Demian Blog #3 Samuel Fine

Controlling Idea: Christian ideals are a path to salvation, namely the asking of forgiveness of sin, whether through confession prayer.

Counter idea: Christian ideals are lies structured to help the weak cope with their inadequacies compared to the strong, while realizing the falsity of salvation will lead to actual freedom (salvation).

Purpose: 

Symbolic Code

In Demian, Herman Hesse uses symbolic intertextual codes to highlight narrator Emil Sinclair’s path from religiously bonded emotions to intellectual freedom. Sinclair’s was born Catholic, a religion in which confession is a key sacrament hinged upon the belief that, when asked sincerely, Christ will forgive sin and grant salvation. Near the end of chapter two “Cain,” Before learning that he had been saved from his blackmailer by Demian, Sinclair confesses to his parents. The act has large emotional connotations for the reader (even though there is no quoted dialogue with Sinclair’s parents, implying the minor import of their characters to the whole tory), “the return of the prodigal son…Everything was wonderful, just like in the stories…I fled into that harmony” (35). Going from “dejection” to thinking of himself  a “prodigal son” returned, shows how much restorative power confession holds for Sinclair before Demian changes his views.

However, in retrospect, Sinclair confesses to the reader that he should have confessed to Demian, “I should have confessed to him! That confession would have been less ornamental and moving but more fruitful for me” (35). Sinclair did not confess to Demian because, “[Demian] was a link to the other world, wicked and bad…I could not and did not want to renounce Abel and glorify Cain, now that I had just turned back into an Abel myself” (35) Sinclair, still shaken by Demian’s alternate reading of Cain, prefers confessing to his parents in the world of good where confession has the power to  absolve guilt.

Still though, Demian disturbs Sinclair’s faith in confession in chapter 2 “The Thief on the Cross,” stating,”[The good thief crucified beside Christ] used to be a criminal…now he gets all mushy and performs these whiny rituals of self-improvement and repentance?! What’s the point point of remorse if you’re two steps from the grave…? It’s nothing but a sanctimonious fairy tale” (47). Here, Demian attacks not only the traditional reading of the Passion, which had previously instilled Sinclair with “overpowering, mystical shudders,” but also attacks the very practice of confession, which Sinclair takes so much comfort in (47).