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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
Honestly didn’t interest me much. A few good things. Maybe missing the context.
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was the last novel for my vampire class though I did fail to see the connection. Cultural reference here, this was written in the nineteen teens (and into English in the 20’s) during a time of turmoil in Hesse’s Germany. This won a nobel prize and was said to have struck a chord with the men of that time. I was honestly underwhelmed but I’m reading it nearly 100 years after it was written (wow, that’s stunning). It’s not nearly as shocking now.
Sinclair is a young man of modest means, growing up like many children of the day, religious in other words. He is conned by the school bully into stealing apples and is so overwhelmed by guilt over this act, and so fearful of being turned in by the bully that his life becomes hellish. The bully gets on him at school and at home he’s distancing from his parents. When the bully wants to meet Sinclair’s sister, he actually contemplates suicide and then a new kid, slightly older, shows up, Demian. He takes care of the bully and from this moment on his life and Sinclair’s keep intersecting.
In confirmation classes, Demian brings up the idea that gives Cain and Abel’s story a new spin. Sinclair begins to doubt some of his religious upbringing. As he ages and goes to college, he has spells of drinking and partying, then losing himself in the beauty of an unattainable woman and finally finding a mentor in the form of a young organist and his rather pagan ways (even though he had wanted to be a priest,the organist that is). All through this Demian is either there expanding Sinclair’s consciousness or there in a dream state which is where we see him as Sinclair goes after the woman and the organist.
Finally, Demian and Sinclair move things to a different level and Sinclair meets Demian’s mother, Eva. I think this is where the vampire thing comes in. Eva is all about the mark on the forehead (harking back to the mark of Cain) and about visions (Eva and Demian strike me more as ‘demons’ than vampires really) and as Sinclair had reached this new level of consciousness war breaks out and the novel ends. There is also strong threads of latent homosexuality between Sinclair and well every man he meets in this (though he does want both his Beatrice and Eva for that matter). I can’t say I liked this but I’m not much on mainstream fiction and that certainly colored my perception of this. You probably can’t say a Nobel prize winner is a bad book. It just wasn’t for me but again I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, the world had already gone thru the spiritual awakening in the 60’s, so some of Sinclair’s spiritual awakening is rather ho-hum so what for me and it wouldn’t have been the case when this was first pubished.
Sinclair is a young man of modest means, growing up like many children of the day, religious in other words. He is conned by the school bully into stealing apples and is so overwhelmed by guilt over this act, and so fearful of being turned in by the bully that his life becomes hellish. The bully gets on him at school and at home he’s distancing from his parents. When the bully wants to meet Sinclair’s sister, he actually contemplates suicide and then a new kid, slightly older, shows up, Demian. He takes care of the bully and from this moment on his life and Sinclair’s keep intersecting.
In confirmation classes, Demian brings up the idea that gives Cain and Abel’s story a new spin. Sinclair begins to doubt some of his religious upbringing. As he ages and goes to college, he has spells of drinking and partying, then losing himself in the beauty of an unattainable woman and finally finding a mentor in the form of a young organist and his rather pagan ways (even though he had wanted to be a priest,the organist that is). All through this Demian is either there expanding Sinclair’s consciousness or there in a dream state which is where we see him as Sinclair goes after the woman and the organist.
Finally, Demian and Sinclair move things to a different level and Sinclair meets Demian’s mother, Eva. I think this is where the vampire thing comes in. Eva is all about the mark on the forehead (harking back to the mark of Cain) and about visions (Eva and Demian strike me more as ‘demons’ than vampires really) and as Sinclair had reached this new level of consciousness war breaks out and the novel ends. There is also strong threads of latent homosexuality between Sinclair and well every man he meets in this (though he does want both his Beatrice and Eva for that matter). I can’t say I liked this but I’m not much on mainstream fiction and that certainly colored my perception of this. You probably can’t say a Nobel prize winner is a bad book. It just wasn’t for me but again I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, the world had already gone thru the spiritual awakening in the 60’s, so some of Sinclair’s spiritual awakening is rather ho-hum so what for me and it wouldn’t have been the case when this was first pubished.
ha sido la lectura que más he disfrutado de la escuela
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Spirituality is a very interesting topic i haven't experienced much
This was the most challenging hesse book I have read but outlines himself the most as an individual
Kinda gay
This was the most challenging hesse book I have read but outlines himself the most as an individual
Kinda gay
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Max Demian is no Howard Roark... not by a long shot...
it was an ok book... i really liked the ending...
it was an ok book... i really liked the ending...