Author: Diana N

I decided to do research on Hermann Hesse’s ‘Demian’ because I got to read that book a couple years ago and always ended up curious about certain topics that I never really got the answers to. My research question is, How did Hermann Hesse apply real world psychology in Demian and in what ways did he use his characters to show people that morality is relative to the individual?. The reason I am interested In this topic is because Demian really started my interest in psychology, more specifically Psychoanalysis. I remember writing a paper on Hermann Hesse for my Literature class in junior year but it was more centered on who he was as a person and less on who he was as a writer, so I would like to take this chance to talk about his writing. I found Demian to be such an interesting book with so many unanswered questions about its characters, what they represent and why certain things happened the way they did. While researching I expect to find the meanings and ties to the real world that Herman Hesse applied to the book, as well as more on the back story on what inspired him to write a story like Demian including why he chose to connect things like natural evolution, biblical allusions, conscious ego, collective unconscious, self, and anima to this story and his concept of “magical thinking”. I also expect to learn more about the characters and what they represent, especially Demian himself and Beatrice/Frau Eva.

I actually agree with what James Baldwin was saying throughout this passage because, as a current student he is right when he says that while American history is a larger world to cover, the current world is also a large world to cover and how it’s important too. What I think James Baldwin means when he says “the world is larger?” is that while schools teach us a lot about American history and how countries came to be, schools should also be teaching students things that will help them in the current world because that is just as important, maybe even more than learning about the past.

What I think the school system in America should have been teaching us as soon as we got to high school is money. I think that money is a topic that should have been touched up on more, and not the history of money or how money is made but how to use it in the world now or bills and bills are taken care of. I would have also liked if schools taught more about jobs, taxes, and things that we would be doing when we become independent, and I would have liked it to be full of classes apart from our everyday schedule instead of extra classes you would need to sign up for or an elective or clubs you would have to join after school. I think overall that people in the education system focus more on kids needing to know who our presidents are or what the periodic table is and forget to prepare us for “the world” that James Baldwin talks about.

 

One teacher I will always remember for the rest of my life is Ms. Grace. The main thing I remember about her is how she used to have a vanilla mixed with cigarettes smell that I used to love so much. I remember being scared of school because I knew no one there, and me not knowing how to speak English at the time, was ready to just give up anything school related. At around that time I got transferred into Ms. Graces class and after a while she noticed that it was hard for me to communicate the way I wanted, so she would find ways to say things in a way that I would understand better. Eventually she started teaching me English little by little, and looking back I notice how patient she was with me and in extremely grateful for that.

After third grade my parents put me in another school because of their jobs, so after second grade was that last time I saw her. One thing that I remember her teaching me was learning how to ask for help and how to be patient with myself even when I didn’t understand something, which was something I was very bad at growing up. This year when I graduated I got the opportunity to see her again and when I did we both just bursted into tears.

When she hugged me, she hugged me tight and then all that nostalgia came back to me as soon as she did. As soon as I hugged her back the smell of that warm vanilla and cigarettes came back to me. I thought it was crazy that she smelled and looked exactly the same as I remember her. The first thing she told me was how she was extremely happy to she me in a cap and gown with my high school diploma, and that just gave me the most warmest and proudest feeling I had ever felt. She proceeded to tell me that she was actually retiring soon and how she was happy that she could see me again and was shocked on how I still remembered her after all these years. And that’s when it hit me, she had such an impact on my life that I would be able to remember her without even trying, and that showed me that you can see which teachers are the one who really love and care about their jobs because, I know for a fact that if Ms. Grace did not care about her job me and my friends who also had the chance to be taught by her, would not have remembered her after all these years.