1. From the point of view of the book, what is the best way for a parent to treat his child? Do you agree?
2. Is there evidence that Siddhartha loves his son (Siddhartha Jr.) quite a lot?
3. Assuming that the answer to #2 is correct, that Siddhartha loves his son quite a lot, is it strange that Siddhartha should fall into the samsara of love for a specific human at this point, or not strange? Explain.
4. If you were Siddhartha's son, would you rather stay with Siddhartha and Vasadevu, or be sent away to a boarding school so that you could be with other young people? Why?
5. Can gentleness and patience ever be negative qualities, in your opinion? Why or why not?
12 comments:
Sang Eun
4. If you were Siddhartha's son, would you rather stay with Siddhartha and Vasadevu, or be sent away to a boarding school so that you could be with other young people? Why?
He was bored with this father, who kept him captive in his wretched hut, he was bored with him and with his way of responding to every rotten act with smiles, to every insult with frindliness, to every nastiness with kindness - that was the most hateful cunning of that old conniver. The boy would much rather have been threatened by him, mistreated by him.
If I were Siddhartha's son, at first I would have been happy with that kind of father, because I can do whatever I would want to do and not get scolded. However, as the time goes on, I might also feel the same way as the Siddhartha's son had felt. I would get bored of my father, because whatever I do, he doesn't get angry or frustrated, but smiles. Smiling will make me feel irritated and I would get curious to know what my father's real feeling is. Thus, I would rather want to be sent away to a boarding school and be with other young people than living with Siddhartha and Vasadevu.
Answer to #2
"...Siddhartha began to realize that his son had brought not peace and happiness to him but sorrow and suffering. Still, he loved him, and he cherished the sorrow and suffering of love more than joy and happiness without the boy."
Of course Siddhartha loves his son!
Siddhartha Jr. is spoiled, arrogant and bratty, and is always acting angrily toward his father. Eventually the young boy runs away with Siddhartha's and Vasadevu's money. And yet Siddhartha still loves him. Why?
It seems kind of strange that no matter how much Siddhartha Jr. rejects him, his father always comes back with open arms, and an open heart. Siddhartha Jr. may have been very upset by Kamala's death, but the treatment of his father is cruel and unprovoked. Perhaps Siddhartha (the father) wants to atone for his absence and make a better life for his son in their current position, or, perhaps as well, he just wants a son to love.
2. Is there evidence that Siddhartha loves his son (Siddhartha Jr.) quite a lot?
Oh gosh, yes! There is SO MUCH evidence that Siddhartha loves his son.
On the first page of the chapter, page 103, it says, "He did not force him, he did some chores for him, he always picked out the best morsel for him." Siddhartha says that he does it because he understands the boy's sorrow over his mother's death, but I think it is also because his love is beginning to bloom. He is kind to the boy because he reminds him of Kamala and because he is the product of their love.
Also, throughout the chapter, Siddhartha thinks about how his love is not returned to him by his son. On page 104 it says, "...Siddhartha waited for his son to understand, to accept his love, perhaps love him back." This shows his yearning for his son to love him back. He wants to have that father-son relationship that other have.
On page 105, Vasudeva is talking to Siddhartha about his relationship with his son. He says, "Do you not bind him in bonds with your love?"
I think there is plenty of evidence that Siddhartha loves his son, loves him deeply, like when he builds a raft to not only get the boat back but also to chase after his son, to at least say good bye. He loves his son, appreciates his love for him as real, but knows it plagues him and takes him away from the ultimate knowlege of his being and the true happiness he's always searching for.
However, there is also evidence on every page it seems that his son does not love him back, even hates him, like when he tells him, yells it to him on page 108: "I hate you, you're not my father, even if you were my mother's lover ten times over!" Then, he runs away so he will never have to be with his father again. There is plenty of evidence in this chapter showing that Siddharths loves his son, but that his son doesn't love him in return.
Heather Rhee
Q5
A
Gentleness and patience are known as a good qualities. Gentleness is a quality which makes people to be nice to everyone all the time. People who are gentle creats a comfortable feelings. Patience is a quality which helps people to wait and understand others in a calm way.
I always thought that these qualities are good to have. However, I think too much patience and gentleness can make a bad result.
For example, I had a friend who was really patient. She had a neighbor who always made a lot of noises. Because of her patience, she never asked them to stop and just waited until the get quite. The noises from the neighbors made her to stay up late at night and she had a strssful time. I thought she should go and ask the people to stop without waiting by herself. They would have stopped if she had asked them.
Also, sometimes people need to be stern. All people are not perfect. This is why we sometimes make mistakes and misbehave. In order to avoid it to happen again, people give lessons. This is why teachers and parents give punishments to their students and children when they do something wrong. If every people is gentle all the time, no one will worry about their behaviors because they know that people will be nice to them anyways.
Thus, sometimes patience and gentleness can be a bad thing.
#5
Can gentleness and patience ever be negative qualities in your opinion? Why or why not?
I think gentleness and patience being good or bad all depends on the situation. For example being gentle and patient can be good if paired up with wisdom. It would not be good if paired with ignorance. I don't think a person could ever be considered a bad person if they had these traits but, epecialy in a place of power, strictness and harsh consequences are sometimes called for and if you are too gentle or patient it can be considerd bad for others.
