Demian Author:Herman Hesse Nevertheless, this is the path that Emil Sincair follows as he journeys fraom native childhood to self-aware young manhood in nobelPrize-winner Heermann Hesse's classic novel Demian. Named not for its central character, but for his lifelong friend and mentor, Demian depcits Sinclair's struggle to become his own independent person by freeing hims... more »elf from the outworn rules of a society about to destroy itself in the First World War.
At each stage of his formal education, Sinclair discovers he learns from people outside the classroom, including Franz Kromer, a bully who terrorizes the ten-year-old Sinclair and introduces himto human cruelty and the lust for power and control; Pistorious, a musician who teaches him about the ancient god of light and dark, good and evil-a more meanignfulfigure for Sinclair than a god who is onlt holy and good; and Fau Eva, Demian's mother, a sublimely beautiful woman who forges a mysterical, telepathic bond with Sinclair and becomes the object of his passionate love.
But, most important of all is Max Demian. Though only a year ot so older than Sinclair, he is mysteriously mature, self-assured, and wise, and wields a strange power over the other people. From the first meeting as children, when Demian explains his unconventional interpitations of the Cain and Abel story, his free-thinking ways exert the strongestinfluence on Sinclair. Just how strong their conncetion is becomes clear at the novel's end, in wartime, when Damian tells the wounded Sinclair, "Perhaps you'll need me again sometime.... If you call me then I won;t come crudely, on horseback or by train. You'll have to listen within yourself, then you will notice that I am within you."« less