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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Part Two, Chapter 6 – Among the Child People
Explanation and Analysis—So-Called Riches:
When Siddhartha goes to live with the Child People, he becomes wealthy, well-respected, and well-versed in the art of love. However, after a while, he begins to feel scornful and empty. The irony here is that while he seems to have everything—love, sex, money, and a near-spiritual connection with Kamala—he still cannot find happiness or enlightenment. In Chapter 6, the narrator lists all the material goods that Siddhartha possesses while reminding the reader that he remains unhappy:
Siddhartha had learned how to do business, wield power over people, take pleasure with a woman; he had learned how to wear beautiful clothes, command servants, bathe in fragrant water. He had learned how to eat delicately and meticulously prepared dishes, including fish, including meat and fowl, sweets and spices, and to drink wine [...] Yet he still felt different from others and superior to them; he had always watched them with a touch of scoffing, with a touch of scorn, the very scorn that a samana always feels toward people of the world.
Despite having unlimited access to worldly goods and pleasures, Siddhartha remains resentful of the Child People. He feels "different and superior to them" because he once lived as a Samana and recalls the difficulty of ascetic life in contrast to the indulgent hedonism of the Child People. Eventually, he discovers that enlightenment cannot be found at either extreme of human existence (asceticism or materialism); it must be found within his own soul. However, these external experiences are necessary to Siddhartha's journey, and the mental dissonance that he feels among the Child People speaks to the irony of having everything yet feeling that one has nothing.
Related Themes:
