Siddhartha and the Hero

In my opinion, Siddhartha becomes a hero throughout the book. At the beginning he had control of himself and had a family. Later on, he suffered and grieved to find "Self". He also experiences extravagance, adventure, pleasure and more. When he was younger, he had power over himself, though what was "himself"? He had not been in contact with pleasures of all kinds yet, so did he really have full control? What he was at that point was "Siddhartha", at his minimum of knowledge and he hadn't even started his quest. 

As the book goes on, Siddhartha experiences richness. He realizes that the more he had, the more he craved. As he craved, he became older and emptier of meaning. Siddhatha became envious of normal people. "And yet he envied them; the more he became like them, the more he envied them. He envied the one thing that he lacked and they had: the sense of importance which they lived their lives----their continual power to love." (pg 62)

At this point, he decides to leave everything and begin again. He goes to the forest and meditates. 

Jesus and Siddhartha share many similarities. At the beginning of their lives, they both new what they were going to do. Everyone thought that Siddhartha would become a god and Jesus was supposed to save man kind. They were both loved by everyone and tried to be the best example. Jesus did miracles and was followed by his disciples, as Siddhartha was accompanied by Govinda. They also had goals and wanted to accomplish them throughout their life. Both of these heroes also notice the messed up life normal people are having. Most of us work for our own benefit, not thinking about morality, or the effect our actions might have on others. Finally, Siddhartha and Jesus are not really able to love in its three forms. Siddhartha sais so several times: "You cannot love ether---."(pg 58)Jesus loves everyone equally, though the love he has is also stirred by disappointment towards our morals. Jesus can feel agape and philia, though not eros. Siddhartha has experienced eros and philia, though not agape. 

Siddhartha and Jesus also have many differences. First of, their goals are turned to opposite directions. While Jesus tries to save man kind of hatred and bad things, Siddhartha sees what we are doing and focuses on himself. He does not try to fix anyone because he knows it is impossible to change everyone. Jesus tries to spread his teaching and make people better, while Siddhartha does not believe that teachings based on personal knowledge, could change another persons way because they have not lived that experience.