The soul of the song bird

One major motif from the novel Siddhartha is a song bird. The first place where the song bird is introduced is in the chapter Samsara. Siddhartha is realizing how disgusted he is with his own life that he has created for himself. He talks about how “Kamala kept a small rare song bird in a small golden cage” Then he continues on to explain his dream about Kamala’s little bird. “This bird, which usually sang in the morning, became mute, and as this surprised him, he went up to the cage and looked inside. The little bird was dead and lay stiff on the floor. He took it out, held it a moment in his hand and then threw it away in the road, and at the same moment he was horrified and his heart ached as if he had thrown away with this dead bird all that was goof and of value in himself.” (82) The point of Siddhartha having this dream was to realize that because of this life that he had created that he had killed the beautiful song bird that is his soul and tossed it to the side as if it were garbage. This gives Siddhartha incentive to leave the place the he has been at and go on a new path to rediscover what he had lost. The author chose to utilize the motif of the songbird because song birds are very beautiful, but fragile, and one thing out of balance can cause a domino effect and eventually the songbird will die. The songbird motif relates to the novel as a whole because it expresses how when Siddhartha became caged by greed and women how easily a beautiful life and soul can be lost when it is not allowed to be free. It is the gambling and women and the corruptness of his life that left Siddhartha feeling “dull and tired” (78) and silenced the “bright and clear inward voice, that had once awakened him and had always guided him in his finest hours” (78) and caused Siddhartha “who was only in his forties to notice gray hair” and “grown older and uglier” (80). Soon after Siddhartha notices this he runs from the pregnant Kamala in search of a relief from the corrupt, greedy, and malevolent life he had created. “He could not go back, that the life he had lived for many years was past, tasted and drained to a degree of nausea. The songbird was dead; its death, which he had dreamt about, was the bird in his own heart.” (87) Then as he reaches a river he “was completely filled with desire to let himself go and be submerged in the water” (88) to end it all and commit suicide. Then as Siddhartha pronounces the word Om and finds his bearing on his journey again he falls into a deep sleep. Then he wakes up to the sight of a monk and instantly realizes that it is his old friend Govinda. After they chat for a while and Govinda departed Siddhartha contemplates himself and realizes the potential greatness within him “that after many years of folly, you have again accomplished something, that you have heard the bird in your breast sing and followed it.” (98) A theme that the songbird motif may explore is that being trapped only causes pain and misery and one to lose themselves.
By Saphyre Kelly