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Motif
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
In Siddhartha, birds become a recurring motif that signifies freedom of the soul. For example, Kamala keeps a rare songbird in a gilded cage, and in Chapter 7 Siddhartha dreams of its death:
And in those moments he had a dream: Kamala kept a small, rare songbird in a gold cage [...] He dreamed that this bird, which normally sang in the morning, had grown mute, and noticing this, he went over to the cage and peered inside. The little bird was dead, lying stiff on the bottom. He took it out, weighed it in his hand for a moment and then threw it away [...] he was terribly frightened, and his heart ached as if, with this dead bird, he had thrown away all value and all goodness.
This passage suggests that Siddhartha feels trapped in the society of the Child People, much like a bird in a cage. Despite having access to food and drink and pleasure, he remains unsatisfied and restless. The "mute[ness]" of the bird symbolizes the increasing numbness of his soul as he engages in meaningless activities. And his act of tossing its dead body suggests that if he stays in Kamala's town any longer, he will have "thrown away all value and all goodness." In order to free his mind and body, he must continue his journey elsewhere.
In the same chapter, Kamala releases her bird, which represents her letting Siddhartha go out into the world:
When she heard the first news of Siddhartha’s disappearance, she stepped over to the window, where she kept a rare songbird in a gold cage. She opened the door of the cage, took out the bird, and let it fly. She watched and watched it, the flying bird. From that day on she received no more visitors and kept her house locked. After a time she realized that she was pregnant from her last meeting with Siddhartha.
Much like the songbird, Siddhartha must leave Kamala in order to survive and seek enlightenment. His soul must be freed from the numbness of asceticism and the indulgences of materialism; otherwise, he will feel trapped and useless. Kamala loves him and misses him very much, but she understands that his happiness depends on spiritual progress. This moment also marks a turning point in the story: Kamala discovers that she is pregnant, and she decides to receive "no more visitors" and locks up her house. Her inward retreat contrasts with Siddhartha's outward expansion and demonstrates her respect for him and his future son. Interestingly, in Chapter 10, Vasudeva refers to Kamala's son as a "young bird" who prefers the gilded cage of a town to the struggle of nomadic spiritualism. By contrast, Siddhartha demonstrates an urgent need to make progress and free his soul from the constraints of material existence; birds recur in the text to symbolically highlight his desire for freedom.
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