The Change

I just read the chapter By the River. this was a very interesting and different chapter. In this chapter a lot of things happen in very little time. One of the things I found shocking from this chapter was the suicide thoughts Siddhartha had.

In page 72 when he says “he wishes passionately for oblivion, to be at rest, to be dead.” I had a connection to people who are depressed and have had thoughts of suicide. I could relate this to this topic because I think this is what they feel. They are just tired of what there life is or of what it has become. They are tired of life and they just want a rest and they think the only way of getting it is by dying. In the next pages he is saying that he wants to die. He says he should let go and not live. He keeps like this until he “wakes up” and realizes that this thought he is having are absurd that he isn’t valuing life. I think that this thought he had showed us a very different side of Siddhartha. It showed his weak side.

In pg. 72 Siddhartha had an event to which I could relate very easily. “When he falls asleep in the coconut tree he wakes up and he is very disorientated and confused.” He doesn’t know where he is or how he got there. I could relate to this because I think it happens to all of us very often. Sometimes when we are staying at our friend’s house we wake up and we don’t know where are are, you feel super confused you don’t know where you are or how you got there, then you just take a minute to think and you remember everything.

When Siddhartha and Govinda see each other they show us how much Siddhartha has changed.  We can infer that the change has been very drastic because Govinda who has been his friend for a very long time doesn’t even recognize him.

I think this was a very shocking chapter because so many things happened. It started with him having ideas of suicide and finishes with him accepting life is a cycle and there’s nothing you can do about it. 

Ennui: feeling of discontent resulting from lack of interest.

solace: comfort in trouble, misfortune, or sorrow.

Besmirched: take away apart from the honor.



carousing: drink frequently.