The Significance of the Hero’s Journey in Siddhartha’s Character Development as Seen in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha

This paper discusses the character development of Siddhartha, the main character in Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha (1973). This research aims to study how Siddhartha’s character develops during his journey to reach enlightenment. The analysis is conducted by using the theory of the hero's journey by Joseph Campbell. The result shows that Siddhartha’s journey follows twelve out of seventeen stages of the hero’s journey proposed by Campbell. All of the stages appear in the same order except the stage Belly of The Whale that comes late. It functions as a turning point rather than a preparation for a greater ordeal. The analysis also shows that Siddhartha undergoes two major changes; from an individualistic to a wise person and from someone who is always persistent and thirsty for knowledge to someone who is flexible.

Siddhartha is a classic novel written by a legendary German author and the 1946 Nobel Prize winner, Herman Hesse. It is about a fictional character named Siddhartha who is seeking enlightenment. Siddhartha is considered a hero since he is respected because of his fine quality and bravery. As Stevanovic (2008) argued in her journal, the word "hero" stands for a great and brave warrior who is ready to give his life to gain immortal glory.
Therefore, Joseph Campbell's theory of the hero's journey (2004) will be used in this paper to analyze how Siddhatha's character develops during his hero journey with the help of the threshold guardians or the other characters that he encounters during the journey. Siddhartha changes from a young man who was always thirsty for knowledge and very individualistic to someone who could reach the greatest wisdom for life. Using Campbell's theory about the pattern of the hero's journey, the present research addresses the following two questions:

1.
How far Siddharta's character development proceeds in accordance with hero's journey theory?

2.
How does Siddhartha's character develop through the journey?

INTRODUCTION
Many studies on Herman Hesse's Siddhartha have been done previously. Halim (2006) compared two of Hesse's works and focused on the character and characterization of each main character in the chosen novels. She examined how both characters are dissatisfied with their lives and how they try to look for who they truly are. The result showed that the self-actualization can be reached through the process and strong will. Halim (2006) also highlighted that the recognition of it appears within oneself, and no one could know other than oneself.
Another study by Nugroho (2010) focused on the plot of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and how it becomes a symbol of Siddhartha's spiritual quest. He used Individualism theory by Carl Gustav Jung. He argued that to reach his/her goal, someone had to accomplish a process of knowing to know, giving expression to, and harmonizing the various components of the psyche. The result shows that, after analyzing the plot using the Individualism theory, Nugroho concluded that there is a hidden plot lying underneath the actual plot. It is a spiritual quest that has a different flow with the plot. He stated that the plot goes smoothly chronologically linear. Yet the spiritual quest goes in an upward spiral or has repetition (Nughroho, 2010). Permadi (2010) investigated Siddhartha's religious experiences. The formalistic approach was adopted to identify the characters and plot of the story. He analyzed the work by looking for the transformation from the wretchedness to the transcendence of the main character to find out the result of the religious journey/experience. The result showed that the transformation happened two times, after Siddhartha experienced the worldly pleasure in a small city across the river and when he could not get the love from his only son. Permadi (2000) argued that the transformation occurred from Siddhartha's inner-self and obtained after he mastered the selfknowledge of himself.
She found that there was a similarity in the three works. They represented a blueprint of ideal paths to personal enlightenment through common themes that flow through his works (Lee, 2006). Lee (2006) argued that the ideal path to reach enlightenment is by going through three stages: Breaking out, creation and destruction, and Jungian archetypes. The result shows that the three works share the same motive which is to find out who they truly are. In the end, they reach their very own 'enlightenment'. As Lee (2006) explained, there is not a single path, everyone must journey down to find enlightenment, there are key steps, and clues of a sort, to help guide anyone to enlightenment. Lee (2006) also stated that, for the readers, those motives could be led to find a little peace of mind, inspired by Hesse's writings.
These studies tend to focus on Siddhartha's internal conflict and spiritual experiences. The present research focus instead on the hero's journey and the roles other characters play in assissting Siddhartha to reach his enlightenment as a hero.
The present research applies the objective approach suggested by M. H. Abrams and hero's journey theory proposed by Campbell. The objective approach focuses only on the intrinsic elements of the book (Abrams, 1953). The approach is used to narrow the study; to identify and analyze Siddhartha's character development and achievements during his journey as a hero. We focus on the plot, character, and characterization of the novel Siddhartha. The objective approach was chosen for the study to find out and analyze Besides, it also applies Campbell's (Campbell, 2004) hero's journey. Campbell (2004) divided specific key steps/formulas in a hero's journey into three big patterns with seventeen stages in total (Campbell, 2004).

