The Influence Of Values In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

In today’s society, people are overwhelmed with responsibilities and desires. This means that while people are passionate about what they want, they also find themselves burdened by what others want for them, such as their parents. It becomes difficult to change the values which have been instilled into a person by the people around them, because these are the values that the person’s morals and beliefs are influenced by. While it is known that this is a fairly common practice in today’s time, it was surprising to see almost similar things happen in the novella, Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. The main character in the novel, also the namesake for the novel, Siddhartha was born into a traditional Brahmin household. Since Siddhartha was an only child, all of this family’s expectations were placed onto him from early childhood, most likely from the time that he was born.
It was difficult to break away from the beliefs and values that were instilled in him from birth. Siddhartha has traits that distinguish himself from others, such as his devotion to discover himself and the world around him. Siddhartha not only does what he feels he needs to do in order to achieve his ultimate goal of nirvana, which was something his family encouraged him to do, but he also had the courage and strength to break away from his family’s beliefs, and learn on his own that the path to enlightenment can’t be taught by others, but rather, it is something that comes from