Lyn's Reviews > Steppenwolf

Kurt Vonnegut, one of my literary heroes, said of Hermann Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf that is was “the most profound book about homesickness ever written”. Vonnegut also went on to describe how Hesse speaks to young readers, how he speaks to the essence of youth and offers hope.

Like many readers, I first encountered Hesse as a young person, for me it was when I was in high school. Hesse’s illustration of isolation and being misunderstood spoke to me as a youth, as I imagine it has for many young people.

Hesse said, “Of all my books Steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any other”. Of course, the book was written about a man as he turns 50, not a youth.

But I think I can understand why this also speaks to young readers. What Hesse describes, and his use of the lone wolf of the steppe as a symbol is brilliant, is about a time when an individual finds himself alone and in transition – as in a mature man who approaches old age, or as a young person leaving behind the securities of childhood for the uncertainties of adult life.

Similar to Hesse’s earlier novel Siddhartha (1922) in Steppenwolf (1927) the protagonist experiences a dynamic journey through self-discovery and spiritual exploration. Also reminiscent of the earlier work, Steppenwolf reveals a cathartic summation after a romantic interlude.

Hesse also demonstrates how man is more than a single entity, more even than the more obvious duality – as suggested by Haller’s belief that he is half man and half wolf – but the combination of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of souls. This confirmation of Eastern thought is ubiquitous in Hesse’s work and shows a kinship to Jung.

Complicated, multi-faceted and sometimes difficult to follow, Hesse presents an important contribution to 20th century literature.

*** 2023 reread -

I reread this because I realized that I am now at the age Hesse wrote this for, a man in his 50s and at a transitional phase in life.

A little sadly, this has not held up as well as I hoped. The reason is mainly a demonstration of how our society has changed due to increases in the complexity and sophistication of our technology.

When Hesse was writing this for the protagonist, Haller, who, from the vantage of middle age, looks back on the savage misanthropy of his earlier days and reflects on who he is now and what’s important to him. The word and concept “bourgeois” was used repeatedly and often in the text and described Haller’s separation from society largely based upon his alienation from bourgeois ideals.

In the 1927 of it’s publication, bourgeois was used to reflect not just middle class, but of the rising importance of the middle class and the sentimentality that went along with this socio-economic group. Haller “came in from the cold” to use an espionage term, as he rejected his earlier wild and wanton disregard for such sentiment and embraced the comforts available to him at this advanced age.

Almost a hundred years later and there are certainly still class distinctions, but those lines have largely blurred into other forms of class identity and so Hesse’s otherwise spot on narrative has lost some of its appeal. It is still very well written and an excellent statement about changes in life and how an individual approaches these changes. Still worth reading but may need some further study for a modern reader to grasp all of what Hesse was saying.