Short Story Unit: Asia
Essential Question (EQ): How universal is Siddhartha’s quest to fully knowing himself?
Area of Interaction (AI): Approaches to Learning
Over the course of this unit on Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, you will work in assigned reading groups to help you gain a deeper understanding of the novella. In your reading group, you will be assigned a role, which changes for every meeting.
For each meeting, your task is to:
a) read the assigned pages (using post-its);
b) write a high-quality journal entry related to your role (at minimum 1 full page) to deepen your understanding of Siddhartha;
c) write three new words on index cards (word on one side, definition on the other) with the sentence in which it appears copied out.
d) All of your responses must be on loose-leaf paper, preferably typed, as they will be collected in a separate folder designated for this unit. The roles are as follows:
1. Connector:
As Connector, your job is to make connections between Siddhartha and another text and/or the world outside, i.e., activate schema, as you reflect on the Essential Question. For example, you may wish to connect the novella with
A. similar events at other times and places;
B. events in the news;
C. other pieces of literature.
Sample Journal Response: “Siddhartha had begun to feel the seeds of discontent within him. He had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace, satisfy and suffice him. He had begun to suspect that his worthy father and his other teachers, the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom, that they had already poured the sum total of their knowledge into his waiting vessel; and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still” (Hesse, 3).
This quotation, at the very beginning of Siddhartha, really sets the stage for what is going to happen. Apparently, Siddhartha is unhappy, which I can infer from “the seeds of discontent within.” Despite all the wealth and privilege he has experienced in his life, he is not content. Something is missing in his life, so I can infer that he will be searching for this “something” and, perhaps, finds it in the end. He realizes that all of the love in his life, by his family and friends, is not enough for him, and he feels that all of his teachers have already “poured the sum total of their knowledge” into him. Despite their efforts, however, Siddhartha is restless; his “soul was not at peace.” Siddhartha is dissatisfied with what he has, as a rational being as well as his emotional being. It seems as if he is searching for something, searching for more than he has at this time, which leads me to believe that Siddhartha will voluntarily undergo some sort of voyage, a journey, in his attempt to find the something that he is searching for. I wonder what that “something” is? Due to his restlessness, I assume Siddhartha will undertake a long journey in his quest for knowledge, for finding “it,” and we as readers will be a part of this journey.
As I read the quotation above for the first time, my first connection was to the song we listened to last year, Garth Brook’s “The River,” as the word “vessel” appeared, and the vessel served as a symbol of our journey through life. The river’s currents, the river’s rapids and tides became symbolic of the ups and downs all of us experience as we undertake our journey through life. Based on what I have read of Siddhartha so far, I can conclude that we will be going on this journey with him, as we read the novella. Maybe we can experience our journey as we continue along Siddhartha’s.
Besides, this idea of journey reminds me of an article I recently read in The New York Times, entitled “Littlest Immigrants, Left in Hands of Smugglers.” The article touched me deeply, as it described the journey of two young Mexican boys, ages 6 and 8, who had been seized by U.S. immigration officials in their attempt to cross the boarder to the United States. The boys’ parents had hired a smuggler to help bring them into the United States, where the parents had been living illegally for several years. How desperate does one have to be to entrust one’s children to a complete stranger, without knowing how the children would be treated and whether or not they would even survive this treacherous journey? I cannot even begin to imagine the utter terror these children must have experienced on their involuntary journey, a journey into the unknown with a complete stranger. Unlike Siddhartha, however, these children did not go on their journey by choice; they did not have a choice, as they were too young to probably even understand what this journey meant and how dangerous it really was. And then they find themselves alone surrounded by officers with guns. I only wonder whether their soul was at peace at any point before, during, or after their journey, and how they will ever get over this trauma.
2. Questioner:
As Questioner, your job is to write down 2 good thinking questions along with possible answers to your questions. The questions need to be open-ended (preferably “how” and “why” questions), thereby prompting a variety of responses from your group members during your discussion. For example, you may wish to ask questions you had
➢ while reading;
➢ about a character;
➢ about the journey Siddhartha undertakes;
➢ about Hesse and/or the time period in which he wrote.
Sample Response: “They [Brahmins] knew a tremendous number of things – but was it worth while knowing all these things if they did not know the one important thing, the only important thing? Many verses of the holy books, above all the Upani-shads of Sama-Veda spoke of this innermost thing. It is written: ‘Your soul is the whole world’” (Hesse, 4).