Departure
It is the beginning part that leads the hero to a journey ahead. The first pattern includes the call to adventure, refusal to the call, supernatural aid, the crossing of the first threshold, and the belly of the whale. Before the call arrives, the hero lives in an ordinary world. The call forces him to leave his current world and to enter a darker place that involves dangers. Some heroes will refuse the call, LITERATURE REVIEW THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK and some will not. For one who takes the call, he later will meet a mentor that accompanies and give him protection on the first stages of the journey. After that, the hero will encounter a threshold guardian (Campbell, 2004). The hero will learn a lot from the guardian that they will feel like being reborn after the hero passed or defeated them. The hero then reached another state of being and ready to begin his real journey.

Initiation
The second part is the main part of the journey. This part contains six stages which are the road of trials, the meeting with the goddess, woman as the temptress, atonement with the father, apotheosis, and the ultimate boon. Once the hero starts his journey, he will face a series of challenges that he has to pass, including a meeting with a woman. The woman usually appears to be powerful, and she is the embodiment of the whole world, for she is the incarnation of the promise of perfection (Campbell, 2004). However, later, the woman will become another obstacle for the hero. After the meeting with a woman, the hero will meet a powerful fatherly figure. The figure could be anyone or even symbolic. The father holds a greater power that the hero is seeking his approval. Once he got the approval, he will become even more powerful. Next, the hero will reach his ultimate goal as he already overcame his fears and left the world behind. Then he will get the reward for all the power he has gained.

Return
The last pattern is about the hero's return from his journey. There are six stages which are refusal of the return, the magic flight, rescue from without, the crossing of the return threshold, master of the two worlds and lastly, the freedom to live. After obtaining all the power, some heroes decide to stay where they are, but some decide to share their great achievements with other people. If so, the 'flight' to come back home will not be easy either. The hero must pass some obstacles on his way. However, sometimes the hero will need someone to help him returns to the ordinary world. The next step is that the hero needs to put himself in his former world, in which sometimes it is not easy because the two worlds are different. Later, the hero will able to master both worlds. He can create a bridge between it that he has the freedom to pass back and forth across the world division (Campbell, 2004). The last one is that the journey has come to an end, and the hero gets the freedom to live.
The primary data are the passages from the novel Siddhartha which are obtained through close reading. Focus was given on plot, character, and characterization in the novel. Important parts of the novel that supported the analysis were written down. Hence, the primary data were narration, description, dialogues, and all written materials found in the novel.
The secondary data were taken from other written works taken from different sources such as journal, articles, interviews, books, and essays taken from the library or online sources. The data provided further understanding about how to analyze the work better, including the novel itself, previous studies and theoretical framework for the related studies.
The analysis of the study is divided into four main steps. The first step is to apply Campbell's theory of hero journey to the plot of the novel Siddhartha. The second is to analyze Siddhartha's character development and the achievements he has got on each stage. The next step is to identify which stages Siddhartha's character significantly changed and its reasons.
Siddhartha's Hero Journey Departure 1) The Call to Adventure The hero's journey begins with the call to adventure. The hero will receive a call that can result from suppressed conflicts that happened in the ordinary

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
world, where the hero lives. The call will open the gate of the journey/adventure.
Siddhartha feels dissatisfied with his life though he is seen as a perfect man, son of Brahmin, and has a good life. All the love he got from his community and the religious practices he has been doing would never give him peacefulness and satisfaction in life. He feels that they only work on the surface and could not relieve a distressed heart. For all the time, he has been given countless knowledge from the eldest of Brahmin from the holy book. However, he wonders if there is someone that has experienced it rather than learn about it. Siddhartha then decides to join a group called Samana to practice asceticism. Govinda, his best friend, accompanies him. Samana's way of life is in contrast with Brahmin.
Campbell stated that the call is a crisis when the hero faces some forces that he could not understand, and it will become a gate to a destiny (Campbell, 2004). Siddhartha's call came when he starts to feel discontent with his life although he has learned everything he could from the holy book, yet it does not bring him to enlightenment. His thirst for knowledge drives him to take some action instead of just practicing and learning from the holy book. The goal of the adventure is set although it is not clear yet. It is to find a way to reach enlightenment, and the first step he decides to take is to practice asceticism with the Samanas.
Siddhartha was introduced as a kind, loved, smart, admirable, wise, ambitious and thoughtful character in this first stage. Here, he learns from the Brahmin about religious practices and knowledge. As a Brahmin's son, Siddhartha owns the privilege to learn and master religious practice about many things at a young age; it is something that not all people could experience. The ambition to learn more and the dissatisfaction of his current life becomes a trigger for him to enter the new world with bigger lessons, wisdom, and dangers.

