Salvation, Salvation, Salvation

Siddartha is a complex novel with many recurring motifs. It has a large number of ideas or symbols that repeat throughout the course of the novel. One recurring symbol is the idea of salvation, and that it can be reached by a path of true knowledge. On page 200, Hesse writes,"Now he saw it and saw that the secret voice had been right, that no teacher would ever have been able to bring about his salvation." This quote is in reference to Siddartha's relentless pursuit of knowledge that will lead him to salvation. This motif is occurring and changing his future course of events. On page 25, Hesse writes, "When you'll have found blissfulness in the forest, then come back and teach me to be blissful." His father tells Siddartha that he should go into the Samanas care and find true knowledge. Then, he says he should come back and teach him. This is the beginning of Siddartha's long search for knowledge and salvation. "I, Siddhartha, find only a short numbing of the senses in my exercises and meditations and that I am just as far removed from wisdom, from salvation, as a child in the mother's womb" (Hesse 37). This is when Siddartha realizes that he is not reaching salvation through the path of the Samanas, and he wants to move on. This shapes his future and the course of events in the novel, making salvation a central topic throughout the story.