Outside Reading #1 Study Guide
Instructions: Either print this document and complete it as you read OR save this document and type your answers after reading each chapter. Please begin your answer on the line below the question, not on the same line at the end of the question.
How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, chapters 13 & 15
Summarize Foster’s main point for each chapter into a sentence or two.
Ch. 13, “It’s All Political”:
Ch. 15, “Flights of Fancy”:
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - Study Guide
Part One, Chapter 1, The Brahmin's Son
In chapter 1 several terms refer to Hindu religious thought. Since they are important to the story that follows, you will need to define them by looking them up in a dictionary. The context of the story gives you clues to their meanings, but not full definitions.
Directions: Write the definition of each term (1-7), using a standard dictionary as your reference. Then use chapter 1 to answer questions 8-15.
1. Brahman / Brahmin:
2. Brahma:
3. Om:
4. Atman:
5. Ablutions:
6. The Upanishad:
7. The Veda:
8. What opinion does Siddhartha have of the average Brahmin?
9. Briefly describe Siddhartha.
For what two things does Govinda, his best friend, admire him?
10. Why is Siddhartha disillusioned with performing the ritual of ablution?
11. What did the wise men teach about the Self?
12. What did the Upanishads teach about one's condition during sleep?
13. What does Siddhartha conclude about finding peace?
14. How does Siddhartha test his father's patience and wisdom at the end of the chapter?
How does his father show both patience and wisdom in dealing with his son?
Part One, Chapter 2, With the Samanas
Since the Samanas are not described by most secondary sources, the textual descriptions are the basis for the questions that follow.
1. What changes in lifestyle does Siddhartha undergo when he joins the Samanas?
2. What conclusions does he draw about life after seeing people from the Samana point of view?
3. List at least five things Siddhartha learns to do while he is with the Samanas.
4. After he has practiced self-denial for some time, what disappointment does he experience?
5. What conclusion does he draw about meditation and self-denial?
6. List four things that Siddhartha and Govinda learn about the Gotama Buddha.
a.
b.
c.
d.
7. How does Siddhartha use what he has learned from the Samanas to win the consent of the leader?
8. What is Govinda's reaction to Siddhartha's action?
Part 1, Chapter 3, Gotama
The chapter on Buddhism presents its beliefs indirectly, for in it we read of monks carrying on the activities of their faith. The author describes The Illustrious One as teaching such things as the four main points and the Eightfold Path without explaining what those are. One must find out those beliefs by looking to secondary sources. There is, of course, much more to Buddhist belief and practice than one finds in this chapter because the author has not designed a treatise on any one faith. Instead he has created the young man Siddhartha to sample what life has to offer him as he seeks to know himself and his place in the world. Since we, however, have only fragmentary knowledge of Eastern religions, we need to put some pieces of the puzzle together to see what Siddhartha learns from the Gotama Buddha.
1. How do the monks discipline themselves with regard to food and right thinking? How do they learn the beliefs of Buddhism?
2. Gotama Buddha is the full name of the founder of Buddhism, a man who is believed to have found the way of peace. Describe him as Siddhartha saw him.
3. Look up Buddhism in an encyclopedia or the phrase Four Noble Truths in an unabridged dictionary. List the four points that Siddhartha says Gotama taught.
a.
b.
c.
d.
4. Continue to read about Buddhism in an encyclopedia or find Eightfold Path in an unabridged dictionary. What are the eight practices that are supposed to lead one to enlightenment?
a. e.
b. f.
c. g.
d. h.
5. Explain in your own words the flaw that Siddhartha finds in the Buddhist beliefs.
6. What is Gotama's reply to Siddhartha about what seems to be a flaw?
7. What conclusion does Siddhartha draw that causes him to leave Gotama and the monks?
8. Siddhartha feels that he has awakened. How has his view of the world, his home, and himself changed?
Part Two, Chapter 1, Kamala
Siddhartha shows an interesting contrast. Like all young people, he feels that he must experience life in all its facets before he can find who he is and choose the path his life will take. In contrast, he chooses carefully with whom he will share those experiences. Like King Solomon in the Bible, he enjoys the art of making love, but, unlike Solomon, he feels that he can learn all that he needs to know from one woman and does not feel that he can commit himself even to her. He has, of course, an amazing ability to fall into the right situations and to meet just the right people. His is truly a storybook experience.
1. List two observations Siddhartha makes that show that this is a time of awakening.
a.
b.
2. What does he realize that he must do to find the Self he is seeking?
3. What exchange does Siddhartha make in his dream? Notice that it takes place by the river.
4. What is the ferryman's philosophy about life and people? Where did he learn it?
5. What changes does he make after he first sees Kamala?
6. What further changes does Kamala tell him he must make if he wants her?
7. How does Kamala tell Siddhartha to act toward Kamaswami? Why?
8. Compare Siddhartha's explanation of his being able to succeed with the one quality that Kamala says he also possesses. Then give a modern example that shows that Kamala is correct in reminding Siddhartha of the importance of that one quality.
Part Two, Chapter 3, Samsara
1. Even while Siddhartha gains wealth and lives a life of pleasure, what is the undercurrent that causes him to be different from other people?
2. What habits has he retained from his home life and early experiences?
3. What makes him realize that he has become the victim of greed, or avarice?
4. He has a second dream. What happens in the second one? How is the result similar to his first dream?
5. What does he feel has resulted from his trying to be like everyone else and playing the games other people play?
6. Kamala released the bird before it had time to die as Siddhartha's dream bird had done. What is the significance of her action? How has her pregnancy created a potential cage for Siddhartha? Only the ensuing action can show whether he becomes caged by his pursuit of the love game.
