THE DUALITY OF MAN THROUGH THE METAPHOR OF THE WOLF INSTEPPENWOLF
THE DUALITY OF MAN THROUGH THE METAPHOR OF THE WOLF INSTEPPENWOLF

Summary/Abstract: The present article aims to offer an insight into the psychological evolution of the main character in the modernist novel, Steppenwolf, written by Hermann Hesse. The duality of man is a very broad, complex and highly debated topic and it has been viewed as a many layered topic since it implies psychology, philosophy of mind, theories of personality, ontology, phenomenology and not least, socio-cultural strings. Modernism is known as a cultural movement illustrating the 20th century world and it is a key reference regarding the understanding of human evolution up to the present because there were not only historical events that changed everything irrevocably such as the world wars, but there were new perspectives about life and existence on this earth. The identity of the person became a central theme tackled by most scholars, linguists, writers, philosophers and thinkers. The imagery presented in modernist novels stand as pieces of a whole focused on subjectivism in terms of experiences, consciousness of the person and complexity of the human being’s inwardness. The distinctive features of their narratives are on one hand, the effect produced by the text and on the other hand, the infinite challenges when decoding the meanings. Another main aspect is the lack of plot happening that becomes a string of psychological searches The main frame of work present throughout this paper is symbolism, some of the Jungian concepts as part of the character’s understanding of his self, and observations related to psychological terms such as consciousness, self-awareness, unconscious, person that shall be viewed in the light of phenomenology. The interpretation is divided in three main parts, according to the key aspects that were traced: the idea of double through the metaphor of the wolf, the social effects on the character’s perception, and his relation towards him and others.

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