Free Siddhartha Essays: Finding the Truth :: Hesse Siddhartha Essays

Finding Truth in Siddhartha In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a classic novel about enlightenment, the main character, Siddhartha, goes on a lifelong journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Siddhartha encounters many who try to teach him enlightenment, undoubtedly the most important being the Buddha himself. Although Siddhartha rejects the Buddha's teachings, saying that wisdom cannot be taught, we can see, nevertheless, that along his journey for understanding Siddhartha encounters the Four Noble Truths that are a central theme in Buddhism: suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the middle path. The First Noble Truth is The Truth of Suffering. If people examine their own experiences, or look at the world around them, they will see that life is full of suffering. In the novel, Siddhartha experiences the two forms of suffering - physical and mental. Physical suffering can come in many forms - disease, ageing, injury. Siddhartha experiences physical suffering as a young man when he joins the ascetics or Samanas. As a Samana, Siddhartha learns to fast, to tolerate extreme heat and cold, and to endure pain through meditation. Siddhartha's life as a samana is bitter, and he learns that "life [is] pain" (p.11). Siddhartha experiences mental pain in the second half of his life when he begins a contrasting existence of pleasure, and then again when he meets his only son. After leaving the Samanas, Siddhartha begins a life of decadence in the house of a wealthy merchant and in the company of a beautiful courtesan. Though at first Siddhartha remains apart from their daily troubles, as the years go by Siddhartha himself begins to value money, fine wine, and material possessions. Because of this "a thin mist, a weariness [settles] on Siddhartha," (p. 63) and he is engulfed in mental pain. Later, after ridding himself of the pain of the life of a wealthy merchant by becoming a simple ferryman, Siddhartha again experiences mental anguish when he meets his son. Siddhartha immediately falls in love with his arrogant 11-year-old son, whom he has never seen before. But the son despises his father and his simple life, and after a short time runs away. Siddhartha becomes restless and worried, again experiencing great mental anguish. As he goes along his journey, Siddhartha realizes The Second Noble Truth - that the direct cause of suffering is desire.

The Changeling -Fate Essay

The Changeling Essay Question – Choose a novel in which the fate of a main character is important in conveying the writers theme. Robin Jenkin’s downbeat meditation on the nature of pity, ‘The Changeling’ has a tragic ending; it emphasizes that the ‘Good Samaritan’ Charles Forbes fails to redeem the life of his pupil Tom Curdie. He sees himself as the boy’s saviour and makes the decision to take him on holiday, to show another side of life from the slum in which he grew up. Yet Tom’s stealing and strangeness set him apart from the family and finally the pain of the experience pushes him over the end.The opening chapter reveals that Charlie’s interest in Tom is self-righteous: At last he spoke, in his most pontifical tones: ‘Tell me, Curdie, have you ever seen the sea? ’ ‘Pontifical’ has overtones of pomposity, and suggests Forbes’ religious nature; the first meaning is supported by the headm aster’s opinion of Forbes as a ‘pompous bore’. It is ironic that a boy who has never seen the sea can write eloquently about it; and Forbes takes him on holiday in order to ‘improve’ him. Yet this decision is to lead to Tom’s suicide.In some ways, Tom is a character we should pity; however, in chapter three we learn that he is a strong character who lives by a matter-of-fact set of ‘principals’: Never to whine; to accept what came; to wait for better; to take what you could; to let no-one not even yourself know how near to giving in you were. One therefore has to ask – why would someone like this need Charlie’s help? It is only when he is taken away from Donaldson’s court that he feels the gulf between his circumstances and those of ‘decent’ people. When he tries o ‘take what you could’ to please them, the estrangement begins. The turning point of the novel is where Tom calls the Forb es family and introduces himself as ‘Tom Forbes’: ‘I mean, Tom Curdie,’ he said; but it was really that mythical person Tom Forbes, he still thought he was. At this point in the book, he is in a phone box with the hapless Peerie pressing his face up against the glass. It is as if Tom’s background is crowding round him as he tries vainly to keep contact with the ‘decent’ family who have given him a temporary home.However, the trouble with being a ‘mythical person’ is that one has to live in the real world. The distance between myth and reality is explored in one of the turning points of the novel, when Tom steals so that he can afford the brooch for Mrs Forbes. The chapter is seen through the eyes of Gillian, who sees a truth about Tom before anyone else: â€Å"She began to realise that this suit of armour, of calmness and patience, forged somehow in the dreadful slum where he had been born, must be heavy and painful to wear . †Yet she does not tell as she wants to avoid ruining the ‘presentation’; Gillian is torn between jealousy and pity towards Tom; her sympathy grows for him throughout the book and it is she who discovers him after his suicide. The ‘suit of armour’ continues the idea that he is a figure out of a myth who doesn’t belong in her world, which indicates that she feels the stirring of respect for him, even though he is a thief. Their relationship provides a note of optimism before the bleak climax. From her point of view, Tom has a kind of nobility, even when he strikes the tree in anguish:His face was hard and aloof, like a young Prince’s out of a story book. His hand red with blood was like an emblem of eerie distinction. These continue the idea that he is someone who doesn’t belong to the time in which he lives, with the allusions to being a Prince and wearing an ‘emblem’ he has won through pain and violence. This imposs ible dilemma is finally solved by Tom’s tragic end. Therefore I would argue that the book considers the suffering of others and asks what we can really do for them; it explores this theme through the fate of Tom.

