Will S.IB English SLY1

09/02/08Paper II practice

Journeys, both literal and metaphorical, often play a central role in

literature. Discuss with reference to works you have studied. (Nov.

2006)

In Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, and Hunger, by Knut Hamsun,

journey plays momentous roles in the character development.

Siddhartha, the Brahmin’s son, learns the most important lesson of his

life after he abandons everything and sets out to find the underlying

truth in a clueless journey. Alternatively, the narrator wanders around

the city of Christiania, hoping to earn his place in society, yet

eventually realizing the futility in his journey. Initially in the journeys,

both characters’ lack of food consumption leads to abandonment in

the characters’ connection to people and the outside world. As both

characters wander around the forest and the city, illusion lures in as

they meet women and become eager to earn fine possessions. Finally,

Siddhartha and the narrator abandons the long journey with the hope

they gain through connection with the river or the sea; Siddhartha

discovers enlightenment as he crosses the river, and the narrator

discovers futility in the city as he takes the voyage across the sea.

Throughout the journeys, the two characters finally develop their new

perspective of viewing the world.

In the journeys, Siddhartha abandons his relationship with

people and possessions by fasting, while in Hunger the narrator loses

connection with the people in the city because of his suffering from

hunger. Siddhartha views fasting as a way to escape from the

tormenting Self, while the narrator in Hunger views hunger as the

trouble causing his hallucinations and thus impeding him from

consciousness. Siddhartha, the noble Brahmin stands up for his

definite goal in life when he leaves his title and family behind, to join

the Samanas. Patiently, Siddhartha tries to abandon his Self by

fasting. He cuts off his connection to the outside world, and finds

“torment of the onerous life cycle” (12) where he “felt thirst,

conquered thirst, [and] felt new thirst” (12). Although realizing that

fasting only alleviates him through “temporary escape from the

torment of Self” (13), the prideful young Siddhartha refuses to settle

under Gotama, the Illustrious one. “Thirsted for knowledge....[and]

full of questions” (15) Siddhartha believes that “nobody finds salvation

through teachings” (27). Consequently, Siddhartha leaves his best

friend, Govinda, who decides to become the disciple of Gotama, and

continues his path as a Samana alone. Wandering through the city,

hunger causes hallucination in the narrator of Hunger, and thus

forces the narrator to be isolated from the conventions. The narrator

is “becoming a freak from hunger in the middle of the city of

Christina!” [104]. The effects of constant sufferings of starvation

cause mind blockage in the narrator; he could not write as he used to

when he “was so much better off” [154] and hence could not find

money to purchase food. His hallucination causes him to be viewed as

insane, as the narrator starts talking to himself and repeating phrases

over and over at many points in the text. The narrator’s relationship

with Ylayali ends (and so does all his connections to the world)

because of his odd behaviors. As the narrator reveals to Ylayali that

he “can sense things…That’s all part of [his] insanity” (180), Ylayali

becomes suddenly “frightened” [182] of the narrator. The author uses

extended metaphor, comparing hunger to the dark shadow that

follows the narrator everywhere; hunger is “the same darkness was

brooding around me, the same fathomless black eternity” [80].

“Hunger was beginning to take hold of [the narrator] again” [122]; it

was never gone. Conversely, it is the hunger from fasting for

Siddhartha that brings him temporary escapes from the Self that was

never gone. Note that food (dinner with family or cocktails with

friends) often enhances social connections in the real world.

Siddhartha’s consumption of fine food during the part of life as a

wealthy businessman suggests Siddhartha at his highest point of

social involvement. The narrator, too, had access to food when he

“was so much better off” [154] with old acquaintances such as Hans

Pauli, who now “nodded and hurried past” [8] the narrator. Hence,

the lack of food consumption in both characters account for the

abandonment of the outside world.

Through the wanderings in the forest and city, Siddhartha and

the narrator in Hunger become eager to earn possessions, in order to

learn the lessons of love from women. Women in both texts play a

significant role in influencing the characters’ material and appearance

idealism. Note that the journeys of love, or infatuation, are taken by

both characters metaphorically, and contribute to the character

development of Siddhartha and the narrator. Siddhartha felt a

“longing and the stir of sex in him” (42) as soon as he comes out of

the forest and in to the village of ‘child people’. The author uses

metaphor to compare the normal village people as the ‘child people’,

who live in the chain of burden, greed, and illusions. Among the ‘child

people’, Siddhartha meets Kamala who would not teach him “the

pleasures of love” (45) until Siddhartha have “clothes…shoes…and

money” (45). Clothes, shoes, and money symbolizes the ideal

materials people believe one must have, in order to be prosperous.

