Demian is a novel that explores the inner mind of the narrator, a young man named Emil Sinclair (Hesse, 2009). Throughout the novel, Hesse explores the nature of good and evil through the use of philosophy that transcends the traditional understanding of good an evil; Sinclair spends much of the novel searching for emotional and spiritual guidance.
Traditionally, good and evil have been the root concepts of morality. Christian morality and ethics have long been the basis of morality in the western world (Ziolkowski, 1973). However, in the text, Demian encourages Sinclair to transcend these traditional understandings of morality and ethics (Freeman, 2015). In the text, Demian suggests that no longer should Sinclair see the traditional understandings of good and evil as the only potential guiding forces of moral decision making; instead, other metrics should be used to understand the very nature of good and evil (Hesse, 2009). Throughout the novel, Sinclair slowly comes to believe that good and evil are not binary ideas that should govern decision-making processes. Indeed, by the end of the novel, Sinclair abandons the traditional understandings of good and evil for a non-traditional ethical framework (Hesse, 2009).
Demian offers readers a fascinating look into a non-traditional ethical approach to decision-making. In the text, Hesse uses the relationship between the narrator, Sinclair, and the secondary character of Demian to explore the nature of non-binary ethical decision-making. When Sinclair eventually abandons the theoretical constructs of good and evil, he becomes something more than he was before; he becomes enlightened and self-realized in many ways that he was not before. This is a common theme in Hesse’s works; as an author, he commonly explores themes of self-realization and enlightenment.
References
Freeman, R. (2015). The Lyrical Novel: Studies in Herman Hesse, Andre Gide, and Virginia Woolf. Princeton University Press.
Hesse, H. (2009). Demian (1919). London and Chester Springs: Peter Owen.
Ziolkowski, T. (Ed.). (1973). Hesse: a collection of critical essays (Vol. 110). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