2)
Refusal of The Call Refusal of the call is the stage when the hero fears the decision to step out of the ordinary world. The stage determines whether the hero would start the journey or not. Siddhartha decides to join the Samana after hours of meditation and self-contemplation. He wonders if asceticism could help the Samanas reach enlightenment. Following the sudden decision, Govinda and his father disapproving it.
The refusal of the call is identical with doubts, negativity, and fears. For Siddhartha's case, his father and Govinda are expressing concern for Siddhartha's decision. Govinda is surprised and worried about the sudden decision, although, in the end, he decides to accompany him. Lastly, his father expresses his worries and disappointment after seeing how determined Siddhartha is. Under those circumstances, the strong-willed Siddhartha does not significantly change his decision in this stage.
His decision to leave and join the Samanas stays the same, although his best friend and his father were against it at first. From the beginning of the story, Siddhartha appears as a protagonist filled with good traits, especially his thirst for knowledge and his strong ambition. Once he makes a decision, no one could change his mind. His decision remains strong, and his character becomes more ambitious as the stages develop.

3) Supernatural Aid
Before the hero steps out from the ordinary world, he would get supernatural aid in various forms. The aid provides protection and comfort for the hero. Supernatural aid is described as a stage where the hero meets a mentor that will provide him amulets to face the journey. The purpose of the amulets is to provide them what they need, such as confidence to face the greater fear (Vogler, 2007). Therefore, the amulets could be in any form include blessing and support from his closest people. In this novel, Siddhartha receives the amulets from his father and best friend in the form of blessing and companion though at first they against his decision. In this stage, Siddartha learns loyalty and trust from Govinda and his father.

