Who is Siddhartha?

Siddhartha is the novel's protagonist. He is the Everyman with whose quest for enlightenment we are meant to identify. Siddhartha begins the novel convinced that a life of spiritual exercise and contemplation will led him to Nirvana. Realizing the inadequacy of such a life, he turns to a worldly, hedonistic life, which he also finds lacking. Eventually, Siddhartha successfully synthesizes the lessons of thought and the lessons of the senses and attains enlightenment.