Choosing Danger in Siddhartha

Is it better to allow oneself to be subjugated by others rather than follow a dangerous path? This is a very difficult question to answer, since both choices can be detrimental, if a person chooses to allow themselves to be subjugated by others, they’ll have no freedom. Choosing this means they’ll never be able to make their own decisions. However, if they choose the dangerous path, they might be hurt more than if they allow themselves to be subjugated by others.

Yet, some may argue that this allows a person freedom, and that is more important than the possible safety that comes with subjugation. Also, it needs to be taken into consideration that allowing subjugation may be more detrimental than the dangerous path, due to these facts, the dangerous path seems better than the path involving subjugation. This is proven in Herman hesse’s novel siddhartha in Siddhartha, the aforementioned choices are apparent in the first few pages of the novel.

The text states that “[Siddhartha] had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace, satisfy and suffice him.” (Siddhartha 3) In the quote, Siddhartha begins to realize that the life he’s living is not the one he wants for himself. He asks his father for permission to leave him and join the Samanas (a group of people who dedicate their lives to try and find inner peace) in order to find the life that he wants to live, and ultimately find inner peace.

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Instead of accepting this, his father refuses to grant him permission. This is because Siddhartha‘s father doesn’t want him to go down a dangerous path, his father is worried that siddhartha will spend the rest of his life with the Samanas even though he might never find happiness with them.

His father doesn’t want that for his son, The reason he doesn’t give Siddhartha permission isn’t to deprive him of happiness rather, it’s to preserve his happiness. Siddhartha’s father is being overprotective of him because he doesn’t want Siddhartha to hurt himself on the path to happiness. This is a trait that most parents have; they want their children to be happy and so they don’t let them step outside of certain boundaries. However, when Siddhartha‘s father realizes that Siddhartha isn’t happy at home (which happens when his father shows how dedicated Siddhartha is to joining the Samanas), Siddhartha gives his son permission. Even as he lets Siddhartha go, he proves that he loves Siddhartha by telling him to come back whether or not he finds happiness.

The path that Siddhartha’s father allows him to travel on may be filled with danger, but he realizes that sometimes the dangerous path is the only path that leads to happiness Siddhartha’s father realizes then that if he had not given Siddhartha permission to leave, Siddhartha wouldn‘t have left. Instead, he would’ve stayed home, becoming the person that Siddhartha‘s father originally wanted him to be. This shows Siddhartha’s father that not allowing Siddhartha to make his own choices will prove detrimental to his happiness because if he isn’t allowed to make his own choices he won’t be able to find his own happiness. Siddhartha doesn’t want to become a complacent, unhappy wealthy merchant. In fact, Siddhartha loathes normalcy and wants nothing to do with it. Siddhartha’s only goal is inner peace and happiness.

This is shown in a quote from Siddhartha Months after joining the Samanas, Siddhartha entered town with them and “…saw merchants trading, princes hunting, mourners wailing for their dead, whores offering themselves, physicians trying to help the sick, priests determining the most suitable day for seeding, lovers loving, mothers nursing their children~and all of this was not worthy of one look from his eye, it all lied, it all stank, it all stank of lies, it all pretended to be meaningful andjoyful and beautiful, and it all was just concealed putrefaction. The world tasted bitter. Life was torture” (Siddhartha 15) In this quote, Siddhartha realizes that had he not joined the Samanas, he’d become the thing he loathes the most; a normal person. The reason he loathes these people this much is because they are prevaricating the truth about their sad, unfulfilled lives, Instead of reflecting on their life like Siddhartha, they continue living without thinking about improving or fulfilling their life.

Due to this, Siddhartha is happy that he joined the Samanas Although being a Samana involves physical pain, Siddhartha believes that he’s on the path to mental and spiritual happiness. The idea that a dangerous path can lead to happiness is similarly illustrated in The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, In this novel, the main character, Celie, is subjugated by her uncle (Alphonso) and her husband. They subject her to years of abuse and rape, Although this isn’t her fault, she does let it perpetuate by not taking the dangerous path (in this novel, that path is attempting to leave her abusers), In the beginning of the novel, she reveals that the children she‘s given birth to have been taken away by her uncle. This leaves emotional scars on her, as it is constant mental torture for her to not know whether or not her children are alive or dead, Her torture is only increased when she’s forced to care for Mr. 7’s children. In a letter to God, Celie says “…I don’t feel nothing for them.

Patting l-Iarpo back not even like patting a dog, it is more like patting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe. Anyhow, they don’t love me neither, no matter how good I is.” The reason that she has no feelings regarding Mr, —’s children is that she never had a chance to spend Lime with her own children. She had to endure the thought that at any moment, something could’ve happened to her children, and she wouldn’t know about it. This makes her extremely sad, but I believe that this sadness is a reason for her complacency. She doesn’t leave Mr. because she essentially has nothing to lose. It’s only when she meets people that give her something to fight for that she realizes that the dangerous path of running away is a better danger than the path of subjugation. Shug Avery was one of the most important factors in this decision because she shows Celie that the world is beautiful and if she leaves, she can see that.

Sofia is another person who has influenced Celie’s decision. Sofia teaches Celie to be strong and fight back against any abuses men try to throw her way, Although Mr. may kill her for attempting to leave him, she realizes that she’d rather take the chance than stay with him and ensure her constant abuse. In the end, Celie leaves her past of subjugation behind and goes on to find happiness both in meeting up with her sister and children and in a relationship with Shug Avery years of abuse and sadness, she finally ends the subjugation and leaves Mr, finding her children and her sister, and starting a relationship with Shug Avery. Once again, the dangerous path has ended up being the better one taken. Although it’s been established that the dangerous path is the better one taken, some may change their minds after the example presented in Albert Camus’ The Stranger.

In this example, the main character, Mersault is so apathetic that he allows himself to be subjugated by others. When his girlfriend Marie asks him if he wants them to get married, he says “wit didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her, I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn‘t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her. ‘So why marry me, then?‘ she said I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married”.  This shows Mersault’s apathy toward life. Marriage was treated as a sacred thing that entails a huge commitment back then, yet Mersault is willing to get married to a woman he just recently started dating.

This proves that Mersault is totally apathetic towards everything, and doesn’t care what he does Simply put, Mersault will do anything for anyone, whether it is marrying someone or helping someone get revenge on their girlfriend. The first time in the novel that Mersault takes his life into his own hands is when he murders the Arab. This is one of the few things that Mersault takes initiative to do, and although it leads to his death, it also leads to his happiness. In the end, Mersault thinks “I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again, for everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate“. In the end, Mersault feels at ease with the idea that he’s going to be executed.

The dangerous path that he followed by making his own choice (murdering the Arab) and not lying in court has brought him final happinessi Similar to Siddhartha, Mersault experiences happiness at the end of his life by taking a dangerous pathr. While they are hurt by this path, they end up happy at the end because they’ve made their own choices and have chosen their own fate. This idea of choosing one’s own fate is an important one, and it is the reason that choosing the dangerous path over subjugation brings one happiness. People with the choice to run their own life are often happier because they are allowed to choose for themselves. With the dangerous path, there is freedom, and with that freedom, there is hope, hope for the future, hope for the past, and hope for the present in which only a person choosing the dangerous path can experience. Nothing is more important than one’s happiness, and with subjugation, this happiness can never be found. It is only with the dangerous path that one can finally experience true happiness and die happy.