4)
The Crossing of the First Threshold The hero enters the new world after they get their supernatural aids. Here, they may encounter a threshold guardian that would test whether the hero is good enough to continue the journey. The guardian may be a good or a deceptive character, but they hold wisdom with them (Vogler, 2007). This stage shows the readers the contrast between the two worlds. The contrast between the ordinary world and the current strange world is no longer shown in the description of the setting. Instead, the author describes how different it is by explaining Siddhartha's life during his stay with the Samanas. All the practices are new for Siddhartha. He diligently follows all the rules but never got satisfied with the result.
As he enters the stage, Siddhartha begins to start a new way of life. Siddhartha seeks for someone/something that could give him the knowledge about the way to reach enlightenment since people in his community could not achieve it through spiritual practices. He would encounter more than one threshold guardians in the journey. Every character he meets during the journey teaches him essential lessons. Thus, they are considered as his threshold guardians. In this stage, the Samanas would be his first threshold guardian. Even though he realizes that they could not help him reach his enlightenment, they teach him many things and make him learns from the mistakes. As Vogler (2007) stated, a threshold guardian may seem to be enemies and deceitful, but they hold wisdom essential for the hero to learn.
Siddhartha thirst for knowledge is the one that helps him realize his mistake and decides to leave the Samanas. Moreover, Govinda's presence makes Siddhartha arrogant and proud of himself. Govinda is always considering Siddhartha as someone he must give his best respect for, and he keeps praising him, giving him validation that he is superior.
The Road of Trials The hero is now ready to begin the journey. The hero would face a series of challenges that they must pass/defeat to prepare themselves for a greater obstacle. After they leave Samana, they meet Gotama, the Buddha, and he respects him a lot. Siddharta feels a different aura with Gotama as he thinks that Gotama carries peace and lightness. It makes him think that he may have reached enlightenment. His teaching is also outstanding and flawless. However, later he feels doubt about Gotama's teaching and realizes that no matter how good his teaching is, it would not give the answer he needs, so he chooses to leave. He also realizes that to get what Gotama has achieved, he has to experience it directly rather than learning from a teacher.
Siddhartha decides to listen to Gotama's teaching because he knows that eliminating the self is not the right way to reach Nirvana. His thirst for knowledge leads him to find another teacher/threshold guardian. By the time he meets Gotama, he is already lowering his expectation of receiving great lessons from the others. It is a sign that Siddhartha would soon no longer seeking knowledge from other people again since the learning does not excite him anymore.
In this stage, Siddhartha learns about loss. His beloved friend, Govinda has chosen his way to join Gotama's community, hoping that he could get his enlightenment with Gotama's help and separated with Siddhartha. Without Govinda, Siddhartha knows that he must face the upcoming ordeals alone and must be more dependent upon himself. However, his thirst for knowledge is still present. Gotama even points it out when Siddhartha speaks to him.
During this stage, Siddhartha's personality changes. He was no longer judgmental and rude toward others. When Govinda decides to follow Gotama, he fully respected the decision. He also politely speaks to Gotama to discuss the flaw he finds in Gotama's teaching The goal in this stage is the hero must complete the trials to prepare them for a greater challenge. Siddhartha's goal in this stage is to become a holy man like Gotama, so he wants to find his way through his own experiences. As he passes Gotama, his other threshold guardian, Siddhartha learns essential keys for his enlightenment which is the self. Also, since wisdom is incommunicable, he should directly experience the lessons.
In this stage, Siddhartha is at his peak of ambitiousness to his spiritual journey. Without Govinda's companion, he has to be more mature and considerate. On the other hand, it also makes him wiser. It gives him time to fully reflect on his past and current life, questioning his identity before he finally decides to continue his journey, face reality without looking backward again. Siddhartha's character as a protagonist and hero appears the best in this stage. None of his flaws is shown. Here, he is still his past self, who was always thirsty for knowledge and ambition but now he also appears to be respectful, wise, thoughtful, brave, and determined. He is more than ready to continue his journey as a better person. 2) The Meeting with the Goddess The hero will meet a goddess-like character introducing him to the earthly world with all its graces and errors. Siddhartha enters the town to learn about the world. At first, he only thinks about how beautiful and peaceful the world is. He is too naive, not yet known that there lays the biggest distraction he could ever experience, which is a worldly pleasure. He even underestimates people in general, saying that they are just like children.
Siddhartha is inexperienced in this field since he used to live as a Brahmin with all the privileges as good people always surround him.
Once he enters the world, the first thing that draws his interest is no other than a woman, which later would help him experience worldly pleasure. The goddess in the story is Kamala. Kamala's power is seen as she appears on a palanquin, which shows that she belongs to the upper class. Moreover, she has the power to make Siddhartha changes the goal of his journey in an instant. Just a few moments ago, Siddhartha was started to be very ambitious as he has discovered the possible ways to reach enlightenment. However, it is ruined so easily by a woman. Now, Kamala has become his goal. Campbell stated that the goddess whom the hero met would teach him love, which is also known as the core of life (Campbell, 2004). Siddhartha asks her to teach him about love.
Siddhartha's character changes significantly from the previous stage when he is shown as a wise man. In this stage, many of his negative traits appeared. He changes from an ambitious into a gullible man that is blinded by love for a woman. Kamala might teach Siddhartha about the worldly needs and pleasures that he needs to know. Meeting her is a part of the journey where he could continuously learn from the threshold guardians. However, after Siddhartha meets Kamala, his character changes. He is not as ambitious as before since his vision is blurred by lust. When he begins to see the world, he only sees what he wants to see, that the world is very simple and beautiful. He does not know that there lays the biggest distraction ever, which is the worldly needs.

3)
Woman as the Temptress To get the chance to learn about love from Kamala, Siddhartha begins to change himself to become more like ordinary people. Kamala introduces Siddhartha to a wealthy merchant named Kamaswani so that he could earn some money for her. He later gets the job, becomes a wealthy man, and gets the affection he wants from Kamala. However, they both somehow feel that they are different from the rest of the people since they are not quite interested in life. They address themselves as falling stars when the others are falling leaves that fall with no direction. Therefore, they know that they could not practice love. As Siddhartha becomes even richer, he is greedy, and not long after, he feels unhappy about his current life.
Siddhartha comes to the city to learn about the world, and then he meets Kamala, a perfect teacher for him to teach about love, which also comes with other emotions. Siddhartha starts to fill Kamala's expectation of a perfect partner. In other words, he is no longer on his path, he has lived for someone else. He begins to learn how to be an ordinary person, for Kamala.
In this stage, Siddhartha is trapped in the material world and experienced the seven deadly sins. In Catholic theology, human vices are divided into seven classifications: the seven capital vices (Aquinas, n.d) or the present-day called the seven deadly sins. Siddhartha experienced all of them: vainglory (pride), lust, covetousness (greed), sloth, envy, gluttony, and anger. The experiences will be explained below.
Siddhartha's experiences with seven deadly sins indicate that he has completely become an ordinary person and has completely lost in the worldly bliss. Started with a desire to win a woman's heart (lust), he opens the doors for the other sins. However, after contemplating his blunders, he realizes that everything is wrong and he has gone too far from his first goal to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Siddhartha reaches his lowest state in this stage.
Notwithstanding that he experiences his lowest state, he also learns many things from the situation. He shows those seven deadly sins, and he also likes to disdain and mock other people. Going deeper into the material world, his insecurities grow.
Siddhartha has become an ordinary person and feels lost. Siddhartha, who used always to be confident and hold on to his values, started to doubt himself and feels that he is not good enough and keeps trying to meet someone else's expectations. After contemplated his current life, he realizes that instead of going closer to his ultimate goal, he is going back toward destruction, he knows that he could and would never find happiness there. He is sure that he has learned nothing even though he received important lessons. He learns about the toxicity of being rich, and how to value other people's lives more since he had met many new people from different backgrounds and life struggles. It brings a big impact because Siddhartha could learn from their stories and mistakes. While being trapped and reached the lowest state of himself, Siddhartha's character keeps growing better. With the help of the Goddess, Siddhartha now has mastered the world.

