Michelle Nguyen English 2012 WLP Rough Draft Desire leads to Metanoia: Siddhartha and Jose Arcadio Buendia

But he did not understand the price. Mortals never do. They only see the prize. Their hearts desire, their dream....But the price of getting what you want is getting what you once wanted(Neil Gaiman). Desire is first introduced in this one wish to complete that goal, but in the end they stray off leading right into the hands of desire. Herman Hesses Siddartha and Gabrielle Garcia Marquezs Jose Arcadio Buendia both portray dynamic roles in Siddhartha and 100 Years Of Solitude, respectively. The lives these two protagonists lead are descriptively told throughout the novels. The writing by both authors effectively advances the protagonists life through a basic humanistic trait, desire. Both Siddhartha and Jose Arcadio Buendia are on a search of some type of knowledge. The changes in the characters are due to the consistent build up of desires. As desire is constantly drawn it fills up the source of their true motivation, and as a result an eventual path of moral corruption forms within the characters. Desire wraps around their ambitions and solidifies their views. Siddhartha possessed a position in his Hindu religion called a Brahmin. However he broke away and began a quest of us his own to reach Enlightenment. Siddhartha shows that desire can be beneficial and showcases a change within his own heart by choosing his own path. He also is prepared to fight for his fathers acceptance. Jose Arcadio Buendia, on the other hand, is fascinated by the intellect of the world and spends his life searching for the ultimate answer. As the current leader of the household, there were few implications on his decision. Their desires allowed them to neglect pertinent parts of their lives. For Siddhartha, he gave up the traditional spiritual life bounded to

him to find his own meaning and gave up his family to pursue his own wishes. Similarly, Jose Arcadio Buendia also gave up his familys well being to isolate his mind on research. This plays as the first step to their moral setback. Desire is the backbone of all lusting. Siddhartha meets a woman named Kamala who he builds a desire for. Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, will only allow him to indulge in his desire if he showers her with gifts of high quality. The name Kamala is closely related to the word desire. Her desires seem to directly influence the actions of Siddhartha. Fueled by his recent desire, he takes on the life of a merchant and abruptly ends his spiritual journey. While living the life of wealth and riches, he is able to participate in intercourse with Kamala, he believed he fell in love with her. Desire clouded his judgment to recognize Kamala as a lost cause but rather replaced it with addictive reasoning. As for Jose Arcadio Buendia, he got in a fight with Prudencio Aguilar who criticized him for not being able to take his wifes virginity. He irrationally killed the man, demonstrating a quick unreasonable urge. Years after, he is haunted by Prudencio and wishes he had never acted on impulse. Desire plays a negative role again, it tranquilizes Joses judgment and without thinking he commits incest with his wife and cousin Ursula. He knew Ursula was afraid of incest babies, yet he still made her. Desire builds to a higher level where others are at risk now. Both Siddhartha and Jose Arcadio Buendias morality is deteriorating at this point. Desire is able to change and bring light on who the characters are. Jose Arcadio Buendia started off as a well respected man. Driven by peer a pure desire, he founded Macondo for his peers and family. After many battles with desireall of which resulted in his losshe is already on the path of destruction. Desire beat him and dragged him to a sad place. He is constantly reminded of his impulse to kill Prudencio Aguilar out of desire to protect his pride. Throughout

his new scientist life he began to neglect family with the exception of the youngest boy who loved science as much as him. In the end he is seen as crazy and bound to a tree. This clearly shows that his respect has been lost and is the exact opposite from which he started out. Referring back to Neimans quote, once desire is reached realization hits, and he realized he did not need to push so hard to find the answer to life. Siddhartha had the choice between being a natural leader as a Brahmin and journeying off on his own. He chose the independent route, giving up his leadership and starting anew. He starts out with a low status that he obtains on his own. Through many trial and error processes he his finally able to find his way on a spiritual path. However first off he is lead to lifes Samsura, where all the sins he was unable to commit in the past were finally committed. He steers of his path of spiriturality for the desires of having fun. He meets Kamala and Khamaswami who drag him in deeper into desire. When he is finally able to emerge from it, he is set on his original path. Desire played a part in swaying him away from his original ambitionwhere true motivation lies. Further down his journey he lost him self. With less desires Siddhartha and Jose Arcadio Buendia are able to find inner peace and reach their final goal. Jose Arcadio Buendia searched for meaning in the world and ultimately got distracted by the riches and the inventions the gypsies brought. He started to stray from his original question, and became giddy with all the toys. Later on in the story when he becomes crazy, we see that he is more tranquil and he is not obsessing over worldly desires. He sets desire free and can come to terms with himself. Throughout the novel his true main goal was to come to terms with murdering Prudencio Aguilar, and once he stoos distracting himself he is able to reach his type of enlightment. In Siddhartha, he also strays off the path of his spiritual enlightenment. Like Jose Arcadio Buendia he is also searching for an understanding to life, but is

distracted by lusting desires. Years later, he reunited with Gotama. He then selflessly shares his wisdom with Gotama and both of them are able to reached their prolonged enlightenment.