Fear is transmitted toward human beings when strict social guidelines are to be met. Although Demian is the title figure for the novel, he is not a true character but an alter ego of Sinclair who symbolizes Sinclair’s inward journey and development to self-awareness. Herman Hesse focused on having Sinclair work on his personal thoughts such as Ying and Yang instead of having to worry about only being a pure innocent boy. Throughout the story, Damian is brought in as a new vision to understanding why others act the way they do. Sinclair later learns to adopt a metric in which god and evil are to be balanced in order to feel morally accepted.
Damian is a hallucination Sinclair perceives only to help, and fully capacitate Sinclair’s doubtful crisscrossed world. Herman Hesse focused on having Sinclair work on his personal thoughts such as Yin and Yang, instead of having to worry about only being a pure innocent boy. In the beginning of the story, Sinclair reflects upon his maid who acts fully respectful and full of pureness and divine while around its family; once outside she turns into something undefined in the Chinese concept “Yin” represents a dark, passive, downward, cold, contracting, and weak while “Yang” would be bright, active, and strong.
This idea can be seen in Sinclair’s early childhood for having his family being that “Yang” pure part while the maid is what brought him into the ”Yin” dark questionable side. Throughout the story, Damian is brought in as a new vision to understanding why others act the way they do. In the beginning of the story when Damian is brought into Sinclair’s class room, Damian approaches Sinclair with an interpretation of Cain and Abel.
The Essay on Sinclair Ross’ “The Painted Door”
Sinclair Ross’ short story The Painted Door takes place on an isolated farm during the Great Depression, whose closest neighbor, Steven, is two miles away. The isolation is even intensified in this story due to the horrible snow storm. Ann’s husband John braves the weather to visit his father, leaving her all alone, but on his way he stops by to tell Steven to go play cards with his ...
This basically contradicts the usual Christian stories that Sinclair has been taught and replaces them with the missing perspective in order to fully live a round life. The other perspective is that opaque side in which Sinclair has no understanding of. Fortunately for Sinclair they reunite once again in a confirmation class were Damian gives the word that the bible is not sufficient since it only worships the purified good in this world. Sinclair is attracted towards Damian’s panoramic vision that he starts to focus more on realms, light and dark.
Sinclair later learns to adopt a metric in which god and evil are to be balanced in order to feel morally accepted. Sinclair learns how to balance these once he actually goes through the “Yin” side. In boarding school, Sinclair meets a boy named Alfons Beck, who invites him to a bar. This period marked Sinclair’s rebellion streak and experiences what it is like to live on the negative part of the realm. Sinclair soon realized that what he was doing was focusing on one half of the realm while not balancing it with good and purity.
This marks the philosophy of Cain and Abel that Damian once introduced him into. In society, humans are expected to behave in a manner that is far more dominant to either one side, the good or the bad. The good humans are to follow and be totally blind into the holly and divinity of life. The bad humans are to be only bad and not reflect upon purity. Although Demian may not be the main character of the book, he is the alter ego of Sinclair who takes his vision and applies it into his journey and development to self-awareness.
