Siddhartha
The first chapter of Siddhartha is set in a Brahmin household located in the serene and peaceful atmosphere of an Indian village, but it is an India of an ancient era. In the next chapter, the scene shifts to the forest where the Samaras lead an ascetic life of self-denial. The third chapter takes Siddhartha to the town and the garden of Jetavana and the teachings of the holy Buddha. In the fourth chapter, Siddhartha leaves the forest enters a large town of merchants, children and a well-known courtesan and her lovely pleasure garden. Upon leaving the town Siddhartha returns to the river. The remainder of the novel centers on this river in the woods.
2) Siddhartha is the handsome and learned son of a Brahmin who has studied the Hindu scriptures thoroughly and often enters into discussions with elders. Siddhartha displays qualities of self-discipline and self-reliance. But he is discontented and restless and questions all that have been taught to him and wonders whether the sacrifices prescribed in the religious teachings really can bring happiness and peace within oneself. This is what compels him to leave his family and home. Siddhartha feels himself superior to the child-people, the ordinary folk around him; humility is not part of his character. He is even so arrogant and self-assured that he argues with the Buddha himself about the logic of his teachings. As it turns out, Siddhartha is not superior to ordinary people in at least one respect. Although he enters the world of business and sensual pleasure as a game, he becomes trapped in it like the people he looked down upon. He finally experience love as an old man. Yet it is through love and its pain, that he at last achieves wisdom. Siddhartha goes through drastic changes in his quest to discover himself. He starts off as an intelligent but impudent young man who openly seeks to attain Nirvana; As a Samana, he practices the art of self-denial, but finds no peace. He enters...
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