Ferryman's Virtue Smoles

In the beginning the selection describes how Siddhartha enters the ferryman’s hut and accepts his gift of food. While they eat Siddhartha tells him of his journeys. The tale continues on late into the night and Vasudeva listens very intently. When Siddhartha is finished Vasudeva says that he thought correctly: the river had spoken to Siddhartha. He invites Siddhartha to stay with him, eat his food and sleep in his room. Siddhartha accepts gracefully. Siddhartha is surprised that Vasudeva was such an amazing listener and he explains that he learned this from the river. Siddhartha decides to stay and learn from the river because it has many voices and when you hear all of them together the word OM reveals itself. The reason this selection has significance is because the ferryman is just as important of a teacher as Kamala, Kamaswami, and Gotama were. All these people have helped Siddhartha on his path to enlightenment. What the selection is revealing to us is that through the river Siddhartha can finally reach nirvana. Everything in his life has led him to this point where he will learn from the ferryman and the river and he will finally reach enlightenment. In my opinion I care about the ferryman. I think he is a good man; an undiscovered hero in a sense. As he says he has taken many people across the river and to many it was nothing but an obstacle but to the ones where it became something more than that, he was willing to teach. He seems very kind and as though he will help Siddhartha immensely. I like this chapter because I can relate to this man. I wish I was able to listen as well as him and only speak when necessary. He’s only there to help.