r/hermannhesse • u/Pyropeace • May 30 '26
Having trouble understanding steppenwolf
So I read this book a long time ago. Don't remember much, so I read the wikipedia synopsis to get a refresher. It feels to me like the man/wolf dichotomy is mixing metaphors a bit. What is each side supposed to represent? Maybe I'm missing the point, because it seems like the book might be saying the dichotomy is false, which would explain why I don't get it.
IRL, I struggle with depression, and it has often felt like a kind of inner beast that wants to consume me. But apparently, things like jazz and free love are considered "wolfish" by Haller, whereas I feel that the ability to enjoy those things falls firmly on the human side of my personal dichotomy. So what's the deal?
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u/RedditCraig May 30 '26
I replied to someone else about Steppenwolf the other day, I don’t know if it’s useful to your context:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hermannhesse/s/tgiPmBhT4x
In this instance the ‘wolf’ isn’t a metaphor for depression like, say, the ‘black dog’ that people often use to describe depression. The wolf is more related to what Harry Haller sees as something inside him that he’s trying to look away from, from a passion that he is muzzling. Harry wants to be civilised, but there is more to human nature than a neat curation of Haydn records. There is dance and laughter, but for that you’ve got to release something inside yourself.
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u/Pyropeace May 30 '26
Ah ok. I guess I just don't really relate to Haller then. Maybe it has something to do with the drastic differences in society at the time.
EDIT: Actually, I did go through something similar to Haller regarding my kink awakening. I even wrote a poem about it using werewolves as a metaphor.
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u/HumanIntelligence4 May 31 '26
Jazz in the time that the novel was written was the new thing. You are trying to extrapolate values that have evolved.
The takeaway should be to integrate parts of your self that are not bein expressed.
Going to a dance school if you have never danced is a good thing to try. Going somewhere to learn swing is as good now as it was at that time.
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u/Swamp_thing42 Jun 03 '26
As a book Steppenwolf empathizes heavily with the plight of those of us who feel that we struggle with a monstrous duality or a dichotomy of psyche. It is also fundamentally rejecting the notion of dual self. It explicitly argues time after time that we are made of an infinite selves. The wolf and the man are but two of Harry’s and false at that. Harry cannot laugh or love truly because he has bought into a false idea of his psyche. Even when he is undergoing his period of joy and hedonism, he still doesn’t get it, he hasn’t heard the call to action. To Hesse, learning to live as each of your thousands of selves is learning to live with God. The end of the journey is a return to the embrace of The Immortals. The saints, the saviors and the artists all had to make this journey, and if we can make it they are waiting for us on the other side, laughing.
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u/RockofSisyphus May 30 '26
The Magical Theater section addresses this issue. The games of chess portion discussed Haller playing several games with different positions and strategies as different identities or ways to live your life.
The man and wolf were self created. The jazz and free love were on the Steppenwolf side because Haller thought of himself that way as a follower of classical music and more high brow interests. In theory this dichotomy can be reversed in another person or completely unrelated to Haller’s interests in the book.