This blog post examines ‘Demian’ and ‘Beneath the Wheel’ together, comparing how the values of good and evil clash in the process of an individual’s self-formation, education, and growth, and why this leads to suffering.
Work Analysis
‘Demian’ and ‘Beneath the Wheel’ are representative coming-of-age novels by the great German author Hermann Hesse. Through these works, Hermann Hesse meticulously depicted the anguish and pain a person can feel while growing up, and these two novels have been beloved by readers across generations. ‘Demian’ and ‘Beneath the Wheel’ offer young people a way to more easily confront their inner selves when they face their own identity and when they are shaken by surrounding circumstances beyond their control.
Demian
Hermann Hesse published ‘Demian’ in 1919, immediately after World War I, under the pseudonym Emil Sinclair. At the time, Hermann Hesse was already recognized as a literary giant in the literary world, but he used a pseudonym because he wanted his work to be judged solely on its artistic merit. ‘Demian’ sparked a heated response immediately upon publication and was even nominated for the prestigious Fontane Prize in Germany. However, Hermann Hesse declined the award.
When ‘Demian’ was released, the publishing world took notice of the author Emil Sinclair. Novelist Thomas Mann requested the publisher reveal the author’s true identity, and critic Korodi eventually confirmed through stylistic analysis that the work was by Hermann Hesse. ‘Demian’ was subsequently republished under Hermann Hesse’s name.
‘Demian’ depicted the relationship between reality and the self in a world devastated after the Great War, where young men were forced to sacrifice and destroy themselves without reason. Presenting the theme, ‘I tried to live what was surging within me. But why was it so difficult?’, ‘Demian’ reminds us that life, for a person, is ultimately the path leading to oneself. It also awakens the realization that everyone is a precious being striving toward their own goals. This message from ‘Demian’ feels all the more urgent because it was written amidst the shock of the First World War.
Hermann Hesse was middle-aged when he wrote ‘Demian’. Witnessing the war, he resolved to accept human cruelty and instinct, and his own inner self caught between order and chaos, as they were. This novel, ‘Demian’, captures the transformation of the secondary self that emerged from this process.
Two Worlds
The narrator of the novel is ‘Emil Sinclair’. Sinclair is a character akin to Hermann Hesse’s alter ego. Like Sinclair, Hermann Hesse grew up in a privileged environment and attended a Latin school rather than a regular school.
The bright, intelligent Sinclair, raised under his parents’ protection in the light world, encounters Franz Kromer, a friend from the dark world, and experiences the first crack in his self. The anguish that began with a very small lie grew uncontrollably, and eventually Sinclair found himself in the midst of orderly, stable peace, experiencing life being dominated without anyone’s help. He was confronted with the problem of being wholly himself.
Cain
Sinclair meets a new friend named Demian. Demian was a clever and unique boy. And with mysterious powers based on mind-reading and insight, he drove the devilishly tormenting Kromer away from Sinclair.
But Sinclair couldn’t fully accept Demian as a friend. Demian offered a new interpretation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, revealing a critical and unconventional perspective on all imposed norms. Sinclair found Demian’s views difficult to accept.
Sinclair, who wanted to settle into a beautiful, peaceful world, avoided Demian. He saw Demian as another bad world, different from but similar to Kromer. In doing so, Sinclair faced a conflict where he refused the difficult path approaching him.
The thief beside Jesus
Demian did not acknowledge self-growth achieved through mere words. He valued inner growth gained through direct confrontation and experience. Though Sinclair distanced himself from Demian, he gradually drew closer to him, and Demian’s influence returned.
Demian revealed the secrets of mind reading and focused attention, opening Sinclair’s consciousness anew through the story of the thieves crucified beside Jesus on Golgotha. According to Demian, the thief who repented at the last moment might be a superior descendant of Cain compared to the thief who walked his path to the end. He said the repentant thief was cowardly and opportunistic, while the thief who took responsibility for his life and accepted his punishment was the better person, a being with true individuality.