I wonder what it means to know “a tremendous number of things,” as the Brahmins do, according to the quote. What does that mean? What are these things? However, by activating schema, I know that in Hinduism, a Brahmin is a member of the highest caste, originally composed of priests. In this quotation, the term is applied to the entire group of Brahmins, which sounds rather elitist and snobbish, as if they felt very superior to the rest of the population. But it obviously cannot be true that simply by birth into the caste they are intelligent and know everything, so I am curious to find out how much knowledge they actually do possess. Hopefully, as I read on, this idea of knowledge will become clearer, so I have to make sure to pay attention to it as it comes up.
This also reminds me of the very first paragraph of Siddhartha, when Siddhartha is introduced as a character. Siddhartha seems to have everything, wealth, family, friends, intelligence, personality, and spirituality; yet he is not happy. It seems as if he is rather arrogant and full of himself, emphasized by the way that Govinda, his friend, admires him. He just seems like a spoiled child who feels that he knows everything, just like many children, teenager, and adults. What does knowing really mean? Do you have to experience something before you actually know it? Do you perhaps have to be able to teach it before you know it? What really is knowledge? These are questions I really wonder about as I am thinking about this quotation.
Then, it gets even more difficult as the soul comes into play. Based on the way this is structured, I can infer that the “only important thing” must be the “innermost thing,” the soul, as referenced in the following sentence. But what is the soul? According to the dictionary, “a person’s soul is the spiritual part of that person that is believed to continue existing after the body is dead…the non-physical part of that person, where the person’s true nature and deepest thoughts and feelings are believed to be.” The most interesting and most confusing sentence is the last one, “Your soul is the whole world.” I wonder what Hesse means by this. I do believe that every human being has a soul, but how is the soul the whole world? What is the soul? Is the soul perhaps what makes us unique, as that is where our belief system, our most innermost thoughts and feelings are? I am not really sure about any of this, but these thoughts seem very worthwhile discussing further.
3. Summarizer/Illustrator:
This role is two-fold. First, as Summarizer, your job is to prepare a brief summary of the reading assigned for the day. Your group members will be counting on you to give a quick 1- to 2-minute statement that conveys the main events (the gist, the key points, the essence) of the day’s assigned reading, written and given in the Simple Present Tense. Be sure to structure your response in chronological order.
Sample Response: Chapter 1. Siddhartha, the privileged son of a Brahmin, is much loved by his parents and his friend, Govinda. He is handsome, intelligent, and “thirsty for knowledge” (2), and he meditates and discusses Hindu texts. His father even anticipates that Siddhartha will be a scholar, priest, or prince, a member of the community in the highest standing. In short, Siddhartha seems to have it all, wealth, status, looks, and knowledge. However, he is unhappy, as “he had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace, satisfy and suffice him” (3), as he longs for complete knowledge of God and Self. He and Govinda meditate under a banyan tree and encounter three elderly Samanas. Siddhartha is determined to join them, and after standing in one spot until dawn, he convinces his father of his devotion to self-denial. Govinda, his friend, decides to join Siddhartha’s pilgrimage.
Second, as Illustrator, your job is to respond to the text with an image you had while reading. This can be a sketch, cartoon, or diagram. Your illustration does not need to depict actual events/scenes from the story, but it can represent personal thoughts, feelings, or connections – even abstract designs. The goal is to foster conversations around your picture.
4. Literary Luminary:
As Literary Luminary, your job is to locate 3 passages or quotations in the text for your group to discuss. They need to relate to the EQ in that they provide answers related to the author’s literary elements and techniques employed in his or her journey, answering the “how” and “why” of the author’s choices. The idea is to help your group members go back to especially interesting, powerful, puzzling, challenging, or important passages of the reading and then work together to deepen your understanding of them. You may want to pay attention to some of the following:
A. Literary Elements
➢ Point of View (Why does Hesse choose this point of view? How would the story be different if he had made a different choice?)
➢ Characterization (What character traits does Hesse attribute to the character? Why? How would the story be different if the characters were different?)
➢ Setting (How is the setting relevant to the story? How does the setting support the journey of the main character? To what extent can we infer the setting from the story? Why does Hesse choose this setting? How might the story be different if the setting changed?)
➢ Mood (What is the atmosphere created? Why is this atmosphere created? How would the story be different if the atmosphere were different? How does the mood contribute to the message conveyed?)
