Siddhartha: Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Young Siddhartha, full of grief, attends his mother’s funeral. He lives in the ferryman’s hut but will not eat. Siddhartha respects his grieving. He finds that the boy is spoiled, and used to rich things and the attention of his mother. The boy does not know Siddhartha and will find it hard to cope with such minimal conditions, so Siddhartha is patient and cares for him. But though at first, Siddhartha felt so enriched by the thought of knowing his son, as time goes on, the boy’s mischievous ways and surly attitude toward Siddhartha drains him of that initial joy. But still Siddhartha loves him and suffers through it. He and Vasudeva divide the work between the river and the hut so that Siddhartha can stay with his son.

But, as time goes on, Siddhartha, expecting his son to come round and learn to love him, is disappointed. Young Siddhartha is defiant and rude. One day, Vasudeva approaches Siddhartha about it. It saddens him to see his friend so misused. He sees that the boy is used to the city and did not leave it willfully, like Siddhartha did. Vasudeva has asked the river about it and the river has laughed at them. He urges Siddhartha to listen to the river too.

Siddhartha doesn’t feel ready to part with his son. He asks for more time. He believes that he can woo his son and that eventually, young Siddhartha will hear the river too. Vasudeva agrees that certainly the boy is destined for something, but they do not know what path he will take yet. His stubborn heart will have to suffer much and do much sin, Vasudeva expects. He says that while Siddhartha does not punish or beat the boy, he forces him with his love and affection, and keeps him prisoner with two old men that are not of the same world as he.

Siddhartha is saddened and ashamed but when Vasudeva suggests that the boy should be brought back to the town, Siddhartha is reluctant to part with him. He is worried that his son will succumb to the town’s pleasures. The ferryman smiles and tells Siddhartha to trust in the river. What can one do to save someone from the world, what can one teach him? He reminds Siddhartha that he himself ran from teaching and found awakening by the river, following his own path. He assures Siddhartha that all the love in the world will not save someone from their destiny.

Vasudeva had never spoken so much at once. Siddhartha thinks restlessly about it. He knows Vasudeva is right, but his love is stronger than this knowledge and he is terrified of losing the boy – he has never loved anyone so painfully and happily at once, and he cannot let his son go. He gets on with life again, silently bearing his son’s defiance while Vasudeva looks on patiently.

Looking at his boy’s face, Siddhartha remembers what Kamala once said to him. She told him that he couldn’t love, and he himself agreed that he was separate from the child people. But now he knows the love of the child people and can suffer for someone else and be stupid for someone else, and though he had mocked it before, he respects the feeling now and feels richer for it. He feels that it is a very human, childlike feeling but that it is right. Pleasure, pain and folly all have their place.

Young Siddhartha goes on abusing his father, humiliating him and sulking. Nothing about Siddhartha can influence the boy. He is bored and feels so imprisoned by Siddhartha's kindness that he would almost prefer to be punished. One day, when Siddhartha asks his son to do a chore for him, young Siddhartha erupts in a fit of rage and refuses. He dares Siddhartha to hit him and says he hates him for trying to make him an imitation of himself. The boy runs away in the night, taking money and the ferryman’s boat with him.

Siddhartha is anxious for the child’s safety and begs that they make a raft and follow him. But Vasudeva responds that they will make a raft only to fetch the boat back and they must leave the boy. He will be able to look after himself better than Siddhartha is able to look after him. Vasudeva is sorry to see Siddhartha suffering, but he is sure that Siddhartha will soon laugh at all of this.

They build the raft and go over to the boat that has been abandoned. Vasudeva takes an axe with them, because he suspects that young Siddhartha may have destroyed their oar to make a point. Sure enough when they get to the boat, there is no oar left. He wants Siddhartha to realize that his son doesn’t want to be followed. Siddhartha hurries to search for his son, but as he walks, he starts to think that maybe it is futile, and he stops worrying for the boy’s safety, knowing deep down that his son will find his way home.

Siddhartha still wants to see his son. He arrives at the grove that used to belong to Kamala, and his eyes are filled with visions of the past, of himself as a young samana, of the proud way he had entered the world of love lessons and Kamaswami’s riches, of the songbird and his desire for death. He feels it all anew. Now he knows that he cannot save his son or bring him back. His paternal love feels like a wound, and though Siddhartha feels like the wound will blossom like a flower, it hasn’t blossomed yet and he feels empty and sad.

Siddhartha, as he had learned from the river, sits and waits and tries to listen to his inner voice. He speaks the ‘om’ silently for a long time outside the gates of the grove. Monks bring him fruit as he sits there, but he doesn’t notice. Eventually he is brought out of the trance by Vasudeva standing above him, smiling cheerfully. They share the fruit and go quietly back to the riverside hut. They don’t mention the boy. Soon Siddhartha falls asleep.