In doing so, he introduced a comprehensive faith that offered an alternative to Christianity’s rigid dogma. Thanks to Demian’s teachings, Sinclair plunged into despair. His final attempt to find happiness under his parents’ shadow failed, and after his confirmation, Sinclair found himself alone, drowning in emptiness, isolation, and loneliness.
Beatrice
Young Sinclair, adrift in loneliness and wandering, couldn’t control himself. Struggling to adapt to school life, he one day glimpsed a girl named ‘Beatrice’ and felt her beauty, spirituality, and purity. Beatrice also became Sinclair’s way out of his despair.
Beatrice was the first image and symbol that encompassed both the rational, intimate, and bright world Sinclair pursued and the dark world. He tried to escape his despair by drawing Beatrice’s image, and while drawing her, he progressed to drawing a bird. However, this bird drawing ended up merging with the image of a bird on his own front door. (That bird was a phrase Demian had occasionally spoken to him). He then completed a painting of a yellow-hued bird of prey with the head of a sharp, bold falcon—its body half-buried in the dark earth, seemingly emerging from a great egg, struggling against the blue sky backdrop to break free. This painting symbolically condensed the wandering and struggle of a person trying to break free from its shell.
The bird struggles to emerge from the egg
It begins with sending the bird drawing to Demian and receiving an unexpected reply. Demian’s response was as follows.
‘The bird struggles to emerge from the egg. The egg is the world. He who is born must destroy a world. The bird flies to God. God’s name is Abraxas.’
Sinclair searches libraries for this unfamiliar god, Abraxas, becoming obsessed with his inner voice and dream images. He then meets the organist Pistorius and engages in a desperate conversation about his dark soul. After Demian, he has found another mentor.
Jacob’s Struggle
Having met his new mentor, Sinclair begins a serious exploration of Abraxas. He grapples with questions about himself, what he truly desires, and what external and internal forces shape him.
Exploring Abraxas, an entity embodying both good and evil, Sinclair discovers Demian within his own psyche. Parting ways with his new friend and mentor Pistorius, Sinclair’s inner world takes another step forward. Sinclair comes to understand: he is Abraxas, and Abraxas is Sinclair. At this point, Sinclair begins to perceive his world with a certain completeness.
Mrs. Eva
After refining his self to a somewhat complete stage, Sinclair meets Demian again. He also finds the image of his dream, which he had been painting all along, in reality. It was Mrs. Eva, Demian’s mother. Sinclair forms a community with Mrs. Eva and those around her, but happiness does not last long.
Most people in this community are also weak, and any community is nothing more than cliques. Moreover, it is corrupt and seems on the verge of collapse. Demian says people are merely fleeing into each other. He also says that once the current communities disintegrate, a new space will emerge. To achieve this, the most essential thing was to listen intently to one’s inner self and concentrate.
The Beginning of the End
Sinclair seemed to be growing his self splendidly. But Sinclair’s external world was not so easily tamed.
Mrs. Eva, Sinclair’s ideal and the love of his heart, said, ‘Someday, when it is not I but your love that calls me, then I will go. I will not give a gift. I will be conquered.” So Sinclair focuses on himself and calls out to Mrs. Eva, but instead of her, Demian comes running, informing him that war has broken out.
The situation rapidly changes. Demian and Sinclair head to the battlefield, and the wounded Sinclair reunites with Demian once more. Through a kiss with him, he receives Mrs. Eva’s kiss. But the next day, when he wakes up, Demian is gone.
Only then does he discover his own resemblance to Demian. He has now become one with the ‘superior being within himself’.
Beneath the Wheel
The second novel, ‘Beneath the Wheel’, critiques the German educational system of the late 19th century and contains elements of Hermann Hesse’s autobiographical story.
Hermann Hesse was born and raised in the home of a Protestant pastor, receiving an education steeped in Western Christian pietism. Like Hans in ‘Beneath the Wheel’, he prepared for and passed the state examination at the age of twelve with excellent results. However, Hermann Hesse could not endure the boarding school life bound by rules and conventions. Consequently, he ran away from school, suffered a nervous breakdown that forced him to take a leave of absence, and was ultimately expelled. For Hermann Hesse, a free spirit with rich literary sensibility, the rigid education and oppression were unbearable.
