The Fear Of Life In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

So often people go along with a life that’s unsatisfying, for the approval of others, living a life with discontent due to the fear of living differently than the rest. The novel Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse is a story about a man named Siddhartha who is unsatisfied with his given life at the top of the caste system. He drops everything and goes on a journey exploring many different lifestyles in order to achieve enlightenment. The novel showcases the Buddhist lifestyle while displaying several different life lessons that the protagonist, Siddhartha, learns through hardships. The lessons that Siddhartha learns throughout the book consist of the harder path in life paying off, loss and letting go, and not letting anything hold

They talk themselves down into taking the easier path. They end up shaping their goals into what the easier path in life can uncover for them. For example, if I wanted to live a different path and travel the world; there would be a lot of people telling me that I wouldn’t have enough money to sustain myself. It might be hard figuring out the details and how I was going to go through with my plan; I might have to learn new skills and live completely different than I had before. Most importantly there is the want to live an easy and comfortable life. When joining the Samanas, Siddhartha let go of all of his luxuries and threw away the easier path in order to take one that was more challenging. “He only ate once a day and never cooked food. He fasted 14 days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks.” Siddhartha gave away everything in life he grew up to know, he put himself out there and risked his entire life and the respect of his father in order to follow the path he wanted. He went above and beyond to challenge himself, which is something that I can really learn from as I develop my life and decide what path it is that I want to