4) Belly of the Whale
Belly of the whale is a stage when the hero is being swallowed or killed by some forces and then enters a womb-like state where he could contemplate and learning from his past mistakes and finally is being reborn as a brand new individual. Although Siddhartha wants to begin his life completely afresh, the lessons from the past threshold guardians still matter. Those lessons and errors lead Siddhartha to where he is right now. Siddhartha feels grateful because he notices that he has to go through those hard times and commits sins to fully wake him up from all the misery. In other words, this stage gives Siddhartha's character a chance to develop after he understands his past mistakes to continue the journey with his better self.
In this stage, Siddhartha's greediness begins to fade. Unlike the previous stage that always has a certain goal, he wanders without any goal and purpose at the beginning of the stage.
Experiencing all the sins and blunders helps his character to change into an ordinary person and no longer a thinker, in a positive way. Like ordinary people, Siddhartha is no longer seeking too much knowledge and makes him happy. The stage functioned as the turning point for Siddhartha. This stage allows Siddhartha to fully reflect on his past self before he meets Vasudeva, who later would guide him to attain enlightenment.

5)
Atonement with the Father Atonement with the father is a stage where the hero meets a fatherly figure, and he has to defeat him to obtain the power to master the universe. Siddhartha decides to stay longer at the river because he feels that there are still many lessons to learn and lives with the ferryman, Vasudeva, that once helped him cross the river to reach the town.
Siddhartha meets Vasudeva for the second time on stage atonement with the father after leaving the town and doing self-contemplation. Siddhartha's first meeting with Vasudeva was not significant. Siddhartha still needs to learn more at that time; his past trials were not yet enough to make him understood the test/clue that Vasudeva gave.
The second meeting occurs after Siddhartha experienced the belly of the whale, a stage full of selfcontemplation. Moreover, the river helps him to realize all of his past mistakes. Therefore, when he meets Vasudeva, Siddhartha has changed a lot from the first meeting. He has committed sins, trapped in the material world and then practiced self-reflection with the help of the river. Before he arrives in Vasudeva's place, he knows that he would learn a lot from the river.
Siddhartha becomes a ferryman and lives with Vasudeva in the woods. Here, Siddhartha's character develops significantly. With Vasudeva's guidance, he slowly understands what he really needs to do to reach enlightenment.
The goal of the stage is to win over the father figure or simply to possess the power that the father figure holds. Siddhartha meets two characters in this stage, Vasudeva and the son. Vasudeva is a fatherly character who always takes care of him, and on the other hand, the son is a character who forces Siddhartha to be a father figure for him. In brief, he meets a father and becomes a father at the same time.
Siddhartha must find his way to learn through the river. However, Vasudeva never tells Siddhartha that the river could help him to reach enlightenment. He helps Siddhartha's character to develop. After being lost in the material world, Siddhartha learns to listen to other people's stories and never judge them. He also learns how to live a simple life in the woods. He even states that finally, he has found real happiness.
When Kamala comes with their son, Siddhartha learns something bigger, which is true love. It is something that Kamala could not teach him, she tells him about what love is, but not how to actually love someone else.
After Kamala's passing, he takes care of his arrogant son. Here, he learns that people could be blinded by love. He also learns that he is able to love someone truly. When Kamala died, and his son runs away, he learns about letting go. He realizes that he could not always have what he loved.
Moreover, Vasudeva highlights that by keeping the son in the wood, Siddhartha is chaining and punishing him by love. His final moments with his son remind him of his past situation with his father when he was about to leave the village. The son helps him to realize that he is wrong to force his father to agree with his decision when he is about to leave his home. The moment makes Siddhartha reconciled his relationship with his father without directly apologizing to him by fully put himself into his son's perspective.
Even though Vasudeva and the son have completely different personalities, they are great teachers for Siddhartha. By the end of the stage, Siddhartha's character has developed significantly. He keeps hearing the word Om and realizes that everything comes in unity, like yin and yang. The unity also means that there is no such thing as time; life is like a river that always there, but every moment that passes is always new and different, yet they could not be separated from each other (Hesse, 1973). Moreover, it becomes easier for him to understand it because he has experienced them directly. That is how the universe worked. With help from Vasudeva and the son, Siddhartha has mastered the universe and is ready to get closer to his ultimate goal.

