Hercules and Siddhartha

     While reading the first part of Siddhartha, and learning of the prompt for the blog post, I had immediately thought of the Disney movie, Hercules. While many Disney movies can be extremely predictable and follow their own interpretation of a hero's journey, I felt that the story of Hercules is fairlyt relatable to Siddhartha's journey.

    Both stories began with a clear call to action. Siddhartha wanted to take his journey to achieve enlightenment, and Hercules wanted to take his journey to find his true parents, in finding out who he truly was. They both departed on their journey in hopes of seeking the answers that they were searching for, and in turn learning more about themselves as people.

    In their next steps, both main characters found a mentor. For Siddhartha, his mentor that was searching for was the Buddha, where he was wishing to find enlightenment in his teachings. Hercules had found Phil, who he was wishing would train him in his hopes to become a true hero. However, the stories differ a bit here.

    While Hercules is open to Phil's teachings and accepts his offer to achieve his dream of becoming a hero, Siddhartha is reluctant. While the Buddha would like him to follow him in Siddhartha's journey to enlightenment, Siddhartha knows that he cannot reach enlightenment unless he finds it himself. He had his mentor, but it was a choice he made to leave.

    Both of these stories have major aspects of the hero's journey, but no two journeys are the same. Hercules knew that he could not become a god without Phil's aid, and Siddhartha knew that he could not reach enlightenment if he did not separate from the Buddha. While I know how the story of Hercules ends, I'm eager to see how Siddhartha ends in his journey, and find more intertexuality between the stories.