Demian

Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth
The cover of Demian by Hermann Hesse.
Author	Hermann Hesse
Original title	Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
Translator	Hilda Rosner
Country	Germany
Language	German
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	HarperClassics (Eng. trans)
Publication date	1919
Published in English	1923[1]
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	176 pp (1962 English edition, paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0060931914 (first English edition, paperback)
OCLC Number	40739012
Dewey Decimal	833/.912 21
LC Classification	PT2617.E85 D413 1999

Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth is a bildungsroman by Hermann Hesse, first published in 1919; a prologue was added in 1960. Demian was first published under the pseudonym "Emil Sinclair", the name of the narrator of the story, but Hesse was later revealed to be the author. The novel was written in just three weeks.^{[citation needed]}

Plot summary

Emil Sinclair is a young boy who was raised in a bourgeois home described as a Scheinwelt, "Scheinwelt" being a play on words and means world of light as well as world of illusion. Through the novel, accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate Max Demian, he descends from and revolts against the superficial ideals of this world and eventually awakens into a realization of self.

Characters

• Emil Sinclair - the protagonist of the novel. Sinclair is confused as to what his life is, and is going to be, and constantly seeks mentorship throughout the novel.
• Sinclair's mother and father - symbols of safety toward which Sinclair first finds refuge, but eventually rebels against.
• Franz Kromer - A bully whose psychological torture leads Sinclair to meet Max Demian.
• Max Demian - Childhood friend and mentor of Sinclair. Demian leads Sinclair to his eventual self-realization, and may be considered Emil's "daemon."
• Alfons Beck - the "sarcastic and avuncular" oldest boy in the boardinghouse into which Sinclair enrolls after his confirmation. Beck serves as a minor mentor to Sinclair, and introduces Sinclair to the joys and pitfalls of alcohol.
• Pistorius - a rector, organist at a local church, and temporary mentor for Sinclair. Pistorius teaches Sinclair how to look inside himself for spiritual guidance.
• Frau Eva - Max Demian's mother. She becomes Emil Sinclair's ideal, first in visions, then in person.

Themes, motifs, and symbols

Themes

Embrace of duality

A major underlying theme of this novel is opposing forces and the idea that both are necessary.

Spiritual enlightenment

The novel references concepts of Gnosticism, particularly the god Abraxas, and shows the influence of Carl Jung's psychology. Hesse said the novel was a story of Jungian individuation, the process of opening up to one's unconscious.

Women in Demian

Women portray a vital role in the Jungian novel Demian by Herman Hesse. At the beginning of the novel, Sinclair looked up towards his sisters and mother, and even his house maid. While he was in school, he saw a beautiful woman who he called Beatrice, and towards the end of the novel, when Sinclair was an adolescent man, he discovered Demian's mother, Frau Eva. Although these women do not pertain major roles in the story, Hesse demonstrates them as being more like symbols in the depths of Emil Sinclair's ideals.

Symbols

The God Abraxas

The Gnostic deity Abraxas is used as a symbol throughout the text, idealizing the harmonious union of all that is good and all that is evil in the world. Demian argues that the Catholic God is an insufficient god; it rules over all that is wholesome, but there is another half of the world. The symbol of Abraxas appears in the novel as a bird breaking free of an egg or a globe.

Notable passages

These passages are segments of the novel that best demonstrate themes and lessons to be learned when reading Demian. They are the central ideas and morals of the book.

"Der Vogel kämpft sich aus dem Ei. Das Ei ist die Welt. Wer geboren werden will, muß eine Welt zerstören. Der Vogel fliegt zu Gott. Der Gott heißt Abraxas."

(The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born, must destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.)

"Schicksal und Gemüt sind Namen eines Begriffs." Das hatte ich nun verstanden.

("Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept." That was clear to me now.)

"Ich habe nichts dagegen, daß man diesen Gott Jehova verehrt, nicht das mindeste. Aber ich meine, wir sollen Alles verehren und heilig halten, die ganze Welt, nicht bloß diese künstlich abgetrennte, offizielle Hälfte! Also müssen wir dann neben dem Gottesdienst auch einen Teufelsdienst haben."

("I have no objection to worshiping this God Jehovah, far from it. But I mean we ought to consider everything sacred, the entire world, not merely the artificially separated half! Thus alongside the divine service we should also have a service for the devil.")

See also

• Bildungsroman
• Carl G. Jung

References

1. ^ Hermann Hesse, Stanley Appelbaum. Demian: A Dual-Language Book.Courier Dover Publications, 2002, p.xiv.
   The first English translation by N. H. Priday was published in 1923 in New York by Boni & Liveright; it was re-issued in 1948 by Henry Holt.

External links

• A short reference to Demian
• A short Demian guide and discussion questions
• Full text as eBook (German)
• Demian Sparknotes