6) Apotheosis
Apotheosis is a stage when the hero realizes he has possessed all the power he needs to receive the rewards. After his son left him, he decides to continue his path as a ferryman with Vasudeva. He hears many stories from the passengers. The more he hears, the more he could understand and becomes like them, ordinary people. He regards each of them as lovable, understandable, and person that was worthy of respect (Hesse, 1973). Even though he has learned a lot in the previous stages, he sometimes feels envy toward happy people, and he is still feeling heartbroken from the wound that his son left behind.
One day he feels like the sorrow inside him is consuming him again, so he decides to tell Vasudeva everything. He strangely feels like he is at peace every time he talks with Vasudeva. At that moment, Siddhartha realizes that Vasudeva is the river itself; he is a god that had reached enlightenment. He takes all the words that Siddhartha tells him, like how the water flows, like a tree absorbs the rain. He takes all of it and lets it flow within him. Siddhartha realizes that Vasudeva has been a wonderful person all the time, but he does not quite notice it.
This stage has a strong connection with the previous stage and it is about the hero's realization of the power around him. Now he has mastered both the world and the universe from his own experiences. He has understood the importance of the unity of all life that everything exists has its opposite. He has experienced both rich and poor, being loved and being left behind, being vocal and being silent, etc. Both are meant to be there to complete unity. After all the ordeals, Siddhartha finally comes up with his final goal: to prepare himself to understand the unity of life.
The changing of the goal now and then after one ordeal to another shows that experiences are the greatest teacher and that Siddhartha believes in the early stage that wisdom could not be transferred. He has to go through a lot of difficult trials to achieve his current state. Despite the great realization about the unity of all life, he still feels sorrow about his son's departure.
Apotheosis here is a stage that completes the stage of atonement with the father. The goal and the epitome of the journey are already shown in the earlier stage to understand the unity of life. Here, Siddhartha is taken deeper to understand it by intertwining it with the art of listening that Vasudeva has mastered. Showing Vasudeva as someone who had reached enlightenment indicates that Siddhartha walks on the right way and gets closer to his goal. Interestingly, Vasudeva plays a role as a guide and always lets Siddhartha learn by himself. After all, the claim that wisdom is incommunicable is true. Siddhartha must seek it in his own way and Vasudeva guides and helps him.

7)
The Ultimate Boon The ultimate boon is known as the climax of the journey. Here, the hero will receive rewards from his hardships during the journey and owned the title 'hero' for him (Vogler, 2007). The climax for Siddhartha is when he reaches enlightenment in this stage after mastering the art of listening and understand the unity of all things. From the beginning, he has to go through many trials to teach how the universe and the world works. After he experiences many trials, he enters the stage and convinces the readers that he now deserves the ultimate boon.
Here, finally, he is able to accept and face every part of himself and with Vasudeva's help, he reaches the goal of his journey to obtain ultimate peacefulness of life.

Refusal of the Return
It is time for the hero to return to his old community and serve them even though the call commonly is declined, as in Siddhartha's case.
After a hero receives his ultimate boon, they later will face an option to deliver his power to his community or keep it by himself. Even though the hero decides to come back, he will enter this stage to reconsider his choice. If he decides to stay in the new world, it would become the end of the journey. Although it is not being stated directly in the novel, Siddhartha chooses to stay in the new world. When Vasudeva asks him to replace him as a ferryman, it indicates that Siddhartha would spend the rest of his life as a ferryman.
Moreover, when Govinda comes to visit him, he keeps highlighting that wisdom is incommunicable. He also explains that it is necessary to experience trials and commit sins as every sin carries grace with it. Thus, he expresses that there is no need to go back because one should find their own journey to reach enlightenment.
As for Govinda's case, who reaches enlightenment through Siddhartha, his case illustrates that one's journey does not have to be the same as Siddharta to be successful. Govinda is the type of person who enjoys learning from someone else; he keeps looking for a teacher. However, he is still able to achieve his goal. Siddhartha's journey should not be a measurement or guide for a great journey. Just as Siddhartha has learned, everything comes as a unity that one should value and respect it all.
By this stage, Siddhartha's character has developed a lot. He begins the journey as an arrogant person and someone who was always thirsty for knowledge. He ends the journey with the new self who could see everything entirely, not just some parts of them.
Thus, he could understand and accept everything that happens in the world wisely. The refusal of the return becomes the last stage of the journey since Siddhartha chooses to stay and let people only learn directly from him, just like what Govinda does.

