What I Discovered
I never would have thought that I would enjoy Demian as much as I did. I have written about this in my first blog page on this site, but I must stress that I never would have read this book if I wasn’t required to. Perhaps the synopsis on the back of the book would spark some interest, but I’m not a huge reader. I want to change that over the course of my life, because I have taken good books and reading for granted by having such a negative view of reading in general. At first, I was “reading for” this class and for the sole purpose of completion. Once I delved into the book, I discovered, “Hey, this is pretty amazing. I love this.” More specifically, my “reading for” for Demian was to ultimately strengthen a love for reading and to see myself in the protagonists to help answer my own questions. I found that I could easily relate to Sinclair in the beginning of the novel when he is recalling his childhood days and the clear distinction between the two worlds that he sees. While I haven’t been completely consumed by the darker world, I feel as though I’m a mix of both the light and darkness that Sinclair and I see so clearly.
Isn’t this fan art amazing? Credit
Summary
Demian by Hermann Hesse is the story of Emil Sinclair recalling his days as a boy up through his college years. Sinclair reflects on his innocent view of the world as a ten year old and remembers true and distinct differences between two worlds that he saw, light and dark. Sinclair often tries to fight the evil of the world but ends up succumbing to it, all thanks to Kromer and, mostly, Demian. Demian persuades Sinclair to question the bible and his beliefs after arguing the teachings of school teachers and faith at large. Demian becomes obsessed with chasing after the darkness in the face of Demian, who was one of the causes of Sinclair’s chosen path of destruction and isolation.
Value Graph
Each member of our group decided to dissect certain pages and paragraphs within those pages in chapter 2 of the book. I found that when I was individually marking values, the reader can easily become fooled by how Demian is, in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I graphed pages 20-the bottom of 23, a very important few pages that contain Sinclair and Demian’s first interaction. You can click on the chart to make it bigger! 🙂
How Writers Read 
Hello thebackrightgroup,
This comment is addressed to your whole group. The differences in Joe and Nicole’s value graphs demonstrate how deep and segmented one can choose to go with different charges in a text. Joe, the connection you made with the Tibetan book you read is called intertextuality; something you will learn more about soon. You all made different connections with the book, and the characters, but I noticed that you all remarked on Sinclair choosing or being led down one ‘side’, the dark side. What if Demian isn’t the dark side? And Sinclair hasn’t been led down a dark path? Notably, Joe mentions that it was his destiny. Just think about it from the opposition, or in a different manner, and resist seeing Demian as you have on your first read through.
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