Siddhartha Dialectical Journal

Siddhartha Dialectical Journal

12 GHP and AP

Mr. Neff

Directions: For each chapter, identify three (3) quotes and write a reaction paragraph to the quote. Note the following requirements:

One (1) of the quotes should be one that you personally relate to in some way, and your reaction paragraph should elaborate on this personal connection.

One (1) of the quotes should be selected based on the Authorial Devices section of your Marginal Notes handout.

One (1) of the quotes should be for any reason of your choice (Either of the two already mentioned above, another category from the Marginal Notes handout, or a reason and reaction of your own choice)

Examples:

Quote (include page #)Reaction

"Slowly the thinker went on his way and asked himself: What is it that you wanted to learn from teachings and teachers, and although they taught you much, what was it they could not teach you? And he thought: It was the Self, the character and nature of which I wished to learn (31).I have a personal interest in this quote simply because it reminds me of an important fact: the teacher, ironically, cannot teach others the most important lessons of life. Instead, a teachers best role is to lead people towards their own answers, rather than to force his personal answers on others.

"At that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever. That was the last shudder of his awakening, the last pains of birth."The references to awakening and birth call attention to this moment as a moment of epiphany for Siddhartha: a moment of self-realization. This is fitting, knowing that the novel is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story.

"...the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry...the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future...Siddhartha spoke with delight. This discovery had made him very happy. Was then not all sorrow in time, all self-torment and fear in time? Were not all difficulties and evil in the world conquered as soon as one conquered time, as soon as one dispelled time?"While this passage includes the books most important symbol, the river, I like it simply because its an example of beautiful writing. It contains an ultimately reassuring idea: no matter what suffering we may go through, its representative of just a moment in time, and that moment eventually shifts. Any momentgood or badis fleeting.