The Ploughman's

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September’s Book Club. Demian by Hermann Hesse.

Demian, by Hermann Hesse is a book that I had not – until stumbling upon it in HMV – heard too much about. Its author, the exquisite Hesse, was somebody I did not know despite studying literature in a Russell Group University in the UK. This itself is a great shame, for when I read Demian I found myself constantly scribbling, underlining and creasing pages to the point I had to stop, for my entire copy seemed to be slowly becoming highlighted word for word. 

I found this novel captivating, and raw and real and damningly just good. This was a good book, and there’s no doubt about it. We meet young Emil when he is only that – young. He is innocent and joyous and suddenly thrust into a world of violence and threats within the character of Kramer. And from that point, Emil’s life descends into this endless discovery of evil, whereupon he finds himself ostracised from the sanctity of youth in a limbo of deciding which path in life he will follow.

At the beginning of Chapter Three – ‘The Thief’-  there is a passage which perfectly encapsulates, in an almost Gastby-esque fashion, the inescapability of the path which pulls you out of youth and the subsequent longing to return to your idealized, perfect and beautiful past:

“…during the slow collapse of childhood when we are abandoned by everything we love, and suddenly feel the loneliness and deathly cold of the world around us. And a great many people stay for ever hanging on to this cliff and cling desperately their whole life through to the irrevocable past, the dream of the lost paradise which is the worst and most ruthless of all dreams.” – Page 39

What stands out within this passage seems to be the pure violence that Hesse describes the world beyond the comfort of childhood with. It seems that Emil was propelled not merely into an older age, but an entirely different world. This new world beyond youth is portrayed as a darkness, as an all consuming entity which will overpower his life and control his fate.

As the novel progresses into Emil’s late-teenage years, Hesse paints a powerful representation of the lost innocence in adolescence and the shame surrounding the growing distance between your former self and who you become. This is clearly apparent when Emil’s father comes to visit him in his college dorm and is disappointed that Emil has been drinking heavily and inhabits a room surrounded by piles of dirty clothes on the floor.

This self-destructiveness which Emil seems to tie himself to is prevalent throughout Chapter Four, ‘Beatrice’. He describes the effect that drinking wine had on him, on page 57, “as if a window in [him] had been broken and the world shone in.” And then, the next morning, shame and depression ensues.

The picture portrayed is that of our Emil, deathly hangover and standing in his room. As his feet jumps over the beer bottles and dirty clothes on the floor, he suddenly thinks back to his perfect and idyllic past…

“everything about it was light, it had an aura of brightness; it was all wonderful, righteous and pure. And everything, as I now realised, that had been mine only yesterday, nay a few hours before and was mine for the asking, had at this very hour, this very moment, depraved and cursed as I was, ceased to belong to me, rejected me, regarded me with disgust.” – Page 59

The novel progresses past this scene and the innate anguish of youth continues, but before we draw our thoughts on this novel to a close, I must draw your attention to some words of advice Emil speaks to one of his students. Emil is a little older at this point, and seems to be more balanced and content with his grasp upon the control of his own life. He says:

“I live in my own dreams; that’s what you have felt about me. Others live in dreams but not their own – that’s the difference.” – Page 92

This concept, that your journey within life revolves around deciding whose dream your life will occupy intrigues me massively. From a young age we are told to go to school and get good grades, so you can then go on to get a good job and be successful. But then, you leave this bubble of education at around 17 and you meet people who define success in different ways, be it the attainment of love, or travel or merely just escapism. You meet musicians who dream only to play their instruments and get by, and you meet businessmen who race infinitely towards gaining more and more money. And then, as Emil notes – perhaps the most important choice in your life is deciding if you will live by the dream of somebody else, or by your own. I think we would all like to say we live by our own dreams, but really, what human dreams of living in a substandard room, working 8 hours a day to pay for it. I know this is not my dream, but it’s the reality I live to bring pride to my parents and goodness to my world.

I think what is important about the novel Demian, is that we follow this young man go through life, criticizing and rebelling against the traditional form of modern day existence. We watch him as he judges and becomes disillusioned by this herd of humanity who conform to a materialistic and spiritually unfulfilling life, and then we see his amazement that this ‘herd’ will risk their lives and go to war to protect this seemingly mundane life of theirs. It’s as if he finally understands that the everyday person, who goes to school and then to work lives for more than just themself, they sacrifice their individual freedom for the communal benefit of society. This realization seems to ground him. It’s not that the life he led within the search for enlightenment was within itself selfish, but that the life of everyone else who got up each day and conformed to society was selfless. This final realization turns the whole novel on its head, and left me wondering whose dream should I occupy? Mine, who would benefit only me, or societies, who will benefit everybody, infinitely.

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The Ploughman’s Community Comments:

Scott, UK: For me, Demian was the perfect introduction to Hesse’s writings. I have read a large amount of his works, and I think this book seems to sum up his main philosophies in a digestible – but still no less profound – way.

Frank, Usa: Hermann Hesse is a great author and thinker, who is widely under-acknowledged in the literary scene. What a shame!

Anna, Northern Ireland: One passage which I couldn’t stop thinking about was Emil’s descriptions of the instrument of the organ being played/heard. He describes it on Page 81 as “the music which makes you feel that someone is shaking heaven and hell.” It is as if in the mundane life of ours, the only thing that brings forth transcendence is the power and beauty of music.

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