revealed to him by the river, in the chapter named after the sound: “When Siddhartha listened attentively […] when he did not bind his soul to any one particular voice and absorb it in his Self, but heard them all, the whole, the unity; then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om-perfection” (105). Siddhartha’s learning, like Om, is complete.