A short and moody novel that revolves around young Sinclair and the difficult task of finding oneself. Growing up in a protected and pious middle-class home, he eventually has to face the real world. Sinclair gets a new mysterious classmate, Demian, who guides him to detach and revolt from the superficial world of form and awaken to his true self.
"All I really wanted was to try and live the life that was spontaneously welling up within me. Why was that so very difficult?"
I picked up Hermann Hesse's Demian believing it could act as a palate cleanser after my binge-reading of books revolving around Jungian psychology.
Bad call! Already in the introduction I read that before writing the book in 1920, "Hesse began to explore the writings of Freud and Jung on dreams and archetypes." Something that apparently influenced his writing to a large extent! ๐
Was this synchronicity โ a meaningful coincidence โ at play, to use a concept introduced by Carl Jung? ๐ค
I failed in my mission to move away from Jung, but the book started off so strong that I couldn't put it aside.
"When we hate a person, what we hate in his image is something inside ourselves. Whatever isn't inside us can't excite us." โ Hermann Hesse, Demian
This is the most memorable fictional book I read that year. A coming-of-age story with strong connections to Jungian psychology and symbolism. It came to me at a perfect time โ since I, much like Hesse did when writing the book, had just begun to explore the writings of Freud and Jung on dreams and archetypes.
One of Bjorn's Favorite Books of 2018.