Siddhartha's Character Development during the Journey
After analyzing the plot using the theory of the hero's journey, we discover a significant change in Siddhartha's character during the ninth stage, Atonement with The Father. In the ninth stage, Siddhartha starts to live as a ferryman in the wood with Vasudeva after being astonished by the river during his self-contemplation in the previous stage. After he learns from the river, he experiences a major change in his character from someone thirsty for knowledge, which comes along with other negative traits such as individualistic and greedy, to a wise person that is more open and willing to go with the flow.

Siddhartha and his thirst for knowledge
From the beginning of the story, Siddhartha was described as a very respectable character since he belonged to the highest caste and was young, goodlooking, and smart. However, he possesses flaws. The most apparent flaw that Siddhartha has is his excessive thirst for knowledge that turns into uncontrollable greed. The trait leads Siddhartha to show the other negative traits during the first half of the journey. He keeps seeking an answer to satisfy his curiosities. Furthermore, when the result does not come out as what he expects, he would deride them, just like when he feels dissatisfied with Samana's teachings, he mocks them.
However, the trait is particularly needed to be the call to an adventure for Siddhartha. His thirst for knowledge is the one that started the journey. Moreover, it is also the trait that makes the journey continue because greediness keeps him seeking another threshold guardian if one fails him.
Siddhartha's big ambition and greediness can also be noticed from the goals he wants to achieve during the journey. We notice some changes in the goals throughout the journey. He always has a clear goal from the first stage, which is the call to an adventure until the stage woman as a temptress. During that period, the goals changes in the following order: looking for a teacher to gain eternal peacefulness and satisfaction, to get his father's permission, to practice asceticism, to learn more about himself, to get closer to Kamala, and the last one is to win Kamala's heart. It could be seen that Siddhartha's goal has always been clear. However, his ambition and greediness bring him nowhere but confusion.
Besides greed, his thirst for knowledge also leads him to be an individualistic person. Siddhartha starts the journey to find eternal peace for himself. Everything about the journey seems to revolve around himself. Moreover, he always thinks he is different from ordinary people because he is a thinker and others are not. However, Siddhartha appears to be individualistic yet respectful to the people around him. It can be seen when Siddhartha is about to leave his home to join the Samanas. He asks for his father's permission about the decision, and when his father is against it, he does not change his mind and waits for hours. He is able to prove that he is fearless and persistent over his opinion in a respectful way. The moment proves that Siddhartha is actually a respectful person, but he still shows disrespect when he is angry or disappointed, like when he is about to leave the Samana. It is very humane to have unstable responses toward joy and disappointment. Since Siddhartha's ultimate boon is to become a god, this kind of trait will be considered negative.

