Siddhartha

1. Why does Siddhartha decide not to follow Buddha?
Siddhartha wants to take his own path. He feels that he must experience inorder to learn and feels by having someone teach you is not the same. He feels that Buddha can not help him and that his way isn't right for him.

2. Why does Siddhartha leave his father?
Siddhartha left the palace because he wanted to explore the outside world but his father didn't want that his father wanted to teach him about being king. He wanted to know what life was like for people who lived outside the palace walls. He realized that people get old, sick and eventually everyone must die.

3. What is the identity of Vasudeva?
Vasudeva is an enlightened ferryman who guides Siddhartha to a transcendent understanding of himself and the universe. He is closely connected to the river, and he helps Siddhartha learn how to listen to the river’s secrets.

4. What is the significance of the river?
The river represents the continuous flow of life whether it's the past, the present or the future. Siddhartha sleeps by the river, and when he awakes he feels he has been reborn.

5. If Siddhartha never lived with Kamala and the people in the city would he have reached Enlightenment faster?
No, he would have never reached enlightenment because he would of stood in the city and he did not want to deny himself any physical experience.

Suicide 1916, George Grosz

    The painting shows a man that is dead and theres a gun just above him showing that he killed himself. it seems as if he has been dead for quite some time because you can see the bones on his skull. It also shows him grining as if he is relieved and released from suffering. His eyes are closed showing that he is sleeping peacefully. It shows a man passing by the corpse with his face not shown in the painting perhaps concealing his identity. There is another man in the left hand side it appears he is hanging from a lamppost. He has no features on his face and I feel that it represents shame. There is a prostitute in the upper middle section and i feel as if she is advertising herself. In the background there seems to be some sort of church that is shining the color of gold. It seems as if a dog is blocking the way towards the church making it harder to reach. It shows the streets to be red signifying depression. Among the commotion in this painting the corpse seems to go unnoticed as though his death is already forgotten.


 The Love Sick Man 1916, George Grosz

         The gun, right below his heart maybe an indication of suicide over love. He is so miserable he is capable of senseless acts. The empty chairs signify he is lonely and maybe wanting companionship. The pipe and liqour signify him drowning out his sorrows. The letters on the table may appear to be letters written from someone he loves. The dog at his feet appears sick and maybe a stray and a qoute comes to mind "misery loves company". The bones at the bottom right corner and fish bones symbolizing lack of nutrition. Also the one sign of life, the plant at the top corner, lacks any leaves or flowers.

George Grosz, The Eclipse of the Sun, 1926

     George Grosz was born July 26, 1893 and died July 6, 1959 at the age of 65. he was born in Berlin, Germany and was the son of a pub owner. George Grosz cousin encouraged him to attend a drawing class that he went to weekly and was taught by a local painter named Grot. George continued to improve his skills in drawing and took excessive care in the consideration of detail in copies of the drinking and battle scenes. He studied at the
Berlin College of Arts and Crafts. In 1916 he changed the spelling of his name from Georg Ehrenfried Groß to George Grosz because he did not want a German name. He was a well known member of the Berlin dadaist art movement. In November 1914 Grosz volunteered for military service and was given a discharge after hospitalization for sinusitis in 1915. He died on July 6, 1959 from falling down a flight of stairs after a night of drinking. http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/George_Grosz/Biography/
  
   The painting I chose was The Eclipse of the Sun 1926 by George Grosz. The painting was oil on canvas painting. My interpretation of the painting is that it is very political and it seems as if it focuses on greed and power. In the upper middle of the painting seems to be a leader and a man whispering in his ear. Both men look quite evil and appear to be surrounded by headless men that are around the table which looks as if they are followers of the leader. The sword with blood on the table seems as if the leader is intimidating the followers and they must do as told or suffer the consequences. Both men I feel represent as having lots of power and control. In front of the leader is a funerary cross painted red, white, and black, the colors of the former German imperial flag. On the upper left hand corner there is a dollar sign eclisping the sun which symbolizes money and a desire for wealth and growth. The donkey on the table with blinds on its eyes signify people are blindly following the leader and as they keep following will eventually fall. On the bottom right hand corner shows some sort of prison with someone behind it which I feel shows the people being trapped and can't do anything about whats going on and as the wealthy get richer the poorer gets poor and suffer the most or may represent the future. This painting exhibits inequality, corruption and as I previously stated greed and power. I did a little bit of research and found that President Paul Von Hindenburg was the president of Germany at that time and feel that he represents the leader in this painting. This painting contains varies symbolism and may be interpreted in different ways.

Christianity Origin

Quote: Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life's nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in "another" or "better" life.

             from Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, p.23, Walter Kaufmann transl.

Interpretation: Christianity was used from the beginning of time as a way to disguise the negative affects of life. To give hope for a better life by worshiping a higher power. Everyone has gone through difficult stages in their life. To have faith in a religion is to try and soothe the pain that has been inflicted through out the hardship of life and to have hope that the higher power will help to resolve the issue at hand. Believing that if you dress accordingly it will show that you obey and will be rewarded. No one religion can erase the pain that one has endured through out their life time. You can suppress it but eventually, the suffering will resurface.

German Society

      The capital of Germany is Berlin and it's the fifth largest economy in the world. Germans are 91.5% German, 2.4% Turkish, and 6.1% other such as Greek, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Russian. Germany's language is German and 34% of their religion is Protestant, 34%, Roman Catholic 3.7%, Muslim and 28.3 % is other. The estimated population from July 2012 is 81,305,856 and their birth rate is 8.33 births per 1,000 population. Berlin has a population of 3.438 million, Hamburg has a population of 1.786 million and Munich 1.349 million people.
      There are 12.9% adult prevalence rate of obesity and 1.1% of children underweight that are under the age of 5 years old. School life expectancy is 16 years and 99% of the population that are over 15 years of age can read and write.