The Irony of Life Siddhartha throughout the story attempts to find the understanding of life and his true inner self in order to seek enlightenment which he fulfils by venturing off in the world. While on his journey he encounters other human beings in which he develops relationships with. Encountering these relationships allows for love to develop, in which radically transforms Siddhartha. What was the purpose of seeking enlightenment and abandoning your whole family and friends? “‘Seeking enlightenment’ can itself become an identity in you that you get identified with, and hence keep yourself anchored in it, thus defeating the very purpose of the seeking, which was to take you to a place of freedom” (Sen, Seeking Enlightenment). Siddhartha
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However his paradise falls down once the son follows Siddhartha’s same exact steps. “Siddhartha stopped, bent over the water to hear better, and in the quietly moving water he saw the reflection of his face. In this reflected face there was something that recalled something forgotten, and as he thought about it he remembered. This face was like another face he had once known and loved and also feared. It resembled the face of his father, the brahmin. And he remembered how, long ago as a youth, he had forced his father to let him go with the ascetics, how he had left him, gone off, and never returned. Had his father not felt the same pain over him that he now felt over his son? Had his father not long since died, alone, without ever having seen his son again? Should he not expect the same fate himself? Was it not comical, a strange and stupid thing, this repetition, this movement in the same fateful circles?” (Hesse, 102)
Hesse uses a contemplative tone to incorporate Siddhartha’s sorrow towards the departure of his own son which was inevitable. Not only is Siddhartha now in his father’s point of view which he now shares with but he also stares and examines the doppelganger of his own face which suddenly distorts into his father's face. This allows him to finally feel empathy towards his …show more content…
“Now he looked at people differently than he has before--less cleverly, with less pride, yet more warmly, with more curiosity and caring. When he took travelers of the usual kind across the river, child people--traders, warriors, women--these people no longer seemed alien to him , as they once has. He understood them, he shared their life, a life guided not by ideas and insights but only impulses and desires.The ignorant blind pride of a conceited father over his only little son--all these impulses, all these childish qualities, forcefully dominant impulses and cravings were no longer childness for Siddhartha” (Hesse, 100-101). Hesse shows Siddhartha finally in other’s shoes by using a reflective tone to show Siddhartha’s change of perspective. His point of view is now focused on the one others shared, which he has now experienced. At one point he saw the child people, those who love another , as a repetition in lives, as a tradition which was always forcefully followed. Meanwhile Siddhartha tried his best to avoid his path, the path ironically came to him. After experiencing what love truly is, he now didn’t see others with such a negative
However his paradise falls down once the son follows Siddhartha’s same exact steps. “Siddhartha stopped, bent over the water to hear better, and in the quietly moving water he saw the reflection of his face. In this reflected face there was something that recalled something forgotten, and as he thought about it he remembered. This face was like another face he had once known and loved and also feared. It resembled the face of his father, the brahmin. And he remembered how, long ago as a youth, he had forced his father to let him go with the ascetics, how he had left him, gone off, and never returned. Had his father not felt the same pain over him that he now felt over his son? Had his father not long since died, alone, without ever having seen his son again? Should he not expect the same fate himself? Was it not comical, a strange and stupid thing, this repetition, this movement in the same fateful circles?” (Hesse, 102)
Hesse uses a contemplative tone to incorporate Siddhartha’s sorrow towards the departure of his own son which was inevitable. Not only is Siddhartha now in his father’s point of view which he now shares with but he also stares and examines the doppelganger of his own face which suddenly distorts into his father's face. This allows him to finally feel empathy towards his …show more content…
“Now he looked at people differently than he has before--less cleverly, with less pride, yet more warmly, with more curiosity and caring. When he took travelers of the usual kind across the river, child people--traders, warriors, women--these people no longer seemed alien to him , as they once has. He understood them, he shared their life, a life guided not by ideas and insights but only impulses and desires.The ignorant blind pride of a conceited father over his only little son--all these impulses, all these childish qualities, forcefully dominant impulses and cravings were no longer childness for Siddhartha” (Hesse, 100-101). Hesse shows Siddhartha finally in other’s shoes by using a reflective tone to show Siddhartha’s change of perspective. His point of view is now focused on the one others shared, which he has now experienced. At one point he saw the child people, those who love another , as a repetition in lives, as a tradition which was always forcefully followed. Meanwhile Siddhartha tried his best to avoid his path, the path ironically came to him. After experiencing what love truly is, he now didn’t see others with such a negative