The Reverent River

     Throughout the book, the motif of a river is expressed multiple times. One of the most prominent examples was when Siddhartha was having an interview with kamaswami, and Siddhartha explained how he was like a rock and when you throw a rock into a river, it sinks right to the bottom taking the shortest path. The quote is found on page 60: “When you throw a stone into the water, it falls quickly by the fastest route to the bottom of the pond. This is the way it is when Siddhartha has an aim, an intension. Siddhartha does nothing – he waits, he thinks, he fasts – but he passes through the things of the world like the stone through the water, without bestirring himself. He is drawn forward and he lets himself fall. His goal draws himself to it, for he lets nothing enter his mind that interferes with the goal. This metaphor develops the relationship between kamaswami and Siddhartha by using nature as a way to explain that Siddhartha is the ideal partner for the merchant. With his example, Siddhartha used the rock as himself and the river as the difficulties of life to say that Siddhartha is capable of moving past the possible elements of being a merchant and achieve the current goal with as little trouble as possible. Using nature as a motif was most likely because the merchant lived in a big house with lots of money and did not relate to nature often. Throughout the book, Siddhartha has changed his path to unleash his inner-self several times, each time hopping to find the easiest way in the shortest time. Another time was when Siddhartha was with the ferryman. This quote is found on page 49: “It is a very beautiful river. I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have always learned something from it. One can learn much form a river…I have learned from the river too; everything comes back. You, too, Samana, will come back.” The man told him as he was taking him across the river about how one can learn much from listening to the river. It was through listening to the river that the man understood that eventually Siddhartha was going to pay back to the ferryman even though the time Siddhartha had no money to give the man. In this stance, the motif of the river was used to explain how often time’s people have hindered judgment and if they would relate to nature and how nature works, their life would be much easier, and they would have less anger or frustration. When the ferryman was talking about how one can learn much from nature, he was almost explaining how he would do his own form of meditation, only instead of sitting all day and being a beggar like the samanas, he simply meditated in his own time when he wasn’t taking people across the river. However, the first time the idea of a river was seen was on the very first page when it said, “in the sunshine of the river bank by the boats… Siddhartha was very much involved with the river at a young age. He played with Govinda, his “shadow” on the banks, and in the water.”  The river is like the beginning of a part of Siddhartha’s life. It shows that he will undergo a personal change that inflicts the book. In the beginning, Siddhartha starts as the Brahmin’s son, and within the chapter converts over to being a Samana because he does not feel like he is achieving his goals and unlocking his inner-self. It was later on when he crossed the river with the ferryman that his life changed and he became a business man, or when he used the river metaphor to persuade the merchant, he became a gambler with all of the money he made. Each encounter with the river metaphor shows a major point in the plot of the story.