Rating: 
Summary: Close to being the best book I've read
Review: This book is among my favorites for one very specific reason: It evokes feelings from my childhood like no other book has ever done. This is a very simple book, written in a simple manner, but at the same time it transmits feelings in a way few books do. A must for world literature readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Insights Into a Human Soul Are Not Enough
Review: I was somewhat dissapointed in 'Demian.' I had never read Hesse before and I was prepared to really enjoy this book. I thought that it started off well but the middle was very boring and the end was too weird for words. I finished the book not because I was curious but because I can't stand not to finish a book. It wasn't complete rubbish but there are better psychology/philosophy books out there. Read 'Siddhartha' instead, that is Hesse at his best.
Rating:
Summary: A Book That Changed My Life
Review: Okay, I really hate it when people say that this book or that book changed their lives. In my case it's true.The book follows the spiritual growing pains of one Emile Sinclair from his school days into adulthood. The title of the book refers to his associations, at various times in his early life, with another boy named Max Demian. Max Demian, although he only appears in a relatively few pages of this book, becomes the driving force behind Emile Sinclair's emotional and spritual awakening. Emile is lost. He comes from a very starched middle class family where everything is proper and nothing is out of place. Inside, though, he feels as though he doesn't belong (much like Harry Haller in Hesse's Steppenwolf). He feels a much darker side to himself and thinks that makes him evil and a sinner. Demian, through a series of encounters over a period of years, plants in his mind the notion that we are all made up of good and evil tendencies and that a "true" god would accept all of this. In fact, there is a god who itself is made up of equal parts dark and light; that god's name is Abraxas. This realization is a watershed for Emile who, though he continues to struggle, search, and follow others for years afterward, eventually comes into his own as a person. Which of us hasn't been Emile Sinclair at one or another point in his life?
Rating:
Summary: Mind-shattering and confusing. A revelation
Review: 'Demian' is one of the most insightful books I've read recently and certainly one of the best novels by Hesse. Perhaps it is not as thoroughly satisfying as 'The Glass Bead Game' or 'Siddhartha' - there are some weaker points in the book (I myself dislike the ending), but Hesse explores ideas that are rather innovative and truly fascinating. In 'Demian' Hesse delves into the importance of coincidences in finding the Self. Only there is nothing coincidental about these coincidences, it is all really the unfolding of the Way. Random things mean much more than the logical ones - that is one of the cornestones of Hesse's philosophy. Chaos is harmony. The search for the Self is a common theme of Hesse's works, and his approach here is highly interesting and thought-inducing. In order to fully understand this book one would have to read some Jung (particularly 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections') and Nietzsche. However, that's only a suggestion, not a requirement...
Rating:
Summary: Demian - The Pain and Beauty of Growth, and Individuation
Review: Demian is the story of Emil Sinclair's spiritual journey. In the beginning, Emil describes the world of his childhood. This world is split into two realms, the luminescent world of his parents, and his place in the family. Beyond this world, outside of it is the other world. This world is marked by adventure, and darkness, intrigue, and strangeness of all kind. Young Emil has such a strong sense of the other world and is attracted to it. He assumes this attraction to be the sign of his own impurity. Later, he lies about stealing fruit to be liked among some school friends. Upon being called out for the lie, he is forced to face his own guilt, and despairs that he has forever lost the innocence that made him the good son of the Sinclair's. Around this time, Emil meets Max Demian (who will be his spiritual daemon, or guide). Demian, even though a young man himself shows the calm and awareness of a Buddha and the zest of Nietzsche's Overman. Upon their first meeting, Emil is strangely attracted to Demian, though he doesn't understand Demian's unconventional interpretations of their friends, and his penetrating and insightful interpretations of scripture - for which Emil is not quite ready. Through various detours, tests, and conversations, Emil and Demian grow closer, as thinkers of the world... their most unconventional shared thought being the absolute necessity of both the dark and light side of existence; and the priority that any individual has to be true to himself, and to trust the voice within. Demian is a depiction of a beautiful soul, but a human to be sure. This is neither Jesus, nor Buddha, but one of us when we see things clearly, and live in the moment.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age
Review: This is a coming-of-age story of sorts. But it is an intellectual, philosophical coming of age. Demian's interpretation of "the mark of Cain" is a recurring theme. On Demian's account, the mark is not a literal mark, but rather that Cain "struck people as faintly sinister, perhaps a little more intellect and boldness in his look than people were used to." There is a hint of Nietzsche's Übermensch here. This mark is born by Demian and the protagonist, Emil Sinclair. The influence of Carl Jung and his notion of a collective unconscious is suggested in this passage: "If the human race were to vanish from the face of the earth save for one halfway talented child that had received no education, this child would rediscover the entire course of evolution, it would be capable of producing everything once more, gods and demons, paradises, commandments, the Old and New Testament." The book is philosophical, and at the same time, deeply personal. It is worthy of note in the development of existentialism.
