Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth by Hermann Hesse

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Recommended: Success stories involving mentoring

In the story, Demian, Sinclair states that people help themselves without the help of others in such matters. When a person gets help from teachers, mentors or advisors, this support is not meant to put a person down, but to motivate and help move them along in life. People helped Sinclair get through life in many situations, starting when he was a little boy at the age of ten. There are some who may come through one's life and try to hinder him or her from getting them where it is that they need to be because of jealousy or many other reasons. If most cases, successful people most often refer back to someone who served as a mentor or some positive influence in their life.

Sinclair was helped by Demian who he did not really know until they walked home together one day. Demian helped Sinclair to show that he was not afraid of people. Franz Kromer, a local bully, lured Sinclair into telling him that he stole some apples when Sinclair really did not do it. Sinclair did this because Kromer's bad reputation was affecting him, making him want to seem cool. Kromer was one who put Sinclair down when he was a little boy. Demian, on the other hand, was someone who Sinclair looked up to, not as a peer but as a mentor and a man.

Demian talked to Sinclair about books and life in general. Kromer finally stopped bullying and bothering Sinclair and Sinclair was able to move on with his life. In this particular situation, it was Demian who helped Sinclair move forward. Sinclair was also beginning to see that Demian was not trying to be a mean person or someone who was trying to get something out of him as Kromer had been. Sinclair began to hang around Demian more and more and was looking at him as a mentor. Sinclair stated that, "Sometimes in those days I made attempts to imitate him and to concentrate my willpower on some goal I had to achieve it."(pg. 37) Sinclair started making plans and setting goals in life that he wanted to achieve through willpower and motivation. He was trying to do everything like Demian. Demian talked to Sinclair as a grownup of some sort, telling him to follow his wishes.

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