Siddhartha: The Book and the Research Proposal

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The book speaks to a kind of Western application of generalized Buddhist principles and maxims: the quest for enlightenment, the lack of satisfaction to be had from a life of material pleasures, and the importance of the individual in achieving wisdom divorced from the teachings of others. Though the film lacks much of the artistic style of the novel, it nevertheless manages to provide audiences with a loose sense of the same meaning that Hesse outlined originally in the novel. Perhaps if the film had managed to present that message and the overall narrative with more than a "plodding piety," the overall impact of the film might have achieved a similar weight as the novel still manages (Canby).

As for following the life of the Buddha, neither the book nor the film manages this save but in the most cursory fashion. Like the novel's Siddhartha, the Buddha did leave his life of earthly pleasures in order to seek enlightenment and spiritual satisfaction. Both the Buddha and Siddhartha ultimately achieved this enlightenment, but beyond general thematic similarities Hesse's story is not an historical account of the Buddha's life. Of course, this should not matter in the least.

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Rather than an historical adherence to the life of the Buddha through Siddhartha, Hesse instead traces a philosophical adherence that transfers key elements of the transformative life of the Buddha into events that fictitiously occurred in Siddhartha's life as well.

In the final analysis, the book far surpasses the film in terms of artistic merit and literary execution. The film has little more than a shadow of the novel itself, which "is the embodiment of one of the oldest maxims that defines great literature: saying the most in the least amount of words [...] it is this remarkable poetic compression that is at the heart of the book's greatness; and a style rarely used (Schneider). Hesse's skill is illustrated in his ability to convey great philosophical and spiritual concepts in confined literary quarters and expands on the characters and their internal dilemmas, especially of Siddhartha, in an economy of words that nonetheless speaks volumes for the motivations of each character. It is this literary depth that makes the book a far greater vessel for Hesse's narrative than the later film.

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