Key Facts
full title · Siddhartha
author · Hermann Hesse
type of work · Novel
genre · Spiritual and Religious Novel
language · German
time and place written · 1919–1921,
Switzerland
date of first publication · 1922
publisher · Bantam
narrator · An unnamed narrator tracks Siddhartha's spiritual progress.
point of view · Third-person omniscient. The point of view follows
Siddhartha most closely.
tone · Measured without being detached; formal
tense · Past
setting (time) · Concurrent with the life of Buddha, estimated at around 625 b.c.
setting (place) · India
protagonist · Siddhartha
major conflict · Siddhartha searches for total spiritual enlightenment.
rising action · Siddhartha experiments with different teachers and
approaches to Nirvana, and when they prove unsatisfactory, he turns
his search inward.
climax · Siddhartha finally achieves total spiritual understanding
as he sits beside Vasudeva and listens to the river.
falling action · Siddhartha meets Govinda and shares the Nirvana he
has attained.
themes · The search for spiritual enlightenment; inner vs. exterior guidance;
the wisdom of indirection
motifs · Love; Om; polarities
symbols · The river; the ferryman; the smile
foreshadowing · Siddhartha's sloughing-off of his father's traditional
Brahmin beliefs foreshadows Siddhartha's future loss of his own
son.
· Siddhartha's observation to Govinda that not even the
eldest of the Samanas has attained Nirvana, and Govinda's subsequent dismissal
of the statement, foreshadows Govinda's inability to find Nirvana
by following the teachings of others.
· The first appearance of the peaceful ferryman, whom
Siddhartha encounters on his way to the city, foreshadows Siddhartha's
own future as a ferryman and as a man of total spiritual peace.
