Siddhartha
(Hermann Hesse)

Siddhartha was written during Hesse’s mid-life. As his family- extending to his grandparents- were missionaries in India, the region’s literature and philosophy was constantly available to him through his grandfather’s book collection. While he dived into Western thought for much of his adulthood, his interest in the East was sparked anew, taking a trip that while may not have provided the emotional and spiritual relief he sought, did serve as the foundation for Siddhartha.

The novel itself is an allegory to the Buddhist concepts of the four noble truths and the eightfold path, making up the twelve chapters of the book, as long as the three stages of life for a Buddhist male- student, householder, and recluse.

Hermann Hesse: A Short Biography

Born in Germany in 1877 to a devoutly religious family, Herman Hesse grew up amongst two parents who both served as missionaries in India. His grandparents were also missionaries in the same country, so Hesse’s attraction and familiarity with the place is understandable. He received an excellent education in Germany during his childhood, but his attendance to a seminary in Wurttemberg as a teenager started a rebellious phase of two years that included running away and attempted suicide. After quitting a days-long bookshop apprenticeship and working at a clock tower factory doing manual labor, Hesse returned to the former.

Working at the bookstore afforded Hesse access to a variety of literary works, which he spent time indulging himself in. After some failed publications, he started to find a modicum of success with poems. This eventually led to his publication of Peter Camenzind, which was a smashing success and found praise from Freud. After a few more books, his interest in India was rekindled, causing him to take a trip to the region during a particularly tense time with his wife.

During WWI, he worked taking care of POWs, writing peace poems and a newspaper for them. He eventually left his wife and his children, choosing instead to live alone and pursue writing again. It was during this time that he wrote multiple works, including Siddhartha. He remarried, received Swiss citizenship, and wrote Steppenwolf.

His work was oppressed by the Nazi regime during their reign, a group which he vocally opposed, and it wasn’t until near the end of the war that he was able to publish his last novel, The Glass Bead Game. Though he wrote during the last twenty years of his life, he also painted and responded to letters he received due to his winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1962.

Settings

Forest

Siddhartha and Govinda spend much of their youth in the forest as samanas. Siddhartha returns to it after he spends most of his adulthood in the city, spending time as a ferryman. The natural world is where Siddhartha has most of his revelations; the first being after he leaves Govinda, the second when he is on the verge of suicide, and the third is when he finally reaches nirvana.

City

The city is where Siddhartha lives as a merchant for two decades, learning about love from Kamala and about money from Kamaswami. Full of people and disappointments, the city represents the experience of sansara- the continuous cycle of death and rebirth- and peoples’ ignorance of that truth in favor of earthly goals.