Siddhartha
Part One
Chapter 1: The Brahmin’s Son
1. What is the significance of the name Siddhartha?
2. How did Govinda feel about the average Brahmin?
3. What was Siddhartha searching for when he left home to join the Samanas?
4. How important are mother-son and father-son relationships to the development of the novel? Describe
both relationships.
5. During the years Hesse was writing Siddhartha (1919-1922), Mahatma Gandhi was leading the first of
several nonviolent resistance movements against British rule in India. There any elements in the first
chapter of this novel that suggest Hesse may have been influenced by Gandhain tactics, explain.
Ch. 2: With the Samanas
1. What can you infer about government in India during the time of the novel?
2. Why did Siddhartha say that he could have learned more from the inns with their prostitutes than from
the Samanas?
3. How did the eldest Samana react to the Buddha when rumors of this new holy man reached him in the
forest?
4. Compare and contrast Siddhartha’s departure from the Samanas with his departure from his father.
Ch 3: Gotama
1. How did Siddhartha recognize the Buddha when they first met?
2. How much of Buddhist doctrine did Hesse describe in the novel?
3. How did Siddhartha and Govinda separate to go their own ways?
4. What flaw did Siddhartha discover in the teachings of the Buddha?
5. Why didn’t Siddhartha become a follower of the Buddha?
Ch 4: Awakening
1. When did Siddhartha realize that he was no longer a youth?
2. After leaving the Buddhists, Siddhartha admitted that he still did not know anything about himself.
What reason did he give for his failure?
3. How did Siddhartha feel after he came to the conclusion that he must learn from himself?
Part Two: Ch 5 Kamala
1. At the beginning of Part Two, Siddhartha began truly looking at the “phenomenal” (or temporal) world
for the first time. Previously, he said, he had regarded the everyday world of nature as an illusive veil.
What did he mean?
2. How do you interpret the dream Siddhartha had at the ferryman’s hut just after leaving the Buddhists?
3. Why did Siddhartha reject the overtures of the young girl and seek instead the company of Kamala, the
prostitute?
4. Why did Siddhartha cut off his beard before presenting himself to Kamala?
5. In what ways did Siddhartha reveal his naïveté during his initial conversation with Kamala?
6. What is the significance of the names Kamala and Kamaswami?
7. After leaving the Buddhists, Siddhartha said he no longer felt the need for teachers. Yet he immediately
became the student of two new teachers, Kamala and Kamaswami. How can this apparent contradiction
be resolved?
Ch 6: Amongst the People
1. How did Siddhartha distinguish between lacking possessions and being in need? Was Siddhartha
completely truthful when he told Kamaswami that he was not in need?
2. Was Siddhartha a good businessman? Explain.
3. What values did Siddhartha derive from his experience as a businessman?
Chapter 7: Samsara
1. What is the meaning of Hesse’s simile about the potter’s wheel?
2. In what ways are wealth and riches made to seem contemptuous goals for one’s life?
3. What interpretation was given to Siddhartha’s dream that Kamala’s rare songbird died?
4. Throughout this chapter and occasionally in other chapters, Siddhartha referred to the ordinary people
of the world as children. What did he mean?
5. Why is this chapter entitled “Samsara”? What does this term mean in Hinduism and Buddhism and
how is it symbolized?
Ch 8: By the River
1. Why did Siddhartha want to kill himself?
2. Why did Siddhartha eventually reject suicide?
3. In the development of the novel, what purpose was served by the episode which first united Siddhartha
and Govinda by the river?
4. Why did Siddhartha feel so exuberant when he awoke from his long sleep by the river?
Ch 9: The Ferryman
1. What is the significance of Vasudeva’s occupation as ferryman?
2. In what sense did Vasudeva become Siddhartha’s guru?
3. Why did Vasudeva and Siddhartha begin to look like one another?
4. What was the significance of Kamala’s accidental meeting with Siddhartha?
5. How did Kamala know that Siddhartha had found peace?
Ch 10-The Son
1. Why did the river laugh when Vasudeva asked what to do about Siddhartha’s son?
2. What human emotion did Siddhartha discover as a result of his experience with his son? Explain.
3. Why did the son say he would rather become a thief and murderer than be like his father?
4. What was the significance of Siddhartha’s return to Kamala’s garden in search of his runaway son?
5. Why did Hesse describe Siddhartha’s emotional anguish over his son as a wound?
Ch 11- Om
1. After the experience with his son, how did Siddhartha change his views of ordinary people?
2. How did Siddhartha differentiate between the wise man and the ordinary man? How did he define
wisdom?
3. How was Siddhartha’s wound eventually healed?
4. How significant was Vasudeva to Siddhartha’s quest?
5. What did Vasudeva mean when he said he was going into the woods, into the unity of all things?
Ch 12- Govinda
1. Compare Govinda’s first and second reunions with Siddhartha.
2. What did Siddhartha mean when he said that Govinda was too much the seeker?
3. What did Siddhartha tell Govinda when Govinda asked him to pass on the knowledge, doctrine, or
beliefs that guided his life?
4. How did Govinda react to Siddhartha’s thoughts about life? Explain.
5. What is the significance of all the forms and faces Govinda saw when he kissed Siddhartha on the
forehead?