Compare and Contrast Essay on Siddhartha

        Comparing to Siddhartha and Kamala, who suffer from the temptation of wealth and power, Gautama and Vasudeva both are in a state of contentment even though they have little to no possessions. In the novel, Gautama is the first person Siddhartha meets that truly reaches the state of enlightenment. Herman Hesse describes Gautama as a monk that “went out into the city with [his] bowls to collect food for the midday meal, the only one of the day. Even the Buddha himself, the Enlightened One, was in the habit of making the beggar’s rounds in the morning” (24), who has to rely on someone else to eat once a day like poor person. Yet Siddhartha and Govinda recognized him immediately from “his composure, by the stillness of his gesture, in which no seeking, no wanting, no imitation, no exertion was to be discerned...” (25). From this, one can perceive the author’s thought that personal possession does not improve/define the person.

        Vasudeva has the same characteristic as Gautama, for he is not attached to the materials. Examples of the characteristic on multiple occasions are spread throughout the novel. First when Siddhartha crosses the river to enter the city, Vasudeva let Siddhartha cross the river without a payment, saying “I did not expect payment or any token from you. You’ll give me a gift some other time” (42) and let go of the desire for money. This quotation implies that if one desires less for wealth or money, less one has to worry about, and consequently the happier one can be. Also when Siddhartha reaches the enlightenment at last, Vasudeva simply says “… let me go. For a long time I have waited for this moment, for a long time I have been Vasudeva the ferryman. Enough now, the time has come. Farewell, hut, farewell, river, farewell, farewell, Siddhartha!” (106) and drops everything he owns and possesses and disappears into the wood, truly being one with the nature.

        From both characters we find that neither of them had almost any of what average people desire, but lived peacefully because they desired less. Both Vasudeva and Gautama lived with what was required to survive, and they knew that the more one has, the more one has more to worry about.

In the novel Siddhartha, only the people who distanced themselves from the temptation of the wealth achieved the enlightenment. Herman Hesse makes a point in literature that the inner peace and happiness do not origin from the wealth. He illustrated this point by contrasting Vasudeva and Gautama’s simple life style with Siddhartha and Kamala’s lavish life. So what does bring contentment to people’s life? Herman Hesse suggests that we should desire less of the physical material.