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Summary: The Exquisit Feeling of Being Part of Life
Review: ...Very few novels can manage to afect the life of an individual in such a deep way like this one. The first time I read "Demian" I was only 12 years old, today I couldn't say that it was a good decision, because I'm sure that in that particular I didn't understand all the intense meaning that offered the idea of being a descendant of Cain, or to be bonded to the magical idea of Eva, or to be baffled and at the same time fascinated with Demian's almost supernatural personality. It certanly was wonderful to read it later on, in my adolescence, and to feel part of that mystical discovery of life, of romance, of the platonic sexuality, of the pleasures, and to know that letting go and letting be is part of living. Then, in some way, during the long road of life, we can look back and know that all our life, everything we are, is marked by the influences, conditions and circumstances in which we lived our youth and to be able of completing the circle and go back to that magical fascination that offered Eva and Demian as the only certain and real thing that we actually possess, because, in certain way, we're all Cain's descendants... Abel, luckly died...
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing but empty
Review: I found this book (especially the first half) fascinating, and the journey of Sinclair to find himself was intriguing and interesting. He and Demian made fascinating characters, but toward the end of the book, I found that many of the ideas and rituals related to the new philosophy/religion he adopted were rather empty and trite. He seemed misguided and, though he and the others in their cult/society were supposed to be stronger or somehow more enlightened, he seemed to have a surprisingly weak and dependent character. The book is well worth reading, but the process of life and thought that is displayed in his journey is substantially more intriguing than the actual conclusions and resolutions he reaches.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I've read this book several times.
When I was in junior high, again when I was in highschool
and I just picked up this book today and reread it through in one seating
Everytime I read it, it brings new meanings that I didn't realize when I was young.
But it is enjoyable now as much as it was enjoyable back then.
I like this kind of engaging yet thought provoking book.
Feels like getting much needed oxygen for my brain.
Rating:
Summary: Find your true self
Review: I have read all of Hesse's novels, but after reading Demian for the third time, it remains my favorite. The book speaks to the individual because it is about one person's journey to try to live according to the dictates of his own conscience. As the protagonist, Emil Sinclair, says, 'I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings that came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?' As with our culture, Emil Sinclair's world does not necessarily appreciate eccentrics or people who simply divergent from the herd. The book echoes the Nietzschean sentiment that in order to become all we can be, we must rise above the mediocrity of the herd, which is often an arduous task: following the herd is easy; following the dictates of our own consciences is hard. As social creatures, we want to be accepted, but sometimes acceptance comes at an expensive price, the denial of our true selves. Sinclair struggles with this issue. Although he never feels like he quite belongs, he engages in the activities popular with his peers such as drinking and reveling. When he finds himself in perpetual misery and dissatisfaction, he decides to embark on a new path that eventually leads him back to Demian. The novel also echoes the Nietzschean themes of transformation and of creating our own morality. The theme of transformation is illustrated through metaphor in the form of the bird that hatches from its egg. It demonstrates that any type of birth, that is, self-renewal, is difficult. Moreover, it compels us to see that part of transcending the herd has to do with creating our own conceptions of right and wrong. Demian says, 'That is why each of us has to find out for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden ' forbidden to him. It's possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard. And vice versa. Actually it's only a question of convenience. Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws'Each person must stand on his own feet.'
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