Libro

Der Steppenwolf is German-Swiss author Hesse's 10th novel. Published in Germany in '27, translated to English in '29, it combines autobiographical & fantastic elements. The story reflects a profound crisis in his spiritual life while portraying the protagonist's split between his humanity, & his wolf-like aggression & homelessness. An international success, Hesse claimed it was misunderstood.
In '24 Hesse married singer Ruth Wenger. After several weeks he left Basel, only returning near year's end. Upon return he rented a separate apartment. After a trip to Germany together, he virtually stopped seeing her. Resulting isolation & inability to make lasting contact with the outside world, led to suicidal thoughts.
Hesse began writing Steppenwolf in Basel, finishing in Zürich. In '26, a precursor to the book, a collection of poems titled The Crisis-From Hermann Hesse's Diary was published.
The book is presented as a ms by its middle-aged protagonist, Harry Haller, to his landlady's nephew. The acquaintance adds a preface, then publishes it. The title of this book-in-a-book is Harry Haller's Records (For Madmen Only).
As it begins, the hero is beset with reflections on his being ill-suited for the world. In aimless wanderings about the city he encounters someone carrying an ad for a magic theater who gives him a book, Treatise on the Steppenwolf, which is cited in full. Addressing him by name, it's uncannily descriptive. It's a discourse of a man who believes himself to be of two natures: one highly spiritual, the other a bestial "wolf of the steppes". This man is entangled in an irresolvable struggle, never content with either nature because he can't see beyond this self-made concept. The pamphlet gives an explanation of the multifaceted & indefinable nature of every soul, which he's either unable or unwilling to recognize.
The next day Harry meets a former academic friend who invites him to his home. While there Harry both becomes disgusted by his friend's nationalism & offends him by criticizing his wife's picture of Goethe, thus cementing his belief that he can't fit with regular society. Postponing return home, where he plans to commit suicide, he chances upon a young woman in a dance hall, Hermine, who recognizes his desperation. They talk, Hermine alternately mocking his self-pity & indulging him in his view of life, all to his astonished relief. By promising another meeting, Hermine provides him with a reason to live. He eagerly embraces her instruction. Over the next weeks Hermine introduces him to the indulgences of what he bourgeois. She teaches him to dance, introduces him to drugs, finds him a lover & makes him accept these as worthy aspects of life.
She also introduces Harry to a saxophonist, Pablo, who appears to be the very opposite of what he considers thoughtfully serious. After attending a masquerade, Pablo leads him to his metaphorical magic theater, where his previous concerns & higher notions about his soul disintegrate as he participates in several phantasmal episodes & indulges his animalistic nature, culminating with him killing Hermine, apparently fulfilling her own earlier request but actually showing his continuing ignorance. Harry's consequently judged by Mozart, who condemns him to see life & show proper reverence to it, thus marking a return to the focus on his spiritual self.
In the preface of the '60 edition, Hesse wrote that Steppenwolf was "more often & more violently misunderstood" than any of his books. He felt his readers focused only on the suffering & despair, thereby missing the possibility of healing transcendence. This could be due to the fact that then Western readers weren't familiar with Buddhism & missed the point, because the notion of a human consisting of a myriad of fragments of different souls contradicts Judeo-Xian theologies. Also in the novel, Pablo instructs Harry to relinquish his personality, or at least for the duration of his journey thru the Magic Theater. To do so Harry must learn to use laughter to overcome the grip of his personality, to literally laugh at his personality until it shatters into pieces. This concept also ran counter to egocentric Western culture.
Hesse is a master at blurring distinctions between reality & fantasy. It's debatable whether Haller actually kills Hermine or whether it's another hallucination. It's argued that Hesse doesn't define reality based on what occurs in physical time & space. Rather, reality is merely a function of metaphysical cause & effect. What matters isn't whether the murder actually occurred, but that it was his intention to kill her. Haller's states of mind are more significant than his actions.
It's also notable that the very existence of Hermine is never confirmed. The ms left in Harry's room reflects a story that completely revolves around his personal experiences. When Harry asks her name, she turns the question around. When he's challenged to guess her name, he tells her she reminds him of a childhood friend named Hermann. Therefore her name must be Hermine. Metaphorically, Harry creates Hermine as if a fragment of his own soul has broken off to form a female counterpart.
The underlying theme of transcendence is shown within group interactions. Harry concerns himself with being different, with separating himself. He believes he's better than his surroundings & fails to understand why he can't be recognized as such, which raises the idea that in order to rise above a group one must 1st become one with part of it.
The duality of human nature is the major theme. Harry illustrates this thru an inner & outer conflict. Inwardly, he believes two opposing natures battle over possession of him, a man & a wolf, high & low, spirit & animal. While he actually longs to live as a wolf free of social convention, he lives as a bourgeois bachelor, but his opposing wolfish nature isolates him from others until he meets Hermine.
Hermine represents the duality of human nature thru outer conflict. She's a socialite, a foil to the isolated bachelor. She coerces him to agree to subject himself to society, learning from her, in exchange for her murder. As Harry struggles thru social interaction his isolation diminishes. They grow closer to as her death approaches. The climax of the dualistic struggle culminates in the Magic Theater where Harry, seeing himself as a wolf, murders Hermine the socialite.