Siddhartha: Section #4

          Here's a list of the words that I found while reading Section 4 that I had difficulties with: 

*Pyre: a pile or heap of wood or other combustible material. (Page 94). 

Spoilt: to damage severely or harm (something), especially with reference to its excellence, value, usefulness. (Page 95).

Sulky: a light, two-wheeled, one-horse carriage for one person. (Page 96).

Defiant: characterized by defiance, boldly resistant or challenging. (Page 96).

Dainty: pleasing to the taste and, often, temptingly served or delicate. (Page 97).

*Perplexity: the state of being perplexed. (Page 98).

Disillusionment: a freeing or a being freed from illusion or conviction; disenchantment. (Page 98).

Belatedly: coming or being after the customary, useful, or expected time. (Page 99).

*Bore: to pierce (a solid substance) with some rotary cutting instrument. (Page 106).

Yearn: to have an earnest or strong desire; long. (Page 107).

Ascetics: a person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals and practices extremeself-denial or self-mortification for religious reasons. (Page 107).

Insatiable: not satiable; incapable of being satisfied or appeased. (Page 110).

*Hasten: to cause to hasten; accelerate. (Page 110).

Anew: over again; again; once more. (Page 110).

Interwoven: the act of interweaving or the state of being interwoven; blend. (Page 110).

*Sucklings: an infant or a young animal that is not yet weaned. (Page 116).

Dampness: moisture; humidity; moist air. (Page 117).

Forbearance: the act of forbearing; a refraining from something. (Page 119).

Transitoriness: not lasting, enduring, permanent, or eternal. (Page 119).

*Inwardly: in or on, or with reference to, the inside or inner part; internally. (Page 119).

Carp: to find fault or complain querulously or unreasonably; be niggling in criticizing; cavil. (Page 121). 



Here are some sentences in the book that use these words:


          They all belonged to each other: the lament of those who yearn, the laughter of the wise, the cry of indignation and the groan of the dying. (Page 110).

          They were all interwoven and interlocked, entwined in a thousand ways. (Page 110).

          He had considered himself rich and happy when the boy had come to him, but as time passed and the boy remained unfriendly and sulky, when he proved arrogant and defiant, when he would do no work. (Page 96). 

          He preached benevolence, forbearance, sympathy, patience----but not love. (Page 119). 

          How indeed, could he not know love, he who has recognized all humanity's vanity and transitoriness, yet loves humanity so much that he has devoted a long life solely to help and teach people?

          Inwardly, however, he thought: Siddhartha is a strange man and he expresses strange thoughts. (Pages 119-120). 

Siddhartha: Section #3

          While I read Chapter 8, I had another big connection. I connected a scene in "Siddhartha" to another book called "Cien años de soledad". I read both of these scenes the same day. 

          I connected the part when Siddhartha and Govinda are reunited. Govinda is not able to recognize Siddhartha for a few moments. "But when Govinda, feeling his glance, raised his eyes and looked at him, Siddhartha saw that Govinda did not recognize him" (page 74). He finally recognizes him because Siddhartha told him where he met him. "Apparently he had sat there a long time waiting for him to awaken, although he did not know him. "I know you, Govinda, from your father´s house and from the Brahmins school, and from the sacrifices, and from our sojourn with the Samanas and from that hour in the grove of Jetavana when you swore allegiance to the Illustrious One." (page 75). The same happens in "Cien años de soledad" when Aureliano comes back from the war and encounters his younger sister, Amaranta. They had spent so much time apart from each other that Aureliano was not able to recognize her. She shows him a black bandage she has wrapped around her hand. Aureliano remembers the incident in which Amaranta burned her hand in the name of her dead lover. In that moment, Aureliano recognizd her. Govinda does not recognize Siddhartha until he speaks out. "You are Siddhartha, cried Govinda aloud" (page 75). 

          It's very funny how people so close to you can forget you. Siddhartha and Govinda are like siblings, and Govinda did not recognize him. The same happens when Aureliano was not able to identify his sister Amaranta. These type of events can give us clues about how much time has passed in the novel. Sometimes people do not take into consideration the timing of the book. 

