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Demian

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"Demian" by Nobel Prize Winner Herman Hesse is a classic coming of age story involving a confused, artistic, sensitive and precocious young man. It is a heartbreaking story of loss and self-realization as the young Sinclair ventures beyond the familiarity and comfort of hearth and home into the "forbidden realm" of his peers whose moral corruption endangers his mental stability as he struggles to choose between the world of light and the world of darkness. The dark world is symbolized by lies and such associates as Franz Kromer, a bully and son of an alcoholic. Kromer ultimately blackmails Sinclair and his influence forever destroys Sinclair's innocence and peace of mind. Thus begins Sinclair's search for self-realization. This quest turns out to be archetypal, thrusting Sinclair into the mythic struggle between good and evil as well as innocence and knowledge. In his attempt to resolve the conflicting appeals of his two worlds, he will begin to understand that man himself is torn between his own striving for goodness and idealistic goals and his corresponding desire to plunge deep into the netherworld of his own doubts, his latent cruelties, corrupt yearnings and dishonesty toward himself and others. As Hesse clearly points out, man is an embodiment of significant contradictions; his life purpose is not to deny his dark side nor his androgynous aspects, but to accept all aspects of his character rather than repress them, if he is to be whole and realized.

Hesse, who received psychoanalysis from the great psychiatrist Carl Gustave Jung, depicts in Sinclair and his associates the plight of Everyman in his search for meaning and authenticity in a baffling world where the sensitive and less powerful are often dominated by the cruel and physically strong, overwhelmed by the daring, sometimes pathological elements of a driven society. Sinclair, gentle by nature and possessed of a sensitive, inquiring mind, is not the kind of young man society would reward with material or social success. Sensitive to his differentness, Sinclair is willing to allow others more powerful than he to influence him since he, like all young people, is attracted to the temptations of the forbidden world. In venturing into that world, Sinclair becomes alienated from the peaceful, predictable world of his father and mother. This causes a breakdown in communication at home and a sense of guilt and alienation in his outside world of experimentation and fear. As Sinclair plunges deeper into his secretive world of darkness and deception, he regrets his diminishment but also feels superior to his father, on some deep level, recognizing the necessity of sin to grow and realize one's destiny. He recognizes his father's ignorance and scorns it. As he leaves behind the world of his father, he recognizes that "Something broke inside me and I was forever alienated from this intimate circle... Cold and deeply exhausted, I had left him. God's grace was with all of them, but it was no longer with me." He recognizes that he has "forfeited the right to pray," but at the same time he is intuitively aware that he must experience that alien world, and so he continues to do so.

Then he meets Demian, who conveys in his actions and prophetic insights that Sinclair's search is fated, it is the destiny of all those "who possess the Mark of Cain," the symbol of the extraordinary man, the thinker, the artist, the peacemaker. Demian urges the reluctant seeker, Sinclair, to be unafraid as he passes through the hellish ordeals of Everyman in his search for meaning. Demian is emotionally detached, more mature appearing than others his age. He has a "superior" air about him much like a "prince," Sinclair notes, impressed by the fact that although Demian, like Sinclair, is wholly different than his peers, Demian's differentness does not appear to disturb him. In fact, he makes no effort to conform. From him, Sinclair recognizes the symbolic significance of the sparrow hawk that adorns his own front door and learns that his house was once a monastery. As Demian points out to his acolyte Sinclair, "People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest." Demian argues that Cain was vilified because he frightened others by his own superiority; it was not a fact that Cain was a murderer but instead he was a man marked by God for his extraordinary insight. Whereas Sinclair is in thrall to Demian and his unorthodox ideas, he also doubts him. He understands how far from the safety and comfort of his home life and upbringing he has traveled and he yearns for that former lack of conflict in his present life. At the same time, he is helpless to ignore the ideas of his friend. He regards Demian as his "other voice" and listens to him, knowing this relationship is part of his journey of self-discovery. Finally, he begins to see both Demian and Kroger as accomplices in his downward spiral. At that point Sinclair proceeds to enact the role of the "prodigal son" to assuage his guilt and overcome his confusion. However, the understanding that the two friends were merely aspects of his own "shadow" does not escape him, and so he proceeds with an awareness that they, too, were part of the process necessary for self-actualization. He comes to recognize that he is indeed undergoing a passage toward personal enlightenment, of which the exploration of the dark world and man's own shadow is a necessary part.

Finally, alienated from hearth and home, denouncing in his own mind both Kromer and Demian and equally alienated from his true Self, Sinclair recognizes that he is "truly alone." To handle his guilt and alienation, he turns to a life of drinking and debauchery from which he emerges to follow a strange and alluring young woman -- Beatrice. He then begins painting again. He starts to recognize a force within himself that willed his own self-discovery and artistic expression. This he names the "daemon." It is the part of himself that "knew everything." He realizes it is man's purpose to follow the daemon. Like the sparrow hawk above his door, it demanded he break out of his shell and suffer the consequences of that effort yet the exit also meant that he was indeed ready to "follow the promptings of my true self." Beatrice becomes his guide, like the "Blessed Beatrice" did for Dante, into the hellish adolescent world of alienation and confusion. Sinclair continues to wrestle with his angels and his demons in the struggle to resolve his conflicts and to understand the nature of the world around him. Through Knaur he recognizes the danger of repression. Pistorius reminds him that the journey to self-discovery is a hard one and that most people do not pursue it. Through Beatrice's example and her own androgyny, he recognizes the duality of gender in the human persona. This propels him to accept his gentle side as a necessary part of his artistic temperament. Together with Eva, whom he regards as a "universal mother," he is able to understand that woman in her essence is a vessel of knowledge and understanding.

In the end, the various personalities he confronts on his journey to Self-realization function as symbols of the universal experience of man. This journey for the extraordinary man, the engaged man, the seeker, the artist, is to "go forth and stand prepared wherever fate may need them... to accomplish the incredible." It is only then, when man comes to know himself -- to know the shadow and the light, the female in himself and the male, that he can learn to love himself. As Hesse points out, Sinclair "had loved and found himself." Hesse reminds us further: "But most people love to lose themselves." Sinclair at last resolves his own "sin" by clarifying what the human journey is all about. In his final epiphanies, he recognizes the bond he has with his fellow man and the importance of human love of oneself and others. This is all man can hope for, suggests Hesse, and it is surely not a simple task.

This book is very didactic; like Hesse's "Siddhartha," it reveals the ideas of Carl Jung through the use of archetypes and illuminates various concepts of modern psychology and religion. However, the quest itself is archetypal, and so the book appeals to adolescents because it so clearly renders the psychological struggles of the young. In that sense it is a thoroughly modern self-help book for all ages.

Marjorie Meyerle

Colorado

Author of Bread of Shame