The novel, “Steppenwolf,” by Hermann Hesse entails the spiritual world of Hesse as he reflected in it the 1920s. The author introduces the two opposing sides that would prevail throughout the book.
First, the author portrays himself as a human being who is willing to help others in society. On the other hand, the author also illustrates that some human beings rarely exhibit humanity. They behave like wolves in the forest. Wolves are aggressive and homeless. The autobiographical information of the author provides that the title of the novel was based on the abandoned wolf of the steppes.
It is this treatise that this novel by Hermann is cited addressing Harry. It forms a novel inside novel literature, describing a human character entwined in two lives: a natural form eliciting him as high in terms of a spiritual man, and a low nature, eliciting him as animalistic. The low animalistic form depicts the man as the “wolf of the steppes.”
The novel continues by describing an entanglement of the man’s life in an irresolvable fight of trying to define each natural form of his existence without contentment with any form since he did not fathom this self-made intuition. In actuality, the novel given to Harry provides an explication of the multifaceted natures that were indefinable to the man concerning the soul of even man in real humanity but he could neither perceive the intuition put forward by the pamphlet.
This unresolved struggle to define and be content with either of the forms are shown to have resulted in attempts to commit suicide, which is countered by the fact that the man lives a double life, with one being immortal.
Further, the man who gave Harry the novel meets him again in a setting that resembled funeral attendance where he made inquiries regarding the magic theater and is informed that it was not meant to be attended by just anybody (Hesse 14). On further insistence, Harry is directed to a local dance hall, which was a disappointment to his expectations.
Harry meets an old friend. He recognized him easily because they had spent several years of schooling in the same institution of learning. The friend continually and unconsciously critiqued Harry’s column while Harry responds by critiquing the man’s wife’s bust of Goethe.
This criticism is interpreted to be too sentimental with an insulting touch based on the true brilliance of Goethe. Considering the society that Harry is born a member, the episode confirmed his instincts that he was an alien in his society. Such critiques are not healthy because they could lead to physical assaults when two or more people engage in criticisms.
In an endeavor to suspend his homecoming, Harry wanders in the town most of the night but finally reaches the dance hall he had been directed earlier. The story portrays Hermine as an attractive woman who is very keen to notice that Harry is desperate in life.
In essence, the book elaborates on the desperation of Harry, which is evidenced on his face to be recognized by just looking at him. While Hermine tries to give him a reason to live, she mocks his self-pity as Harry narrates the worldview of his life. Hermine’s promise of a second meeting reassures Harry is giving him a reason and anticipation of living.
The story defines a smooth development of the cordial relationship between Harry and Hermine pointing the introductions that Hermine made as indulgencies that Harry describes as “bourgeois” while she trained him life matters such as dancing, illicit drug use, and sex by finding him a lover in Maria. Hermine defines these life aspects as life forces, demanding Harry the recognition of them as genuine and reasonable facets of a fulfilling life.
The novel shows that Pablo does not have the required mannerisms in society. He is a saxophonist whose perspectives are quite strange. He is quite different from Harry about the worldviews of life.
On further indulgence with Pablo in a prolific subterfuge ball, Harry is introduced to Pablo’s allegorical “magic theatre,” which brought into life his concerns regarding his other nature as he interacted with the otherworldly and phantasmal beings (Hesse 72). As Hesse points out, the Magic Theatre defines the realism of Harry in his mind fantasies.
As the story ends, uncertainty regarding Hermine’s death looms with no clear indications of whether the death was real or it was only hallucinations of Harry in the magic theatre. A critical analysis of the arguments displayed by Hesse is that he has not clearly defined reality based on real-time and space in the physical world.
On the contrary, Hesse has elucidated reality, basing it as a metaphysical function of cause and effect. The effect, the existence of Hermine is a moment controlled by Harry’s intentions depicting his state of mind as the most significant in comparison to his actions.
Works Cited
Hesse, Hermann. Steppenwolf. New York, NY: Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1969. Print.