

The novel is set in Germany in the decade preceding World War I, roughly 1904 to 1914. Demian was published in the aftermath of World War I and grew out of Hesse's experience of psychoanalysis with Carl Jung and J. J.Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth (1919) is a semi-autobiographical novel by German writer Hermann Hesse. Priday (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1923) Thomas Mann wrote an introduction to the book in 1947.
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The symbol of Abraxas appears as a bird breaking free from an egg or a globe. Demian argues that Jehovah, the Jewish God, is only one face of God it rules over all that is wholesome, but there is another half of the world, and an infinite god must encompass both sides of this world. The Gnostic deity Abraxas is used as a symbol throughout the text, idealizing the interdependence of all that is good and evil in the world. These women do not have major roles in the story, but Hesse uses them symbolically as facets of the depths of Sinclair's mind. While at school, he sees a beautiful woman whom he calls Beatrice, and towards the end of the novel, when Sinclair is an adolescent man, he discovers Demian's mother, Frau Eva. At the beginning, Sinclair looks up to his sisters and mother, and even his house maid. In the Jungian interpretation of Demian, women do not play a vital role but instead are used as feminine symbols. According to Hesse, the novel is a story of Jungian individuation, the process of opening up to one's unconsciousness. The novel refers to the idea of Gnosticism, particularly the god Abraxas, showing the influence of Carl Jung's psychology.

One of the major themes is the existence of opposing forces and the idea that both are necessary. Such themes appear throughout Demian as semi-autobiographical reflections upon Hesse's own exploration of Jungian philosophy. In addition, psychoanalysis helped Hesse identify psychological problems which he had experienced in his youth, including internal tension caused by a conflict between his own carnal instincts and the strict moralism of his parents. Demian is replete with both Jungian archetypes and Jungian symbolism. Through his contact with Lang and later, in 1921, from being psychoanalyzed by Jung, Hesse became very interested in Jungian analysis and interpretation. In 1916–17 he underwent psychoanalytic treatment with Josef Lang, a disciple of Carl Jung. During the 1910s, Hesse felt that the psychological difficulties that had tormented him since youth needed to be dealt with through psychotherapy. Since at least 1914, if not 1909, Hesse had been encountering the newly growing field of psychoanalysis as it moved through the German intellectual circles. She steadily becomes Sinclair's ideal characterisation in life, first in his pictures and visions, then in person.
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Pistorius teaches Sinclair how to look inside himself for spiritual guidance.