➢ Tone – attitude or viewpoint of the author towards his or her character(s) – might be serious, sympathetic, or angry (How does Hesse feel about Siddhartha? How do you know? Does Hesse’s attitude change in the course of your reading, in a chapter?)
➢ Structure (How is the novella structured? How are the paragraphs structured? What kinds of patterns can you identify? How does identifying them help you make meaning? Why might Hesse have chosen this structure?)
Sample Response: Literary Elements
(a) Characterization
“In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin’s son, grew up with his friend Govinda” (Hesse, 1).
In the opening paragraph of this novella, Hesse really sets the stage for his main character, Siddhartha. Based on the description as the Brahmin’s son, which is also the chapter’s heading, the reader can infer many character traits. First of all, by activating schema, we know that as a Brahmin, Siddhartha belongs to the highest caste in Hinduism. This immediately makes the reader weary of him, as he is a member of the privileged society. Described as “handsome,” Siddhartha seems to have it all, looks, intelligence, love, and friends, but the description also points to the possibility of him being a little arrogant, a know-it-all. Actually, by this description and the ones that follow about intelligence, Siddhartha appears as the perfect human being, and I only wonder whether such perfection is possible. So where are his flaws?
(b) Setting
“Dreams and restless thoughts came flowing to him from the river, from the twinkling stars at night, from the sun’s melting rays” (Hesse, 3).
In the first paragraph, Hesse introduces us to the importance of the river, the setting of Siddhartha’s youth. Hesse continues to build up the river as a central element in this, as now the river seems to be transferring “dreams and restless thoughts” to Siddhartha. Obviously, the river is central to the novella, so I will need to pay particular attention to the river. Maybe the river is a symbol, as it was in Garth Brook’s song, “The River?” One thing I can definitely infer is that there is something important about the river, so as I read on, I need to pay particular importance to it, so that I can figure out what the river is all about. In this quote, I notice that the river seems to almost mirror Siddhartha’s inner self – the river passes on “dreams and restless thoughts,” and Siddhartha himself is restless and discontent himself. Definitely, the river warrants further investigation to determine its importance in this novella. I wonder why Hesse has made the river so central to this story?
B. Literary Techniques
➢ Alliteration (Why may Hesse have chosen to draw your attention to these words? Why does he consider them important? What choices would you have made as a writer? How would your choices be similar or different?)
➢ Figurative language – for example, metaphors, metonymies, similes, personification, oxymoron (How do the images invoked in the reading help convey its message? How does “seeing” the words on the page deepen your understanding of the reading?)
➢ Foreshadowing (Why does Hesse use foreshadowing in this passage? How does this help the reader understand the passage better?)
➢ Repetition (Why does Hesse use repetition? How does it help convey his message to the reader? What would have been your choice? Which part(s) would you have chosen to emphasize and why? How might that choice have an impact on the message conveyed?)
Sample Response: Literary Techniques
(c) Metonymy
“’You will go into the forest,’ he said, ‘and become a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come back and teach it to me. If you find disillusionment, come back, and we shall again offer sacrifices to the gods together’” (Hesse, 9)
It seems that the forest serves as a metonymy. While I think Siddhartha’s father literally means a forest to which Siddhartha will go, his father associates with the forest an adventure, a discovery, one in which no one knows how it will turn out. Forests are full of unexpected discoveries as one may find oneself lost traveling in an unmarked trail or find beautiful plants and animals that may attract and even attack one. Figuratively, going to the forest means to go on a journey towards self-discovery, as that is exactly what Siddhartha has managed his father to agree to – join the Samanas, who practice meditation and extreme self-denial in the forest to lose the self. While it seems as if the river mirrors Siddhartha’s inner state, maybe the forest mirrors the confusion and uncertainty that exists in his quest.
(d) Foreshadowing
“But where were the Brahmins, the priests, the wise men, who were successful not only in having this most profound knowledge, but in experiencing it?…One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking – a detour, error. These were Siddhartha’s thoughts; this was his thirst, his sorrow” (Hesse, 5).
As Siddhartha is questioning the verses of the holy books, Hesse prepares the reader for Siddhartha’s inevitable journey of self-discovery, thereby foreshadowing the events to come. Siddhartha has so many valid questions related to knowledge and experience that knowledge that the only way for him to find out the answers to his questions is to undergo a journey into the Self. For the reader to almost look into Siddhartha’s soul, we realize that he does not have a choice but to leave his home. No one else can give him answers to all his questions but he himself. Therefore, the reader is prepared to accompany Siddhartha on his adventurous journey.
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