Setting The novel Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse, is set in India in the 5th to 6th century BC, during the time of Gotama Buddha. The story is located around the river where Siddhartha grew up, near the city of Savathi, the Buddha’s hometown. Characters Siddhartha is the hero of the novel. He is a handsome and clever young Brahmin, well loved and admired by his family and town. (There was happiness in his …showed first 75 words of 1498 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1498 total…novel--the universal desire and quest for self- realization--blended well with the hippie movement that was ongoing during the 1960s, when it was written. The novel is an enactment of the very effort it describes: having yet to achieve it in his own life, Hesse struggles via his writing to attain the same unity of mind, spirit, and body that his protagonist seeks. Siddhartha is Herman Hesse, or rather, what Herman Hesse is trying to achieve.