SCRIPTORIUM
GERMAN AND FRENCH SUMMARIES
Siddhartha
Author: Herman Hesse
Time period: 1922
Language: German
Siddhartha is the son of Brahim, living an idyllistic life in a village in ancient India. However, he is dissatisfied and believes staying with his father and the elders of the village to be meaningless, as they have not reached enlightenment yet. A group called the Samanas visits the village starving, naked, and begging for food. Siddhartha is encapsulated by their beliefs, as the Samanas believe repressing their body and physical desire helps reach enlightenment. Siddhartha decides to follow the Samanas’ path with his friend, Govinda. Siddhartha quickly assimilates to the Samanas through his prior experience in his Brahmin tradition. Siddhartha is still dissatisfied though, even though he has shunned all his desire for property, food, clothing, and sexuality. He then hears of a new holy man named Gotama the Buddha, who has achieved complete spiritual enlightenment. Govinda and Siddhartha leave the Samanas, and the leader of the Samanas is displeased, to which Siddhartha silences him with a hypnotizing gaze. Govinda and Siddhartha join the Gotamas but Siddhartha is still skeptical. Dissatisfied with Buddhism, Siddhartha leaves Govinda and the Gotamas and meets a ferryman. He comes to a city where he meets a courtesan named Kamala. Kamala aids Siddhartha to take up the path of a merchant named Kamaswami, where Siddhartha learns of trade and business and becomes Kamala’s lover. He quickly grows rich and pursues a decadent, affluent life, yet he is still dissatisfied. He becomes unhappy through his gambling, drinking, and sex of material life and dreams of Kamala’s songbird dying in its cage. He leaves the village without telling Kamaswami or Kamala and sleeps at a river. Govinda, now a Buddhist monk, finds him. Siddhartha then encounters the ferryman named Vasudeva and explains to him that inner peace can be found by studying the river. One day, Kamala approaches the ferry to visit Gotama but is bitten by a snake and as she dies, confesses that Siddhartha is the father to her 11 year old son. Siddhartha fathers her ungrateful son, who runs away and steals Vasudeva’s money. Siddhartha continues to follow Vasudeva’s aid and studies the river, finally understanding the interconnected cycle of life through it. Vasudeva recognizes Siddhartha’s understanding and leaves, leaving him to become the new ferryman. In the end, Govinda returns to the river to seek enlightenment and encounters the wise, unrecognizable Siddhartha. Siddhartha then explains to Govinda that no one can teach enlightenment or wisdom and asks Govinda to kiss him on the forehead. With the kiss, Govinda and Siddhartha both finally achieve enlightenment.
The Metamorphosis
Author: Franz Kafka
Time period: Modernism, 1915
Language: German
Salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself as a giant bug. Being his family’s sole breadwinner and working off his father’s bankrupt debts he attempts to explain to his office manager of his absence. He finds out he is unable to speak and struggles moving in his insectile form. After dragging himself downstairs he is met by the fear of his family and his office manager and is sent back up to his room. The family becomes deprived of financial stability with the absence of Gregor and leave him isolated in his room. Gregor grows more used to his body and spends his time climbing the walls and floors of his room and rearranging furniture. His family, terrified of him, refuse to bring him food. His sister Grete sympathizes with Gregor and brings him rotten food. Grete and her mother decide to rid Gregor’s room of its furniture to provide him more space, but as Gregor’s mother tries to take down a portrait of a woman Gregor hastens to defend it. This terrifies his mother and causes her to become unconscious as Gregor tries to defend the portrait, who is in fear of forgetting his past as a human. Gregor follows his sister out to get medicine, causing her to drop the bottle. His father angrily throws apples at the sight of Gregor outside his room, creating wounds in Gregor’s back. His family grows negligent of Gregor even more and Gregor stays immobile in his room, slowly dying. Three male tenants rent a room in the house, unbeknownst to Gregor. After hearing Grete’s violin playing from outside the room, he crawls out of his room to watch and encounters the tenants. They are disgusted by Gregor and leave the house without paying, claiming it is unhygienic. Grete comes to the realization of the burden Gregor has put on their family and tells her parents they must get rid of “it,” lest their family be ruined. Gregor understands that he is no longer wanted and returns to his room and dies of starvation. His body is then discovered by a charwoman and is disposed of.
The Trial
Author: Franz Kafka
Time period: Modernism, 1925
Language: German
Josef K, the chief clerk of a bank is arrested the morning of his 30th birthday by two unidentified agents for an unspecified crime. Josef’s landlady, Frau Grubach, tries to console Josef as he awaits instruction from the Committee of Affairs. Frau insinuates that his arrest may be related to Josef’s relationship with his neighbor, Fräulein Bürstner. After Bürstner allows a lodger named Fräulein Montag to move into her house, Josef believes it to be an attempt of distancing him from Bürstner. Josef is then told to appear at the court’s address without a given date or time and finds the court in the attic, only to be reproached for his tardiness. His accusation still not defined and confused over the absurdity of the trial, Josef finds an attendant's wife whilst looking for the judge. She attempts to seduce Josef before being taken away by a law student claiming to be her husband. Later, Josef finds the two agents who arrested him being whipped in the storage room of his bank. Josef tries to stop the flogger from whipping the two men, two which he fails and finds the three in the same spot the next day. Herr Huld, a bedridden lawyer tended to by a nurse named Leni, is introduced to Josef by his uncle. Josef then sleeps with Leni and is met by the anger of his uncle, claiming that his lack of respect hurt his case. Josef then seeks help from the court’s official painter, Titorelli, after Huld continues acting unaccountably. He approaches Huld’s office to regain control of matters and manage his acquittal. There, he is approached by Rudi Block, who offers Josef insight. Block introduces his case, saying that he had lost his position as a successful businessman and is being constrained by his dependence on his lawyer and Leni. Huld then mocks Block for his subservience, augmenting Josef’s disdain for him. Josef is then put in charge of accompanying a client to the city’s cathedral, where the priest tells him a fable that is an ancient text of the court. Two men then arrive at Josef’s home on his 31st birthday to execute him, leading him to a quarry outside the city and killing him with a butcher knife. Josef describes the situation in his last words; “Like a dog!”