Re-encounter With Yourself

This chapter is called "By the River". I think it is one of the most important chapters in the whole book because it is when the old Siddhartha dies or is replaced by a new Siddhartha that emerges after a short nap. It starts in a way that for me was very shocking, Siddhartha´s thoughts of suicide, " He is standing in front of the river questioning his purpose and the reasons to continue moving forward. There was only one way to escape his life full of suffering" (pg 71) I didn't see this coming from Siddhartha. It showed me that he is weak and gives up on himself. He should know that he cant escape his problems and the cycles that he is getting into, he has to deal with them.

After, he starts meditating with the Om, which leads him to realize that he has a purpose in life and everything falls back together for Siddhartha. It was like a rebirth for him. He remembers everything he has been through with Kamala. With her he had 3 possessions that were fasting, waiting and thinking, and he insisted that that was enough. But after a while he got carried away and fell into a wrong cycle of pleasure and desire. "He had exchanged them for the most wretched things, for the transitory, for the pleasures of the senses, for high living and riches. He had gone along a strange path. And now, it seemed that he had indeed become an ordinary person."(Pg 77)

This chapter is about reflection and in the end he is glad to have lived everything life put in his way. He had to have all of these experiences to have a new start with a new perception of life to choose a better path, "Even though the path has no sense and repeats it self many times he will follow it where ever it takes him"(Pg 78).

Vocabulary
Ennui (pg 70)
-Lack of interest

Oblivion (pg 70)
-The state of forgetting

Ardent (Pg 80)
-Intense feeling