Siddhartha: Section #2

I related the film "Bram Stocker's Dracula" to Chapter 5. The film was based on the novel. These two pieces of literature are different but at the time very similar. The first part of Chapter 4 was the part that was most similar to "Bram Stocker´s Dracula".

I connected to the part when Siddhartha dreams about Govinda turning into a woman. The book states that when Siddhartha started to drink the Govinda's milk, he started to experience the world and see things. "Thereupon he embraced Govinda, put his arm round him, and as he drew him to his breast and kissed him, he was Govinda no longer, but a woman and out of the woman's gown emerged a full breast, and Siddhartha lay there and drank; sweet and strong tasted the milk from his breast. It tasted of woman and man, the sun and forest, of animal and flower, of every fruit, of every pleasure. It was intoxicating" (page 40). In the film, Jonathan finds a trunk that has three female vampires inside and lets them free. These three sexual demons seduce him and start to undress him. In that moment, one of the demons feeds on his blood. That's when Jonathan starts seeing the world beyond the castle. He sees his fiancée Nina back in London alone and depressed.

Even though these two pieces of literature are very different, you can always find some similarities. Siddhartha's experience and Jonathan's experience may differ, but the images created in my head were very similar. In novels like these, dreams and foreshadowing can help us make inferences and create expectations of what the rest of the book/movie will be about.

Siddhartha: Section #1

          While reading the first section of "Siddhartha" I made a connection to a scene in a film called "Aladdin". Siddhartha is a young boy that has everything in life, but he wants to go out in an adventure. Princess Jasmine is in a similar situation. 

          Siddhartha belongs to the elite Brahman caste. "There was happiness in his father's heart because of his son who was intelligent and thirsty for knowledge; he saw him growing up to be a great learned man, a priest, a prince among the Brahmins" (page 2). He belongs to an extremely wealthy family. He has everything he wants, except his true "desire". He decides to go an an adventure to achieve enlightenment. He decides to pop the bubble that he lives in and search for what he truly wants. Siddhartha feels that something is missing. "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" (page 3). Jasmine is in the same situation. She is a princess living in the dream palace. She has everything she could ever wish for. One day, she decides to escape the palace and see the world beyond the bubble she lived in. There is a scene where she tells her father that "something in her was missing". Later on, she escapes and meets Aladdin. 

          Both Siddhartha and Jasmine are part of royalty and decide to pop the bubble and see the world. Many characters in literature share the same characteristics. I am starting to believe that this cases can be seen in real life. 

Paradox & Oxymoron Examples

Paradox: 

This is a paradox because the connections of the cube are not proportionate. If you look closely, the block that should be connecting the upper side is going behind the block that connects two parts of the cube that should be behind it. This contradicts common sense and logic because you can only draw it that way and not make it that way. It also produces inconsistency because the cube couldn't be actually made like that in real life.

You would not be able to read time, and it is inconsistent because it goes against common sense. Apart from that, if you look closely, the twelve, even though it is in a spiral, tilts a little bit to the right each time there is one complete spiral.

Oxymoron: 

This signs are an oxymoron because they are right beside each other and they contradict each other since "STOP" and "KEEP GOING" are literally antonyms.

This ash tray is an oxymoron too because there is a sign of "DO NOT SMOKE" inside the ash tray; which is used when you smoke. Again, contradictory terms together. Now these are inside one another.

Confucianism Analect (4.7)

4.7) The Master said, "People are true to type with regard to what sort of mistakes they make. Observe closely the sort of mistakes a person makes ---then you will know his character. 


This analect is as true as it can be. The idea expressed in this analect is that you need to watch closely the behavior, especially the mistakes, that a person makes. If you think about it, it works! This can apply for positive and negative attributes.

It has happened to me that when I am getting to know somebody really well I always watch out for the mistakes they commit (especially if those mistakes are repetitive) to see what type of person they are. I am don't necessarily look for mistakes to justify that he/she is a bad person but what type of person you are hanging around with. It can be: evil, compassionate, lazy, funny, intelligent, arrogant, racist, etc. Also you may find a person that has many of these combined, but not all.

This quote relates to the analect from the book:

"Watch you thoughts; they become your words.
  Watch you words; the become your actions.
  Watch your actions; they become your habits.
  Watch your habits; they become your character;
  And watch your character; it becomes your destiny."

                                                        - Author Unknown