Question

In what ways is this section similar to the “Student” stage of life? In what ways is it different? Siddhartha chapter 5

Answer 1

Answer:

Siddhartha Chapter 5 is similar to the "Student" stage of life in the following ways:

1) Search for Enlightenment: Every student seeks enlightenment and understanding. As Siddhartha sought to understand the meaning of love and sex, so students seek to understand subjects and topics. Sex is a topic of love, the subject. To understand, one must be taught. Kamala taught Siddhartha sex and the ingredients for successful love-making.  Teachers teach students educational topics as ingredients for successful subject-mastery.

2) Eagerness to Learn: A student only learns if she is eager enough to pay the sacrifice by spending long hours studying. Siddhartha was also eager to learn. He made sacrifices by leaving his comfort zone. He sought enlightenment everywhere. He was taught by his parents, others, and especially Kamala, his lover.

3) Requirements for Effective Learning/Studentship: In the same way, that Kamala showed Siddhartha the ingredients of being a successful lover, a student learns that the ingredients of learning are dedication, determination, persistence, and practise.

4) Acquisition of Talent:  In sharing skills and knowledge, teachers and students acquire more talent..  Similarly, Siddhartha learned sex by practising sexual acts with Kamala, who was his teacher.  In every loving relationship, there is sharing.  Kamala extended her teaching by showing Siddhartha that it was not only sex that makes for successful love-making.  A successful lover must learn to cater for his lover by providing economic resources.    Students also pay directly and indirectly to to their teachers for the learning they get from them.  Moreso, a successful student proves what he had learned by putting the acquired knowledge into practise, further pleasing his teacher.

The difference between the "Student" stage of life and Siddhartha Chapter 5 section is that during student stage of life, one acquires character in addition to learning that will take the student into the future.  The section only prepared Siddhartha to become a progenitor to perpetuate his future through children-bearing.  No wonder, he abandoned everything, including Kamala to pursue enlightenment.

Explanation:

Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse based on the early life of Buddha.  It was published in German in 1922.   The book followed an inspiration the author got from his visit to India before World War I.

The theme of the book dwells on the Unity that must exist in man's life with Nature and man's endless Search for the Truth.  It concludes with the revelation that there is no one way to live life.

Siddhartha searched for meaning and truth in a world of sorrow and suffering by abandoning his wealthy family background in an adventure for enlightenment.  At the end, Siddhartha learned that enlightenment does not originate from teachers or worldly possessions.  Enlightenment comes from within the person, acquired through calmness, compassion, and putting value on things, according to their proper places in life.