Demian by Hermann Hesse is considered to be a highly controversial novel since the day it was published. Demian is a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel that focuses on the moral and psychological growth of the main character. Hesse’s great interest in psychology is the reason that the novel contains numerous Jungian references. The Jungian Principle of Opposites, the Jungian Model of the Psyche, and multiple Jungian archetypes are heavily portrayed in Demian.
Carl Jung’s Principle of Opposites is represented by Abraxas, the Gnostic God of good and evil. The Principle states that one must know of a concept of evil to understand the concept of good. Sinclair realizes that all individuals are good and evil, therefore, he must learn to accept
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When Sinclair and Demian became newly acquainted, Sinclair did not understand Demian’s ideas. Nonetheless, Sinclair was intrigued by Demian’s beliefs and he desired to know more information. Demian becomes the master and teacher of Emil Sinclair because he gave advice that impacted Sinclair in a positive manner. Therefore, Demian posses the qualities of the Wise Old Man, which is a Jungian archetype. Boeree suggests, “The hero is guided by the wise old man… [he] reveals to the hero the nature of the collective unconscious” (Other archetypes section). The character of Frau Eva portrays Sinclair’s anima. Boeree claims that “The anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men” and is usually “a witch” or “earth mother” (Anima and animus section). Sinclair feels that Frau Eva is part of himself because she understands him very well. She also helps Sinclair to understand better his inner self. The character of Kromer from Jung’s perspective would be the shadow. The shadow is described as “the evil that we are capable of” by Boeree (The shadow section). Kromer is Sinclair’s first contact with the dark world. Kromer also influenced Sinclair to change his perspective regarding good and
2. Looking at the candle before me, it was hard to imagine that it was made from the tallow of a sheep.
The various characters demonstrate an understanding of certain psychological quirks attached to their respective archetype. For example, Dunstan’s introversion makes him susceptible to become the “Fifth Business,” while his mentality of being the confidant forces him to keep secrets regardless of who is being told or whom the secret is from. Percy’s obsession for power shows the lack of psychological development to gain emotion, becoming emotionally stunted and naive. Mrs. Dempster’s saint archetype as seen by Dunstan is to an extreme degree, to the point where she seemingly does anything to help, often coming off as a miracle worker. Such archetypes have their effects on each individual’s thoughts and behaviour, and the reason that Davies is able to represent these archetypes is due to the fact that these psychological characteristics take part in our everyday life in the people we meet. This allows the readers to better understand the characters as they are able to connect these characters with people they know in real life. It is important to recognize that the thoughts build the person, and the theme of psychology focuses on just that. As a result of this, Davies does an excellent job in representing each of the characters as their own
Plato was one of the first known people to talk about the theory of archetypes. His idea was that archetypes were imprinted onto people’s soul and their life played out accordingly. Now though, archetypes are used in movies, literature, and to define the human race. In George Lucas’s Star Wars, archetypes are used deliberately in the story. Lucas modeled many of the characters after the “Jungian” archetypes. Some of the prominent archetypes in Star Wars are “Good vs. Evil”, “Hunting Group of Companions”, and the “Initiate”.
What is an archetype? An archetype is a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology. A Hero’s Journey is a series of events, which are also archetypes that give the story structure and help progress the plot. The 2009 movie directed by James Cameron, Avatar, is a great example to show how archetypes help to propel a plot. Avatar is about Jake Sully, a crippled marine, having to go on a mission to become an avatar to fulfill his brother’s legacy after he died. To complete his mission, he travels to an exotic planet named Pandora. The planet was inhabited by the Na’vi, a tribe of human-like creatures who revolve their lives and beliefs around nature. Jake was to befriend the Na’vi and earn their trust in order to collect a mineral
Archetypes Explored by Huxley All books carry a type of defiant structure weather that is a place, a character, or lesson. In the dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley called Brave New World, Huxley explores many recurring symbols yet two main distinctive archetypes stood out. The symbol archetype of color and character archetype of the outcast drive the plot of the book. Colors symbolize different meanings such as black representing death or green representing hope.
In Homers epic poem “The Odyssey” there are many archetypes, many of which were the origin of the archetype. An archetype is a character type, place, or symbol, every culture shares. In “The Odyssey” Homer uses archetypes to evoke meaning to the story. Some examples of archetypes in “The Odyssey” are the temptress, and the father-son conflict.
Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” is about a man who is a book critic. He recalls his lost a memory of childhood after being shot in the head during a bank robbery. In the beginning of the story, Anders’ personality is revealed as cynical, narcissistic, and pompous. As the story reaches its end, Anders reveals another side of his personality that has been hidden from the beginning of the story. Anders is presented as an unsympathetic character, but the author uses different points of view in the story that makes the audience sympathetic towards him in the end. The author uses different third person perspective, symbolism, and setting to contribute to the theme of the story that a human’s personality changes by time, and environment or experience.
“Pan was passionate about life and disgusted by it in the same breath; he is seething hatred and undying love. He is the optimist and the pessimist, the introvert and the extrovert, reclusive and gregarious, good and evil, and light and dark. Pan never saw himself as a shepherd though he did see most people as sheep in need of a shepherd. He lived in the city but longed for the mountains. He loved lyrics and music but playing an instrument wasn’t one of Pan’s abilities, his voices that flowed so easily depending on the situation, were his pipes.”
Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, utilizes two archetypes: redemptive sacrifice and innocence. A reoccurring theme in the novel is justice. Erdrich’s incorporation of archetypes and the theme of justice help readers sympathize with the narrator and justify the final act of revenge.
1. The River – Almost any source of water will focus on the importance of life. Without water there is no life. A journey on or down a river is often a metaphor for life’s journey or a character’s journey, especially if the river is shown as a road or means of travel – pulling or pushing a character through changes. (Twain’s Huck Finn) Rivers can also be a metaphor for the passage of time (Big Fish) or the stages of a human life (creek, roaring river, sea; or the crossing of the river Styx in Greek myths). Since rivers are often used as political borders or boundaries, crossing one may be seen as a “passing over” or a decision that cannot be taken back. In Africa, and thus African literature, rivers are the
Carl Gustav Jung is a Swiss psychiatrist and the successor of psychoanalysis with important intellectual movements of the twentieth century. In his early career, Jung was influenced by the theory of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis (Breger 2000, p. 217). However, they came into disagreement in notions which then broke their relationship. It was because Freud’s view of myth was based on reality, which there was no religion involved, whereas Jung though that myth was based on both reality and religion. Consequently, Jung’s notions were commonly accepted by society because of the wider context. Then, through his research and clinical findings, he developed some concepts like archetypes, collective unconscious, shadow, extrovert and introvert and persona (Carter 2011 p. 442). These concepts help Jung to deepen the explanation about myth. For Jung, myth is a projection of archetypes and collective unconscious. Their form are universal and identical with every society back into history. Myth can be identical because the original form, the archetypes, is configured to be the same among human's unconscious globally where people's psychic realm encounters certain motifs and typical figures that built into the structure of man’s unconsciousness (Jung Myth Ex. 3-4). According to Edward Tylor and James Frazer, myth and science were contradict where science was factual and myth was not (Segal 2003, p. 48). Therefore, myth has an important role in human nature and modern
Robert Louis Stevenson’s communication of the balance of good and evil can be broken down to three simple things. One, when you're suppress your feelings and needs (the evil) it slowly starts becoming stronger and stronger until it takes over. Two, your appearance is affected by the way you choose to balance yourself. Three, friendships can be ruined or could help you when you need someone by having difference of opinions. In conclusion, balancing your good and evil sides of your personality can have big changes for you and the people around
In the novel, Demian, the protagonist and narrator, Emil Sinclair, uncovers his unconscious through the process of individuation. The process of individuation includes the steps to uncover one’s unconscious and the will to accept every part of him.
Before we can dive into the problem of evil, we must define a term. Whenever the word “God” is used in this paper, it is referring to the classical theistic conception of God. In this view of God, God is that, “than which nothing greater can be conceived” in your mind. Any attributes or qualities that make a being great, God has to the maximum. This means that, among many other qualities, God is benevolent(all good), omnipotent(all powerful), and omniscient(all knowing). Furthermore, God is the creator of the universe and is personally connected to the human race.
Carl Jung believed that you couldn’t become a good person until you realized your capacity for evil. I don’t mean acting it out on the world, but understand that it is possible, and to bring it under your control. This is because there’s a big difference between someone who is ‘naive’ and a ‘good person’, and someone genuine. They’re a good person because they can’t not be, they’re like a pet cat, they don’t even have the capacity to be bad, there’s no morality in that. The morality comes when you’re a monster, and you can control it, and that’s the Jungian encounter with the shadow, who’s roots, according to Jung, go all the way down to hell.