Herman Hesse depicted Siddhartha as the Buddha, however, the actual founder of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama. While these .
men had many similarities three main comparisons stood out among the rest. These were their youth, their quests to find enlightenment and their success and failures.
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The youth of Siddhartha Gautama was that of a noble family. He was born and raised in Kapilavastu, in the foot hills of the Himalayas in Nepal. He always stayed at home and was destined to become a great ruler. To make sure Siddhartha would be a great king, his father isolated him from the world. He was forced to stay confined in his palace. Siddhartha lived a life that was very strict and confined. Eventually, when he was twenty-nine, he ventured beyond the palace. For the first time Siddhartha saw an old man, a sick man, a corpse being carried to the cremation grounds, and finally a holy man wandering who seemed to be at peace with himself. The Siddhartha in the story by Herman Hesse was a bit different. Siddhartha grew up by the river banks. He grew up as the son of a Brahmin so he was an upperclass citizen but Siddhartha's life was not confined to a certain space he .
was more free. Siddhartha like Gautama was unhappy. Both of them were young children who's father's were determined for they sons to become men. As Siddhartha's father says "A prince among the Brahmins"(Hesse 2). Though Siddhartha's child was full of religious aspects such as ceremonies, gatherings and meditation it was still delightful at home. His mother sang and his father as he ran through the mango groves. So both Siddhartha's were meant to be great by their families and they pushed them to become these great masters of the time.
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The quest to find spiritual enlightenment is a long and agonizing quest. Searching for years, fasting, not comprehending and being turned down. Gautama began his journey with wandering through India for six years.