Siddhartha and his wisdom
Siddhartha became a ferryman and lives with Vasudeva in the woods. Here, Siddhartha's character develops significantly. With Vasudeva's guidance, he slowly understands what he really needs to do to reach enlightenment. In the previous point, it has been explained how Siddhartha's goal has always been clear and varied because of his greed. However, after meeting Vasudeva, his goals become uncertain, and his only goal is to have a good life. The awakening begins one stage right before he meets Vasudeva on the stage Belly of the Whale. He has lost his purpose since then. Even when Govinda asks him about his plan, Siddhartha was not sure about his future for the first time.
From the analysis, his goal from the stage atonement with the father until the refusal of the return had loosened up in the following order: to have a good life, prepare himself to understand the unity of life, and the last one is to reach enlightenment. He decides to follow the flow rather than pursuing one exact direction, and he is happy because of that.
When Siddhartha has a goal in his life, he is consumed and obsessed with the thought of achieving it. Thus, he does not get any closer to his enlightenment because rather than learning from the situation, he is blinded by his goal and not realizing the real wisdom laid within. Siddhartha also explains in the last stage that he should be finding the goal instead of seeking it.
By finding the goal, he would like to become like a river that is always open for a new 'face' and go with the flow. Siddhartha is no longer thirst for knowledge. He wants to find the purpose of his life by following the flow of his life with no pressure and compulsion, both from internal or external forces.
Vasudeva appears as the last teacher because he is the one who will help Siddhartha reconstruct his thoughts and experiences from the past. Siddhartha is able to respect every animate and inanimate thing in the world after he finally understands the illusion of time and the unity of all life. It shows that he has reached a different level of wisdom, proving that he deserves to get his enlightenment. Since time is just an illusion, he argues that for him, everything is worthy of respect.
Siddhartha's past experiences play the biggest role in helping Siddhartha reach his enlightenment. He learned from Gotama that nobody would find salvation through teaching. He realizes that he has to experience it because wisdom is incommunicable. In the stage Refusal of The Return, he is grateful that he had experienced it all. He realized that every trial brought him important lessons, even unhealthy ones. Every trial teaches him some lessons and his character gradually grows alongside the number of trials he experiences. However, the significant change is found in the stage belly of the whale where he self-contemplates near the river.
Moreover, every single character he meets during the journey teaches him important values, even the antagonist ones. For example, Govinda teaches him about trust and loyalty, the Samanas teaches him about patience and being 'poor', Kamala and her son teaches him about worldly pleasure and love, Kamaswami teaches him about sins, greed and wealth, etc. The other characters have given him lessons about the unity of all things, the matter that Vasudeva teaches him in the late stages. To fully understand it, Siddhartha has to experience himself all the contradictory concepts such as poor and rich, pain and happiness, love and loss, etc. As Siddhartha has gone through all of those, Vasudeva's task iss to help him uniting all those experiences and putting it all into single wisdom, which is the unity of all life.
Beside Vasudeva and the other characters, Siddhartha's realization about the path he takes on the stage belly of the whale also helps him warn that he has gone out of his direction. The stage is to give the hero a being-reborn-like state that helps him reflect on past mistakes and continue the journey as a brand new person. It indicates that Siddhartha also becomes his own teacher to restrain himself from getting too lost in his mistakes before Vasudeva guides him. After being trapped for years in the material world, his contemplation and the word Om help him to remember the passion he used to have, which had long-forgotten, especially when he is a businessman.
Siddhartha is a unique character that shows many traits. Some of the most significant traits are fearlessness, ambitiousness, and thirst for knowledge. Moreover, Siddhartha's character changes significantly during the journey from someone who was very individualistic into someone respectful and considerate towards other people. Thus, Siddhartha is classified as a round and dynamic character.
Siddhartha's journey mostly proceeds in accordance with the stage patterns of the hero's journey theory. The story follows twelve out of seventeen stages given. The missing five stages are from the last chapter which is the return. Siddhartha's journey finishes on the refusal of the return since he decides to stay in the woods as a ferryman rather than return to his past ordinary world as what a hero's journey is supposed to end according to the theory. The journey follows the stages from the theory in chronological order except for belly of the whale. He experienced it in the ninth stage, which in theory, it comes as the fifth stage. The belly of the whale appears after the woman as a temptress stage. For Siddhartha, the stage functions as a turning point rather than a final preparation before the hero starts the journey. After experiencing the belly of the whale, Siddhartha's character undergoes some significant changes.
We find Siddhartha's character developments after analyzing the plot using the hero's journey theory. Siddhartha's character develops alongside the hero's journey stages. Even though he goes through some downfalls during the journey, his character remains to grow. He gets wisdom to learn in his journey. However, some significant changes are found after Siddhartha became a ferryman with Vasudeva.
In short, there are two of Siddhartha's major character developments. First, he grows from an individualistic to a wise person. Siddhartha used to be very persistent about his life and tend to undervalue people around him. However, since he has experienced many trials and became a ferryman who listens to people's stories, he can understand the CONCLUSION illusion of time. Therefore, he realizes that everything in this world is worthy of respect (Hesse, 1973). Secondly, he changes from someone persistent and always thirsty for knowledge into someone who likes to follow the flow. It can be seen from how his goal got blurred as the stage develops especially after he becomes a ferryman. He is also no longer as ambitious as before. He loosens up himself and eventually is able to feel happiness for the first time. He transforms from seeking the goal into finding the goal. When he is seeking a goal, he often gets obsessed with the goal, so he could not learn properly. However, when he decided to live by following the flow, like how the water flows in every direction yet able to reach the ocean, his soul becomes more relaxed, and it is easier for him to learn because he was freely finding the goal. From the analysis, it can be concluded that three factors take a role to help Siddhartha's character develops, which are the number of trials, Siddhartha's selfrealization, and the threshold guardian.