Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse - Time to Read This Classic Again
By Cheryl A. Chatfield, Ph.D.

I am amazed how powerful this work is for me today, 30 years after I originally read it. Steppenwolf speaks to our duality, that part of us we call "human" and the part the novel describes as "wolf," or the shadow side we try to hide. But, as the book suggests, we are more than these two limitations.

First, the novel proposes that our plight as humans may be to learn to enjoy the daily and the mundane, to embrace life's pleasures and surrender ourselves to intimacy, while suffering the pangs of loneliness, isolation and abandon - the pangs of knowing there is something more we can't attain. Perhaps that attainment is locked into the daily routine. Perhaps it is hidden in the joys of sharing with others or within the human encounters when we let ourselves experience the moment and subdue the intellect. Perhaps it is all of these.

Perhaps there is a way to transcend our plight and get lost in Steppenwolf's world of blurred lines. Hesse wants us to learn to laugh. "Now, true humor begins when a man ceases to take himself seriously." While that is not the answer to everything, a modification of it seems to fit many scenarios. Laugh at the ambiguities and unfairness in life. Laugh at ourselves trying to understand them. Laugh, and maybe we can begin to live consciously and not just as a prelude to death.

Perhaps laughter teaches us what Harry, the main character, discovers. There is more to us than our personality. Life isn't just a duality of man and wolf. There is another level - the spiritual or mystical. Part of us lives there, too. To get there, we must let go, laugh and enter an unknown, sometimes scary world. Harry does. He reluctantly enters the "mystic union of joy" and escapes his personality, or the "prison where you lie." There is so much more to us than our personality. We can transcend the two parts of us, the human part that is civilized and tamed, and the "wolf" or shadow side that is wild and instinctive. Our less-than-human side is not a part we can disown. We need to let go of one in order to not fear the other. Then we can rise above both and glimpse that other world of spirit.

This novel shows more than the importance of finding an equilibrium between the two parts of us, that is the "human" and the "shadow" within. This is a chance to enter and to get lost in a bizarre environment where you may find that other dimension of yourself. This is another opportunity to accept that the world we see isn't the only reality. That blurring line between what we think we know and what we sense gets less clear. And that is the good news.

Cheryl A. Chatfield, Ph. D. invites you to visit her nonprofit organization at http://NottInstitute.org to sign up for the free monthly Practical Spirituality Newsletter and receive a complimentary copy of "Five Must-Read Metaphysical Books for 2010."

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