At that time in Germany, the high number of suicides among military school and boarding school students who couldn’t withstand the stress became a serious social problem. Criticism grew louder demanding reforms to the educational system, with calls to revise the strict discipline and control. These voices, the prevailing social atmosphere, and the author’s personal experiences intertwined to give birth to the work ‘Beneath the Wheel’.
‘Beneath the Wheel’ centers on the protagonist Hans, a boy fighting against the oppressive religious traditions of his family and school, and against rigid, hypocritical authority.
Hans is a bright boy who is the pride and joy of everyone around him. Exceptionally gifted in his studies from a young age, Hans is burdened with the expectations of those around him. He is forced to pursue success through academic achievement without ever truly discerning what he genuinely desires. Consequently, even as he prepares to enter seminary, he finds no respite. Dragged around by his teachers and pastor, he is compelled to study ahead. He pushes himself to the point of compromising his health, undertaking advanced studies prematurely. This was unthinkable in Germany at the time.
Hans entered seminary without ever finding time to listen to his own voice, consumed solely by his studies. Yet the honor and position he gained never truly satisfied his heart. The pressure of his studies often gave him headaches, and intense dreams robbed him of restful sleep. He found some relief mingling with his free-spirited friend Hiller, but this very association led to his rejection by his teachers. As his grades steadily declined and even Hiller was expelled from school, Hans found himself utterly adrift.
What Hans had truly longed for was to revive the memories of his free and simple childhood—fishing, walking, raising rabbits. Yet all of this had been stolen from him in his youth, and he hadn’t even been able to make friends. Ignoring his character education entirely, Hans was forced to study relentlessly before entering seminary. He didn’t know who he truly was. After losing his only friend and failing academically, he suffered a nervous breakdown and dropped out.
Ultimately expelled from school, Hans returned to his hometown where no one welcomed him. He tried to start a new life working in a factory, but experiencing hard labor gradually drained his will to live. He contemplated suicide as a final escape, intending to hang himself from a tree in a sparsely populated forest, but he never carried out the attempt. He also met a girl named Emma in his hometown, awakening his romantic feelings, but that relationship ended just as futilely, plunging him into deep despair.
Then one day, Hans drowns in the river while returning home drunk with his colleagues. Whether his death was suicide or an accident remains unclear. It was a tragic end for a young man who never lived a single moment as he had hoped.
In reality, Hermann Hesse, like Hans in the novel, couldn’t adapt to school, suffered a nervous breakdown, and ended up dropping out. To examine Hermann Hesse’s mental state, his parents took him to a pastor, but this yielded little effect, and he reportedly continued to complain of persistent headaches.
As is well known, Hermann Hesse later underwent psychoanalysis with Jung, and there was a history of mental illness in Hermann Hesse’s family. However, it was not simply mental illness that prevented Hermann Hesse and Hans from ‘Beneath the Wheel’ from adapting to school.
Both Hans in ‘Beneath the Wheel’ and Hermann Hesse were forced into a pietistic lifestyle and received an ascetic education. Hermann Hesse’s father was extremely strict, and this oppressive education had a profoundly negative impact on the young Hermann Hesse. Furthermore, the suffocating education at the seminary and the pressure to succeed acted as an indescribable burden on the young boy, ultimately undermining the very foundation of a healthy child.
‘Beneath the Wheel’, though written in late 19th-century Germany, is a novel that resonates deeply with adolescents sickened by overheated entrance exam competition. Boys like Hans exist in every generation and every country, and this novel provides a starting point for seriously considering what is truly necessary for a boy to grow properly into a human being.
That is likely why this novel has been loved worldwide for so long.
Both ‘Demian’ and ‘Beneath the Wheel’ emphasize the importance of the path leading solely to oneself, excluding the external world—be it nation, religion, or others. From Sinclair in ‘Demian’ breaking free from his inner shell to meet Abraxas, to the cautionary lesson in ‘Beneath the Wheel’ that Hans, swayed by his surroundings, inevitably faces misfortune.
These two novels will serve as excellent guides for youth in chaos and wandering, showing them the happiness of confronting their true selves and the way to achieve it.
