Close To Death In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

Throughout Siddhartha, Siddhartha comes close to death many times. These moments are crucial in the plotline, not only because Siddhartha comes close to death, but also because these moments display Siddhartha’s progress towards Nirvana. Without these moments it would be impossible to know how close Siddhartha was on his path toward Nirvana. Along with these near death moments, sometimes Siddhartha strays far from death. When this happens it is also shown that he is straying from Nirvana. In his novel Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse uses a relationship with death to show that when Siddhartha is on the path to death he is also on the path to Nirvana. This relationship is stressed when Siddhartha is living with the Samanas, when Siddhartha is living

By doing this he can focus on the road to where he needs to go and can accept the fact that the road may be excruciating. “not sure how to type pg 8 line 20-26” This is the first time in the book that Siddhartha does something challenging in his life as a prince. When his dad wants him to grow up and become a Brahmin, Siddhartha bravely stands up to him and tells him that he would rather have the hard life of being a Samana. He decides to stand outside and not to move until he has his fathers permission to go off and become a Samana. Here, Siddhartha accepts that this task will be difficult, but tells his father that being a Samana is so important that his overnight suffering will be worth it. He is focusing in on his long term goal and accepting that the short term effects will be miserable. As a side effect, this suffering will also bring him close to Nirvana as it is bringing him closer to death. Another thing that comes with the deprivation of the self, and extreme focus is that while on his path to Nirvana, Siddhartha has no more distractions. His biggest distractions should be hunger and pain, however he has come to accept them for the long term goal of Nirvana. “He

While in the city, the first thing to change about his life was his wealth. As a Samana he was very poor, as Samanas did not need any money of their own. Once in the city, he needed money for two reasons. The first was so that he could buy himself the things that he needed to survive, and the second reason is so that he can meet with his lover Kamala. Both these reasons are the opposite of how he lived as a Samana, and therefore put him in the wrong direction from Nirvana. Also, all of his wealth allowed him to live the high life in the city and not care about his path to Nirvana. “He would laugh too loudly when he lost at dice”(62). This shows how wealthy Siddhartha really is. First of all, he now has a gambling addiction in the city, and whenever he loses, he just shakes it off and laughs. he can drop large sums of money on gambling and not care. When this happens, Siddhartha loses focus of his long term goal, and gives in to the self along with his short term desires of gambling and fun. A second thing that keeps him from Nirvana while in the city is Siddhartha’s dislike for his current life. Although life as a Samana could not have been pleasurable, while as a Samana, Siddhartha understood what he was doing and why it would help him in the long run. “ He was full of ennui, full of misery, full of death, there was nothing left in the world that could attract him,