Just as Siddhartha has developed in character and learned about what life means to him through his enlightenment in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, light has been shone down upon my life, giving me a better understanding of what my place is in the universe as a person, being part of a complex of people functioning in their everyday lives just as I have.
Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, teaches Siddhartha the art of love subsequent his abandoning of Gotama and Govinda. Because of Kamala's policy of only "catering" to the wealthy, she does not accept the non-materialistic Samanas, which include Siddhartha, as visitors. Instead, she familiarizes Siddhartha with a merchant named Kamaswami, so that he may earn the money, making him creditable. Throughout the duration of Kamala and Siddhartha's relationship, Siddhartha learns a lot about himself and the way love works. Both him and Kamala experience true love for the first time. Once Siddhartha departs from the town of his love, Kamala refuses to be hospitable to anyone again because of her new found pregnancy. Years later, when Kamala is traveling with her son to find Gotama Buddha, she is suddenly bitten by a snake when looking to sit down and rest on her journey. Kamala is then rushed to the ferryman's hut where Siddhartha had been living, and she dies in right in front of him. This is symbolic because she was in search of Buddha, and when she saw Siddhartha, Kamala felt her mission was accomplished was over by being in the presence of someone equal to the Buddha.
Vasudeva is a very caring and helpful character, who always puts others" needs before his own. For example, he carries Siddhartha across the symbolic river which plays a big symbolic part in the novel, twice. The first time when Siddhartha's destination was Samsara and the next time away Samsara. Vasudeva also ends up taking Siddhartha into his residence as his apprentice ferryman, where he is eventually reunited with his dying Kamala, so that Siddhartha may stay with him by the river, learning first hand the secrets of the river.