Only then did Siddhartha realize the importance of possessions, and

thus swings himself in the “game of passion in which all men play”

(57) in order to earn Kamala’s love. Slowly Siddhartha is completely

“chained and burdened” (63) into the materialistic world. Siddhartha

“[is] suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of pride. He [is] a Samana

no longer”. (49). Siddhartha becomes “impatient at losses”(64) and

cannot remain without food like before. Learning the “pleasures of

love from Kamala and business from Kamaswami” (78), Siddhartha

have become one of the ‘child people’, who experience “fear of death”

(65). With women and possessions, Siddhartha is trapped with the

passion of love and greed; “content with small pleasures and yet

never really satisfied” (67). For the narrator in Hunger, it is Ylayali

who he wants to learn the lessons of love with. One night while

walking Ylayali home, the narrator quickly avoids the idea of going to

the zoo because then, Ylayali would know that he is poor. “In those

bright lights, among all the people!...my frightful clothes, my skinny

face…I had no waist coat…” [140], the narrator thought. This stream

of consciousness suggests narrator’s eagerness to look good with fine

clothes in front of his woman. The narrator takes the metaphorical

journey in the obsession with the arts of love with Yaylali, as

Siddhartha is with Kamala. The narrator content is with his first

relationship and is “fascinated…to talk with a spirited young girl

instead of with [himself]”[172]. He considers Ylayali to be the reason

he lives for, within all the misfortunes and sufferings of his life,

because she is “a tiny ray of sunlight, making [the narrator]

ecstatically warm” [157]. Hence, the narrator is determined to be

successful in earning kroners to buy fine wine for Ylayali.

Nevertheless, the narrator feels the guilt of not being able to do that

for her; “she was in love with me, the poor thing!” [226]. Through the

stream of consciousness, the narrator implies that the narrator thinks

that he, as the poor thing, does not deserve Ylayali’s love because he

doesn’t have fine clothes and shoes like “the Duke” [204] does.

Traveling across the river or the sea, both Siddhartha and the

narrator in Hunger abandon possession idealism, though the former

finally attains Nirvada, while the latter finally realizes the inevitable

sufferings in the city as he seeks for escape. The literal journey of

crossing that river and sea, accounts for the point of major changes in

the characters. As soon as Siddhartha is aware of his “entirely

senseless life” (66), he leaves the village and meets same ferryman

who once takes him into the village and said to him, “one can learn

much from a river” (40). With the ferryman’s advice, Siddhartha starts

to listen to the river, and discovers many answers in the lesson of life

within the flowing essence of water. “The river has come holy”(86) to

Siddhartha. Siddhartha realizes the importance of every element in

his life and that he has “to sin in order to live again” (78). With

ferryman’s advice, Siddhartha have become the “new Siddhartha”

(81), who “learned to listen with a still heart, with a waiting open soul,

without passion… desire… judgment… [and] opinions” (87). Never

had it been so clear to Siddhartha how his life as a Samana is similar

to his life as business man; although Siddhartha practices sacrifice in

one life and greed in the other, both lives involve sufferings because

of his arrogant pride. “Siddhartha was obsessed by his goal, each one

suffering”(109). In the river, Siddhartha finally sees the unity of

everything flowing in “continuous steam of faces” (121). Siddhartha

hears “the voice of Being of perpetual Becoming” (88) and realizes

“how closely related passion is to death” (65). Here the author

emphasizes the similarity between ‘being’ and ‘becoming’, through

the capitalization (punctuation). Everything is transitory and

connecting. Siddhartha now sees all the answers so lucidly in the

tranquil unity of the river. Through his long journey, Siddhartha

travels a complete cycle through the extremes of abandonment as a

Samana and the greed as a businessman, and finally discovers the

underlying truth of death and rebirth in the flowing river. The

narrator’s contact with the sea also marks the significant realization

of character development. Similar to that of Siddhartha, the narrator’s

relationship with his woman eventually comes to an end (only that this

time it ends not because of realization but because of the narrator’s

insanity). The narrator is forced to abandon his only relationship with

the world. He becomes more and more depressed because his “luck

was gone” [188]. Towards the end of the text, the narrator is at the

lowest point of his life. The money the chief has given him is used up,

and he is permanently chased out of the landlady’s apartment; the

narrator becomes “extremely hungry” [213]. The narrator “sank every

time, sank further, sank to [his] knees” [223], in the middle of the

busy city of Christiana. His “out-of-place pride” [211] is lowered, as

the narrator realizes that “a man can die…from too much pride”

[227]. In his hopeless journey, he finally goes against his pride by

asking the cake seller for the cake he “paid her in advance” [229]. The

narrator “almost gobbled down the last cake of them all” [230], while

“staring at the Copegoro ship”[231]. Realizing the futility of living in

the city, the narrator knows that the sea is the last and only option for

his survival. Consequently, the narrator finally departs to the sea as

he says goodbye to Christiania, yet with “brightness” [232] in his

heart. Note that the sea and river are motifs for hope in both the

Siddhartha and Hunger. The narrator views the sea as an escape from

helplessness, and Siddhartha views the river as the way to

enlightenment.

In the journeys, Siddhartha and the narrator suffers from

starvation and abandonment of the outside world. Both characters

then become obsessed in the internal journeys they take to learn the

arts and pleasures of love from women. Finally, Siddhartha and the

narrator reach the point of a change of perception and travel across

the river and the sea with hearts full of hope. Life is a journey; we

experience sufferings (starvation), illusions (infatuation), and

realizations (change) throughout our life-time-voyage in the river or

the sea, where one trip can determine the beginning, or the end.

Note: - The narrator in this essay is used in reference to the protagonist

in Hunger, by Knut Hamsun.- The page references for the quotation from Siddhartha, by

Hermann Hesse are represented by (page), and the page references for the quotation from Hunger, by Knut Hamsun are represented by [page].