5. Can gentleness and patience ever be negative qualities, in your opinion? Why or why not?
The word patience is an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. While gentleness is the state of being kind, amiable, not rough, respectful and so on. I also agree with Heather and Savannah that there are "two" sides to these words. A good side, and a bad side. The good sides of these words I believe is stronger than the other "bad" side. These actions and state of beings give the good qualities of being liked by many people and earning much respect, by the way one acts and carries themselves. Possessing these qualities would make a lot of people cooperate easily with you, since you are patient and gentle towards feelings and maybe even in physical behavior. No person would want to interact or work with someone who is impatient and not caring towards others.
Now on the other hand possessing only these features could be a very bad thing. To me, it seems that they would allow people to walk all over you if you are too kind and patient and don't stick up for yourself. For example, in the olden days if people were patient and gentle with civil rights with african americans, there might have never been change. It is sort of necessary for a person to maintain some "bad" qualities to give people backbones to their life and how they control it. No one would want other people to control their life, and if someone wants something that might affect their life in a dramatic way, they would no be patient for the outcome of their opinions and others. People might not even take you seriously if you are so nice all the time. Although, if you do not have any patience or gentleness, this is another whole idea. This would not be wanted at all. You would never get your way, no one would want to be around you, and people might even be afraid of you and what you might do...
Now if you possess these qualities along with others, you can still maintain your kindness with others yet still be able to get what you want in the end and still have friends. This can work to your advantage because you can be nice and gain people's trust and push forward with ideas and friendships for the future.
4. If you were Siddhartha's son, would you rather stay with Siddhartha and Vasadevu, or be sent away to a boarding school so that you could be with other young people? Why?
If I was Siddhartha's son, I would like to go to the boarding school so that I could be with other young people like me (Siddhartha's son). In the book, Siddhartha's son after Kamala's death, is in a really bad position, for him, he just lost his mother and he got a father whom he has never seen. Also he is in a place where his mother died and the place where he is not used to. So, being with the people of his age and and learning from them is better than being with father who doesn't know a lot about him and who just wants to protect his son from getting hurt. I think Siddhartha is trying to keep his son safe and out of trouble but it's keeping his son from getting better and making him worse.
Question #5
Can gentleness and patience ever be negative qualities, in your opinion? Why or why not?
I think that too much of anything can be a negative quality. This idea that I believe is evident in The Doctrine of The Mean which we studied in history. You do not want multitudes of anything including emotions or insufficiency of anything. Being too gentle or too patient can very easily make you vaunrable.
5. Can gentleness and patience ever be negative qualities, in your opinion? Why or why not?
From my opinion, gentleness and patience can be negative qualities. The reason why is that in the book of Siddartha, Siddartha tries so hard to be nice, gentle, patience, and love his son, but his son does not like the way he lives his life. So instead of accepting those gentleness and patience, he runs away.
4. If you were Siddhartha's son, would you rather stay with Siddhartha and Vasadevu, or be sent away to a boarding school so that you could be with other young people? Why?
If i were Siddartha's son I would rather stay with Siddartha and Vasadevu. I would be so grief stricken that my mother had died that I would need someone strong to hold onto and help me get through that tough time, and preferably someone close and part of my family. And I feel that Siddartha makes that qualification. Siddartha is a strong person and he knows how to handle the worse because he has been through it all and back. I would have great comfort in him and he would always be there for me. And I feel that since the father and son haven't known each other for that long that it would quite interesting getting to know each other and being around each other. Siddartha's son had never had a fatherly figure and this would be a great experience for him. He would probably turn out as a better person too, knowing his father and having him teach his son the way of life. They would also get those father son times that are also very important to growing up. I feel that I would be able to live without friends my own age because I would be too involved with my dad and wouldnt have time for them anyway.
Sung Kun Kim
1. From the point of view of the book, what is the best way for a parent to treat his child? Do you agree?
"What father, what teacher could shield him from living his own life, soiling himself with life, burdening himself with guilt, drinking the bitter drink himself, finding his path himself?"
"This father had nothing for the son to dlight in and nothing to fear. He was a good man, this father, a good, a kind, a gentle man, perhaps a very pious man, perhaps a saint-but none of these were qualities that could win the boy over."
- In this book, Siddhartha respect and cares for his son. He never scolds his son and defuses to put him in out in the world. He wants to keep him under his wings, away from what the destiny that the boy hold. Siddhartha responded every insult with friendliness, nastiness with kindness, rotten act with smiles. This care of Siddhartha does not lead his son the way that he intended to. One day, his son shouts anger at him and runs away from home. The ferryman tolds Siddhartha that there is nothing you can do as a father making his son's destiny. You can't raise your child in a such sweet way forever. The kid would eventually find his own destiny and follow it. I agree with this way of treating a child. Not the one that Siddhartha tried to show to his son. Because as we can see, Siddhartha's way of treating child, as failed and made a worse situation. I agree of just helping the child by guiding him to his destiny. We could care for the child, but not seize him under our wings. I agree with what the ferryman says to Siddhartha
Yeena Sung
1. From the point of view of the book, what is the best way for a parent to treat his child? Do you agree?
From the point of view of the book, it is telling the reader that the best way to treat his child is to let the child be free and do whatever it wants to do. This is because if the child wants to do something really badly and if that conflicts with the parents, the child will do anything to achieve what the child wants to do. So it is better to just let the child be free instead of forcing it to do something. In short, nothing can stop the child so the parents have to just let them make the mistakes and go through their own life.
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