7. How has his code of values changed by the end of that chapter?
Part Two, Chapter 4, By the River
1. In your own words define what you understand to be the meaning of the term "dark night of the soul."
2. Write the dictionary meaning of samsara. What does it imply about the permanence of life? About misery and happiness? Who can escape the cycle? What happens to most people?
3. What application did Siddhartha make of his dream? What desire comes to him as a result?
4. How does he react to seeing the river?
5. What rescues him? What realization about life and death comes to him?
6. As Siddhartha converses with Govinda, he says the following: "The world of appearances is transitory, the style of our clothes and hair is extremely transitory. Our hair and our bodies are themselves transitory." In a sentence summarize what he is saying about the things we are very concerned about most of the time. What does he imply to be of greater value than these things?
7. After Govinda leaves, what does Siddhartha realize about his capability to love?
8. Why does Siddhartha feel that he is really an ordinary person? Why is this important?
9. In reviewing his life Siddhartha enumerates what he has valued at various times. List them.
a. As a boy
b. As a youth
c. As a young man
d. As a grown man
What change does he detect that he has made?
10. What has repeating the syllable Om done for him? In what has he found satisfaction?
11. List five things he has been able to put behind himself in his pursuit for peace?
12. Explain the idea he has mentioned before: "No teacher could have brought him salvation."
13. The last sentence in this chapter states a new relationship between Siddhartha and the river, quite different from that seen when he wanted to drown himself in it. Explain this relationship in your own words.
Part Two, Chapter 5, The Ferryman
1. Vasudeva says he has learned many lessons from the river. List five things that Vasudeva says that Siddhartha will learn from the river, not from a human teacher.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
2. What gift does the last illness of the Gotama Buddha bring to Siddhartha?
3. Hesse describes the last moments of Kamala's life thus: "Siddhartha read the pain on her mouth, in her pallid face. He read it quietly, attentively, waiting, sharing her pain." Kamala notices the changed look that Siddhartha has. What capacity does he now possess that he did not have when she knew him before? How is that capacity tested right after Kamala's death?
4. Another quotation about her death is the following: "He felt more acutely the indestructibleness of life, the eternity of every moment." What Hindu belief comes to the surface of his consciousness in that moment?
5. Express in your own words how Siddhartha defines riches at the close of this chapter.
6. One of the best known symbolic uses of the river is found in Huckleberry Finn. There it has been said to stand both for freedom and for the journey to discovery, as of social ills. In many literary pieces it has also symbolized renewal, cleansing, and rebirth. Which of these symbolic uses of the river do you detect in Siddhartha?
Part Two, Chapter 6, The Son
1. Describe the young Siddhartha.
2. Contrast the father the young Siddhartha has expected to the one that he has found.
3. Notice that Siddhartha's love for his son has two facets. In what way is it an ideal parental love? How is it also selfish?
4. Vasudeva is the ideal friend standing on the outside to view the situation objectively. List at least four sound pieces of advice that he gives to Siddhartha.
5. Notice how Vasudeva raises Siddhartha's awareness of the situation. Instead of lecturing him, what sound method of instruction does he use?
6. Finally Siddhartha decides not to pursue his son further. What causes him to come to his senses?
7. How does Vasudeva show himself to be a true friend at the end of this chapter?
Part Two, Chapter 7, Om
1. Why is it important that Siddhartha feels that he is like ordinary people?
2. Explain what you understand the following passage to mean:
Within Siddhartha there slowly grew and ripened the knowledge of what wisdom really was and the goal of his long seeking. It was nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life. This thought matured in him slowly, and it was reflected in Vasudeva's old childlike face: harmony, knowledge of the eternal perfection of the world, and unity.
3. After Siddhartha realizes that harmony and unity still exist in the world, he is still not at peace; the narrator explains, "But the wound still smarted." Read the rest of that paragraph. What does that tell you about the course through which sorrow must go to be healed?
4. Whose face does Siddhartha see in the water? What thoughts come to him then?
5. Siddhartha comes to the conclusion that life runs in cycles, and, therefore, he must accept the estrangement from his son. What is his reaction to that revelation?
6. Still later he watches Vasudeva and observes "that this motionless man was the river itself, that he was God Himself, that he was eternity itself." What do you understand that passage to mean?
7. As he and Vasudeva sit by the river, Siddhartha hears the river laughing; then he sees in it his father, himself, and his son. What conclusion does he come to about people as a result of that revelation?
8. As he continues to look at the river, he sees other mental pictures. Who are these people? What is their relationship to Siddhartha?
9. Next he sees the river in its various forms: as a body of water, as vapor, and as rain. To what does he compare these forms?
10. Explain the meaning of the conclusion to which he comes, as seen in this passage:
He could no longer distinguish the different voices—the merry voice from the weeping voice, the childish voice from the manly voice. They all belonged to each other: the lament of those who yearn, the laughter of the wise, the cry of indignation and the groan of the dying.
11. What mistake does he see being made by those who do not see this unity in life?
12. What one word defines Om for him? Experts tell us that Om connotes for the Hindu the three gods—Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Compare this idea with one facet of Jewish and Christian belief. Although religions differ in many respects, it is interesting to notice that certain beliefs resemble each other.
Part Two, Chapter 8, Govinda
Much of this last chapter seems esoteric because it states a philosophy of life developed by a person who has given much thought to the relationship between man and the universe. Most young people are too busy building relationships and making plans for the future to relate directly to Siddhartha's experience at the close of his life. Yet the train of thought can be interesting to untangle if the whole is divided into individual strands that are tied into one conclusion.