The Importance of Childhood in Steppenwolf
Upon reading Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, one cannot help noticing its large number of references to childhood. Youth, or a "childlike" state, is mentioned in the Treatise, in connection with Dionysian pleasures, in reference to Hermine, and in multiple other contexts. The ubiquity of this motif can be explained by the deep symbolic importance of childhood to Steppenwolf's protagonist, Harry Haller. Although his own young life appears to have been rather joyless, Harry holds up in his mind an ideal childhood to which he seeks, in various ways, to return. "Childhood," to Haller, embodies certain qualities he presently lacks: escape from the seriousness of the world, the treatment of life with eagerness and joyful abandon, and indiscriminate love. Thinking of Harry's wish for a "return to innocence" helps readers of Steppenwolf better understand some of the protagonist's motivations and his reactions to the people around him. It helps explain, among other things, his gravitation toward the "All girls are yours" door in the magic theater, his growing eagerness for Dionysian pleasures, and his attraction to Hermine (and similarly, to Maria and Pablo.) Through all of these venues, Harry finds the temporary respite he is looking for; therefore, to him, issues of love and pleasure (in many instances, sexual pleasure) are inexorably entangled with the idea of childhood.
The presence of the "All girls are yours" scene is perhaps the most direct manifestation of Harry Haller's mental connection between love and youth. It is interesting to note how many other scenes could have stood in place of this one. Even if he had limited himself to tableaux of "young Harry," Haller could...
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...into a complete picture of his soul. Thus, readers may certainly approach Harry's psyche from the "child" angle when trying to rationalize his thoughts and actions; they must simply realize, when considering this side of Harry, that there are other facets to his personality, and think of this interpretation as just one step toward understanding him as a whole.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Flaxman, Seymour L. "Der Steppenwolf: Hesse's Portrait of the Intellectual."
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon Gunton. Vol. 17. Detroit:
Gale Research Company, 1981. 196-7.
Hesse, Hermann. Steppenwolf. Trans. Joseph Mileck. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1929.
Ziolkowski, Theodore. from The Novels of Herman Hesse. Contemporary
Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research
Company, 1973. 145-6.
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To his surprise it takes him much longer to get up from his bed, and so he starts worrying and overthinking about his job as a salesman and how he is going to finish paying off his parents debt if he gets fired from his job. Gregor is now overwhelmed with thoughts that keep protruding out like how, “he thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s” ( Kafka 51). The cruelty involves Gregor having to get out of bed on his own with nobody caring to help him, and, to top it off, he does not worry about being late as much as not getting to work, which could lead to him getting fired, and, therefore, he will not be able to pay off his parents’ debt. When Gregor reveals himself to his parents, his mother faints, and his father, on the other
Nonetheless, the first thing on his mind was about his job and was worried more about missing the bus to attend work rather than himself. In the text, Gregor says: “It’s a lot more stressful than the work in the home office, and along with everything else I also have to put with these agonies of traveling-worrying about making trains, having bad, irregular meals, meeting new people all the time…” (Kafka 118). Gregor was more concerned about missing work rather than accepting the fact that he had lost his form as a human being. But, he was not the only one who was concerned about his well-being, but his family as well. The problem was his family only viewed him as the money maker; without him, the family will likely be poor without his support. Gregor’s family relied on him to provided them since his salary helped them a lot due to his traveling as a sales person. Kafka writes, “‘Gregor,’ a voice called-it was his mother- ‘it’s a quarter to seven. Didn’t you have a train to catch?’” (Kafka 120). The mother was concerned about Gregor not leaving the house on time to go to work. Although, readers/audience may assume that the mother was performing her role as a mother and checking on her children. But, if the mother was concerned about her son, she would of helped him instead of relying on him all the time. Gregor’s identity had been revealed when he is no longer
After Gregor wakes up and realizes that he has been transformed into a bug, he starts to worry about how he will go to work in order to provide for his family. He debates about calling in sick as he thinks ”The chief himself would be sure
There are proponents of the debate that childhood is disappearing which will be discussed in this section which include Postman (1983), Elkind (1981) and Palmer (2006). In considering these points of view which are mostly American, one must firstly set in context what is meant by the disappearance or erosion of childhood. This key debate centres on Postman (1983) who wrote “The disappearance of childhood” which is a contentious book about how childhood as a social category which is separate from adulthood is eroding. He defines a point where childhood came into existence, which was treated as a special phase in the middle ages based on the work of Aries in his book “Centuries of childhood” (1962, cited in Postman 1983). According to Postman, a major influence on how childhood was perceived differently to adulthood was the invention of the printing press and literacy in the mid sixteenth century. That is to say children had to learn to read before the secrets of adulthood in particular sex and violence was available...
Helmut Richter analyzed the plot of The Metamorphosis in his essay. He depicts the main plot of the story to be Gregor’s failure at his work, which leads to his death. The climax of the story starts off early in the book. When Gregor wakes up one morning, he realizes that he has turned into a giant insect. Gregor was a salesman and his job required that he was very determined in his work. Kafka proves to us that Gregor did not do a good job as a salesman by transforming into a bug: a strong work force. Kafka’s use of this metaphor stresses the poor work that Gregor does as a salesman.
Gregor is dehumanized by his boss in the way that he treats him at work. Gregor’s presence at work proved more important to his boss than his well being. When
Abstract In this essay, I intend to explain how everyday lives challenge the construction of childhood as a time of innocence. In the main part of my assignment, I will explain the idea of innocence, which started with Romantic discourse of childhood and how it shaped our view of childhood. I will also look at two contradictory ideas of childhood innocence and guilt in Blake’s poems and extract from Mayhew’s book. Next, I will compare the images of innocence in TV adverts and Barnardo’s posters. After that, I will look at the representation of childhood innocence in sexuality and criminality, and the roles the age and the gender play in portraying children as innocent or guilty. I will include some cross-cultural and contemporary descriptions on the key topics. At the end of my assignment, I will summarize the main points of the arguments.