Bettina Curletto Duffy English 4, Period 1 May 2023 Relationships and Enlightenment in Siddhartha In the novel Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, the protagonist, embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find enlightenment. However, his journey is not without its challenges as he learns to balance his inner desires with his relationships with others showing how a close relationship with an environment is vital for enlightenment. At the beginning of the story, Siddhartha was somewhat of a child prodigy and was able to escape from self easily. When he was with the Semanas and traveling with the Buddha he could easily transfer his soul into other beings and live their life, allowing him to gain an appreciation for the world around him. However, no matter which path he took he always ended up ‘reborn’ as Siddhartha: “But although the paths took him away from self, in the end they always lead back to it” (Hesse 12). Because Siddhartha never took the opportunity to connect with his wants and needs as a human being, his soul transferring always led back to him. …show more content…
However, in connecting with himself he lost his connection with other people, always seeing himself above them: “But he had always felt different and superior to others” (Hesse 62). Although Siddhartha was now connected with himself because of Kamala, he wasn't able to be enlightened because he saw himself as superior to others, even when he was more like them than he would like to admit. Siddhartha soon was disgusted by himself because of this fact and ran away to the river. It wasn’t until the river spoke to him “Om” that he understood himself as part of this