( Searching For inner Direction ).
What is a Theme? To me, a theme is the main idea of the story. What the story is trying to say to us. The theme I will choose is "searching for inner direction". I feel that throughout this book Siddhartha is searching for a direction of life trying to find out who he really is. Siddhartha goes through three different phases of who he is throughout this book. When the novel begins, Siddhartha is a handsome young Brahmin distinguished in his town for his cleverness and superior bearing. As we follow his life's path, he transforms into a bearded, long-haired, loincloth-wearing ascetic, then into an well-dressed businessman and well-adapted in the ways of pleasure, and finally into a simple ferryman. .
When Siddhartha was a wealthy business man he acted very foolish and rued towards others. He learned to exercise power over people. One day he realized that he was missing something that the people had had. He was missing a sense of joy and humor, a sense of happiness because he was always mad. He finally realized that he wasn't being himself and that he was living in someone else's world.
Siddhartha began to feel fatigue because of the life he was living. As said in the book, "It was like a thin mist which got thicker day by day, each month a bit drearier, and each year a bit heavier." Siddhartha grew older, and accumulated spots and wrinkles. He finally realized that the world had caught him and that greed, pleasure and indifference was not worth it.
At one point Siddhartha wanted to commit suicide. He was tired of living his life because he realized how bad it was. He fled the city and went to the river where he was ready to kill himself. "There was nothing in the world that could attract him, nothing that could bring him pleasure or console him." As he attempted to kill himself he suddenly began to say a word and mumble it repeatedly, it was the sacred om.