Demian - Book Review

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Demian is a Bildungsroman, which is German, with Bildung meaning education and Roman meaning novel, Bildungsroman is literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist, from youth to adulthood. Demian is written by Hermann Hesse, it was first published in 1919 in Germany and then translated and published in English in 1923. The book is also known as alternate title Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth, it was also published under the pseudonym 'Emil Sinclair', who narrates the story, it was later revealed that Hermann Hesse was indeed the author.

Emil Sinclair is a young boy raised in a middle class home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt, a play on words meaning "world  of light"as well as "world of illusion". Emil's entire existence can be summarised as as a struggle between two worlds: the show world of illusion and the real world, the world of spiritual truth. In the course of the novel, accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate 'Max Demian', he detaches from revolts against the superficial ideals of the world of appearances and eventually awakens into a realisation of self.

This book was brought to my attention by South Korean group BTS, 2 years ago when they took inspiration from it for their 2nd full length album Wings, with member RM quoting snippets from the book. I originally started reading this book in July and with the book only being 8 chapters long, I'm frustrated with myself that it took me son long to finish reading it, but it wasn't because I didn't enjoy reading it, I tend to find it a little more difficult to read a book when the writing style is older as well as the print seeming smaller. Throughout the book to me it seems to focus on growing up to learn to keep your mind open to all things, learning the difference between what is good and what is evil, used to reference this in the book Max Demian and Emil Sinclair have discussions about Cain and Abel, Max Demian also to me uses uses this as a way to open up Emil Sinclair's mind, allowing him to open his mind and think for himself. I think Demian is a book that shows that from youth to adulthood, people begin to fight with their inner demons, finding what is the right path for them, it's also the time that children start loosing their innocence in knowing nothing of their self, as they start heading out and learning more from school life as well as meeting new people and learning who are the right friends for them. This journey in turn helps them as adults when it comes to showing their children the paths that they can take and guiding them to find their own self. I really enjoyed reading Demian and it has made me more interested in reading Hermann Hesse's other works.

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