Prehistoric Life During the Pliocene Epoch

By the standards of deep time, the Pliocene epoch was relatively recent, commencing only five million years or so before the start of the modern historical record, 10,000 years ago. During the Pliocene, prehistoric life around the globe continued to adapt to the prevailing climatic cooling trend, with some notable local extinctions and disappearances. The Pliocene was the second epoch of the Neogene Period (23-2.6 million years ago), the first being the Miocene (23-5 million years ago); all of these periods and epochs were themselves part of the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago to the present). Climate and Geography During the Pliocene epoch, the earth continued its cooling trend from previous epochs, with tropical conditions holding at the equator (as they do today) and more pronounced seasonal changes at higher and lower latitudes; still, average global temperatures were 7 or 8 degrees (Fahrenheit) higher than they are today. The major geographic developments were the reappearance of the Alaskan land bridge between Eurasia and North America, after millions of years of submersion, and the formation of the Central American Isthmus joining North and South America. Not only did these developments allow an interchange of fauna between three of the earths continents, but they had a profound effect on ocean currents, as the relatively cool Atlantic ocean was cut off from the much warmer Pacific. Terrestrial Life During the Pliocene Epoch Mammals. During large chunks of the Pliocene epoch, Eurasia, North America, and South America were all connected by narrow land bridges—and it wasnt all that difficult for animals to migrate between Africa and Eurasia, either. This wreaked havoc on mammalian ecosystems, which were invaded by migrating species, resulting in increased competition, displacement, and even outright extinction. For example, ancestral camels (like the huge Titanotylopus) migrated from North America to Asia, while the fossils of giant prehistoric bears like Agriotherium have been discovered in Eurasia, North America, and Africa. Apes and hominids were mostly restricted to Africa (where they originated), though there were scattered communities in Eurasia and North America. The most dramatic evolutionary event of the Pliocene epoch was the appearance of a land bridge between North and South America. Previously, South America had been much like modern Australia, a giant, isolated continent populated by a variety of strange mammals, including giant marsupials. Confusingly, some animals had already succeeded in traversing these two continents, before the Pliocene epoch, by the arduously slow process of accidental  island-hopping; thats how Megalonyx, the Giant Ground Sloth, wound up in North America. The ultimate winners in this Great American Interchange were the mammals of North America, which either wiped out or greatly diminished their southern relatives. The late Pliocene epoch was also when some familiar megafauna mammals appeared on the scene, including the Woolly Mammoth in Eurasia and North America, Smilodon (the Saber-Toothed Tiger) in North and South America, and Megatherium (the Giant Sloth) and Glyptodon (a gigantic, armored armadillo) in South America. These plus-sized beasts persisted into the ensuing Pleistocene epoch, when they went extinct due to climate change and competition with (combined with hunting by) modern humans. Birds. The Pliocene epoch marked the swan song of the phorusrhacids, or terror birds, as well as the other large, flightless, predatory birds of South America, which resembled meat-eating dinosaurs that had gone extinct tens of millions of years earlier (and count as an example of convergent evolution.) One of the last surviving terror birds, the 300-pound Titanis, actually managed to traverse the Central American isthmus and populate southeastern North America; however, this didnt save it from going extinct by the start of the Pleistocene epoch. Reptiles. Crocodiles, snakes, lizards, and turtles all occupied an evolutionary backseat during the Pliocene epoch (as they did during much of the Cenozoic Era). The most important developments were the disappearance of alligators and crocodiles from Europe (which had now become much too cool to support these reptiles  cold-blooded lifestyles), and the appearance of some truly gigantic turtles, such as the aptly named Stupendemys of South America. Marine Life During the Pliocene Epoch As during the preceding Miocene, the seas of the Pliocene epoch were dominated by the biggest shark that ever lived,  the 50-ton Megalodon. Whales continued their evolutionary progress, approximating the forms familiar in modern times, and pinnipeds (seals, walruses, and sea otters) flourished in various parts of the globe. An interesting side note: the marine reptiles of the Mesozoic Era known as  pliosaurs  were once thought to date from the Pliocene epoch, hence their misleading name, Greek for Pliocene lizards. Plant Life During the Pliocene Epoch There werent any wild bursts of innovation in Pliocene plant life; rather, this epoch continued the trends seen during the preceding Oligocene and Miocene epochs: the gradual confinement of jungles and rain forests to equatorial regions, while vast deciduous forests and grasslands dominated higher northern latitudes, especially in North America and Eurasia.