Analyze Emil Sinclair's development on the book Demian by Herman Hesse - Essay Example

Reading through the story makes it quite subtle that it deals with an internal development of Emil Sinclair; all the same, the overall result delivers a transformation from that personal bit to arrive at a universal meaning. At the young age of ten, Emil Sinclair first identifies two different sides of life, the light and the dark side of life also represented by good and evil. Each of these two sides of life is represented by actual phenomena, for instance, the light also the good side of life is represented by Sinclair’s family, home and their customs and traditions.

The dark side of life is transient both with experiences in his life as well as imaginations in his mind. An example of this is Sinclair’s world as filled with servant girls and ghost stories. Sinclair continuously envisions images of ghosts and the devil somewhere in the neighborhood but these are never present at his own home (Hesse, Egon and Ingrid 222). These perceptions and the likelihood of the ghosts and the devil around the neighborhood makes Sinclair prefer the safety and warmth of his home.

At this stage, he perceives his life as holy “saintly” as he is born of righteous parents. . Besides introduction to the dark world, Kromer acts as the guide to the novel world. Sinclair’s interaction with Kromer is the first apparent step in loosing his innocence and accommodating divergent ideas separate from those propagated by his parents. It opens him to the reality that there is much to the world than that he has been taught in class or has been told by the parents. During this period characterized by overwhelming new information on the dark world, Sinclair is still uncertain on how to handle and navigate through the dark world.

At the same time, Sinclair is still awed by the information that Demain presents to him on Cain. At this point, he still has no definite framework to guide his thoughts or perceive the radical information presented to him (Hesse). This is perhaps the reason why Sinclair attempts to return to his parents after Demain frees him from Kromer. This is because the parents assure him of security and comfort and ensure predictability. Further development comes with age and continuous interaction with Demain.

Through this Sinclair is able to perceive a life beyond the strict systems and laws that restrict his life. Reaching adolescence he becomes more interested in women and the significance of confirmation classes wanes. The most revealing factor is that he feels very comfortable with this departure. It marks his transition from complete consciousness with the holy to a preference of his desires. Centrality of his desires is epitomized when he meets Beatrice, Beatrice represents an archetype of a person he wishes to associate with.

This translates into an overwhelming desire and immense feelings, further they characterize a new phase where he grasps the importance