SparkNotes - Siddhartha: SparkNotes Literature Guide

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Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 in the town of Calw, on the edge of Germanys Black Forest. He grew up in a missionary family whose religious beliefs deeply influenced him. His father was a Pietist-Lutheran who believed that humans are basically evil and need to be disciplined. Hesses parents and grandparents had been missionaries in the Far East, however, and the spirituality and literature of Indians, Buddhists, and Middle Eastern cultures balanced Hesses fathers teachings.

Family and friends assumed that Hesse would one day become a member of the clergy, but Hesse did not take easily to the traditional teachings of the church. At the urging of his father, he entered the Maulbronn seminary at the age of fourteen but was soon expelled. A dark period followed, and Hesse experienced problems with severe depression and anger. Though he attempted to continue his studies, he had difficulty managing them. His teachers found him to be both precocious and rebellious, and he transferred schools several times, ultimately abandoning high school before finally graduating and returning to Calw. To make ends meet, Hesse took jobs working in bookstores. He spent much of his time at home with his father, where he read many of his grandfathers books on Eastern religion and philosophy. During this period he began to insinuate himself into Germanys circles of aspiring authors.

In 1904 , at the age of thirty-seven, Hesse published his first novel, Peter Camenzind. A work that featured some unquestionably autobiographical content, Hesses debut novel told the tale of an idealistic and driven youth who leaves his home in a Swiss mountain village to become a poet. Hesses follow-up novel in 1906 , Unterm Rad, also contained many autobiographical elements from Hesses own adolescence. Unterm Rad is the story of a schoolboy who feels completely alienated from his contemporaries and flees from his school to travel through a variety of cities.

World War I galvanized Hesse as a political being and as an author. An avowed pacifist, Hesse joined the antiwar movement and plunged himself vigorously into writing antiwar novels and propaganda. He also edited two newspapers for German prisoners of war. But the war also sent him spiraling into a period of self-doubt and personal reflection. All of this took its toll on Hesses private life, eventually leading to the breakup of his first marriage. Hesse meditated on the divorce, both indirectly and sometimes very directly, in the novels Knulp and Rosshalde. During this time, Hesse began studying the psychoanalytic works of Sigmund Freud. Excited by this relatively new discipline, Hesse voluntarily became a patient in a mental hospital and underwent psychiatric analysis with Freuds most famous prodigy, Carl Jung.

In 1919 , after the war, Hesse moved permanently to Switzerland and published Demian. The novel, an instant commercial and critical success, reflects Hesses fascination with Freuds conception of the subconscious and Jungian psychoanalysis, particularly Jungs description of individuation, a process through which humans can become whole only by accepting both their conscious selves and their unconscious selves (such as their dreams and imagination). Demian also solidified Hesses position as one of Europes most eminent antiwar writers.

Throughout this time, Hesse remained interested in Eastern religions. Eager to learn more about new concepts of spirituality, he traveled several times to Asia and the Middle East. His studies eventually led to the publication of Siddhartha in 1922 . This novel extended the themes already typical of Hesses work: the alienation of man from man, the alienation of man from environment, and the desire for self-knowledge. In Siddhartha, however, Hesse explored these themes through a specifically Buddhist point of view. The novel was a success and quickly became Hesses most famous book.

In 1927 , Hesse wrote Steppenwolf, another major work that reflected not only Hesses own spiritual journey but also a return to his consideration of modern political and social life in Germany. At this time, the seeds of World War II were being planted, and Hesse seemed keenly aware of the dangers of the fascist state about to grip Germany. Steppenwolf examines one man who is torn between his base animal impulses and his desire for social respectability, but it also portrays a Germany torn by anti-Semitism, poverty, and a crushing coldness of the soul.

The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi), Hesses last major work, was published in 1943 . In this broad-ranging and very long book, which consists of several interconnected novels and novellas, Hesse continued to meditate upon the same themes of pacifism, Eastern religion, and the ultimate goal of self-knowledge and enlightenment. In the opening tale of The Glass Bead Game, Hesse imagines a future in which academics and celibate priests have merged into a single entity, and in which the twentieth century has come to be known in retrospect as the century most famous for war in all of history.

In 1946 , Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. He lived the rest of his life quietly in Switzerland and died in 1962 at the age of eighty-five.

Siddhartha, the handsome and respected son of a Brahmin, lives with his father in ancient India. Everyone in the village expects Siddhartha to be a successful Brahmin like his father. Siddhartha enjoys a near-idyllic existence with his best friend, Govinda, but he is secretly dissatisfied. He performs all the rituals of religion, and he does what religion says should bring him happiness and peace. Nonetheless, he feels something is missing. His father and the other elders have still not achieved enlightenment, and he feels that staying with them will not settle the questions he has about the nature of his existence. Siddhartha believes his father has already passed on all the wisdom their community has to offer, but he longs for something more.

One day, a group of wandering ascetics called Samanas passes through town. They are starved and almost naked and have come to beg for food. They believe enlightenment can be reached through asceticism, a rejection of the body and physical desire. The path the Samanas preach is quite different from the one Siddhartha has been taught, and he believes it may provide some of the answers he is looking for. He decides to follow this new path. Siddharthas father does not want him to join the Samanas, but he cannot dissuade Siddhartha. Govinda also wants to find a path to enlightenment, and he joins Siddhartha in this new life.

Siddhartha adjusts quickly to the ways of the Samanas because of the patience and discipline he learned in the Brahmin tradition. He learns how to free himself from the traditional trappings of life, and so loses his desire for property, clothing, sexuality, and all sustenance except that required to live. His goal is to find enlightenment by eliminating his Self, and he successfully renounces the pleasures of the world.