Powerful Love In Herman Hesse's Siddhartha

Love is a powerful emotion that we experience when we have strong feelings for another person. When you feel love, you gain motivation, guidance, and most importantly happiness. However, when you love someone immensely, it is best to let them go. In the novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, we see the eponymous main character have a powerful love for his son. This love can be described as a challenge to Siddhartha’s process of wanting to be enlightened. The love between Siddhartha and his son is difficult because the spoiled son dislikes his father. Siddhartha passionately loves his son and disagrees with his son’s decision of leaving. This love brings the most strength in Siddhartha by granting him the final step of enlightenment. In chapter

I believe Siddhartha needed to give his son a chance of loving him mutually instead of giving up on him so easily. When Siddhartha was trying to become acquainted with his son, the boy was depressed because of his mother’s death. This was an unfair timing for the both of them because Siddhartha’s son did not know his father and he may have felt uncomfortable, so instead he resisted his father. Since Siddhartha truly loved his son that love for his child should not have been thrown away. Love requires time and effort, and Siddhartha did not want to let his son go because he felt there was still a chance of his son loving him back. He wanted to start a new life with his son and make their relationship stronger. However, Vasudeva noticed this unstable relationship between Siddhartha and the boy, and recommended Siddhartha to be strict or to let his son go back to the city. To an extent, I can agree with Vasudeva’s concept of being strict because the boy did need proper discipline and to be taught how to respect people. Siddhartha’s son also deserved to be treated with kindness as well because of his mother’s circumstance. Siddhartha spent much time to compromise with his son, but the son still did not love his father and truly wanted to go back to the city. Siddhartha finally realized the son was dedicated to leaving and he decided to let him leave. If I was

I felt this same painful love comparable to Siddhartha’s in a relationship. Even though I was taken for granted and treated with disrespect like Siddhartha’s son treated his father, I treated this person with nothing but kindness and respect. I loved this person greatly because of how I was treated in the beginning of the relationship. I was blinded to realize that I needed to let this person go because I thought I loved them so profoundly. After a friend noticed how continuously upset I seemed, she recommend me to end the relationship. At first, I disagreed because I felt there was still hope between myself and the person that I loved. My relationship with this person continued to decline and then I finally realized that I needed to stop trying to make amends with this person. Even though this was hard for me to accept what I needed to do, I understood that this was the best choice for me. In the novel, Siddhartha also finally realized what was best for himself and his son. This love was not only hurting myself and Siddhartha, but the other person as well because we would not let the other person move on. This event in my life was difficult, but I am glad I did it today. A quote that motivated me through this process was, “Sometime it is best, to let go the person you love the most.” With that being said, I found letting go the person that I love the most ending up