Siddhartha And Song Of Myself Comparison

Death. Death is something many people fear and don’t see as a joyful part of life. Instead of reacting positively about the ending cycle of life, people choose to react negatively or distraught over the thought of death. Society today has not only changed the thought of death but it also has changed the way people gain knowledge. No one is willing to gain knowledge by personal experience but by teachings and lessons being presented to them. The novel “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse and the poem “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman share two common themes: death is a fortunate thing and not something to fear, and, things should be learned through experiences and not through teachings and books.
Death is a fortunate thing and not something to fear …show more content…
This relates to the theme because Siddhartha is informing Govinda that in order to be enlightened you have to learn based upon your own experiences. He wants Govinda to know that everything isn’t about teachings learned from a teacher, he wants him to understand that out of all of the teachers he’s had from the beautiful courtesan to the ferryman they have taught him nothing and that he had to learn by himself through experience. Referring to the poem “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman wrote, “The smoke of my own breath, echoes, ripples, buzz’d whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine”. In this case, Walt Whitman is trying to acknowledge the fact that you must learn from your surroundings. He believes that society is intoxicating and he refuses to be sucked in by it, he states that without experiencing things yourself you do not truly have knowledge."The teaching which you have heard...is not my opinion, and its goal is not to explain the world to those who are thirsty for knowledge. Its goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from the suffering. That is what Gotama teaches, nothing else." . The relationship between the theme and this quote is that knowledge that is being taught by teachers has one