Published in 1927, Steppenwolf is a psychoanalytical novel and a precursor to angsty works such as The Catcher in the Rye (1951). There are themes of alienation from society, youthful hedonism, angst, and a meandering sense of disassociation.

Steppenwolf also channels these popular “I’m so messed up” themes, but it’s a lot darker and, dare we say, not as good as it’s been made out in literary circles.

Well, that’s our opinion at any rate. Let’s explore this one and see what the work offers.

Poetical Self-Portrait (with themes of Mozart) in Steppenwolf

“There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.”

Hesse (1877-1962) was a, German-born, Swiss painter and novelist. He wrote plenty of novels in his life, with Steppenwolf being his 10th outing.

It’s a loosely autobiographical account of a spiritual crisis in Hesse’s life, which is represented in the novel by a character called Harry Haller. The guy’s resentful nature is brings about wolf-like aggression and alienation from society.

This means readers can compare Steppenwolf to a Faust-like experience. That’s a classical hero of German legend based on Johann Georg Faust (1480-1540). The idea of Faust is a high achiever who’s still unhappy with his lot—as if he is greater than life itself and has overcome the boundaries of mundane existence.

For Steppenwolf, this translates into a lot of brooding.

“Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve.”

The plot concerns the aforementioned Mr. Haller, with the novel in the style of a tome written by the lead character.

The middle-aged Haller is having something of a personal crisis and feels he doesn’t fit into society, which is leading to brooding resentment and violent thoughts.

Whilst out and about one day he’s handed the Treatise on the Steppenwolf, which concerns the nature of the human condition. The spiritual nature of a man, but also the animalistic side (i.e. a wolf), which leads Haller to realise he is, and always will be, alienated from his kind.

“For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.”

This all leads to a murder in the closing act of the work, which we consider a pretty tedious literary trope even at the point of the work’s publication.

There are echoes of Dostoyevsky’s masterwork Crime and Punishment (1866) in Haller’s violent act. And angst. It’s almost as if Raskolnikov is back all over again.

To be fair, Hesse indicated the novel offers the possibility for transcendence and healing when not focusing in on the gritty unpleasant stuff. Haller finds some personal release from mystical helpers and Magical Theatre in overcoming his self-loathing.

Through that, he finds faith and hope—an ascendency, if you please.

Now it’s subjective, and plenty of readers would admonish us for this decision and consider some of our favourite novels as rubbish, but we found Steppenwolf rather dull. There’s lots of monologuing like this.

“When I have neither pleasure nor pain and have been breathing for a while the lukewarm insipid air of these so called good and tolerable days, I feel so bad in my childish soul that I smash my moldering lyre of thanksgiving in the face of the slumbering god of contentment and would rather feel the very devil burn in me than this warmth of a well-heated room. A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse, perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages, to pull off the wigs of a few revered idols…”

For 1927, it may have seemed more antisocial and daring as a novel.

But we read a while after we’d gone through works such as Sartre’s contemplative The Age of Reason (1945). Which we consider much more fresh, lively, and enthralling as a narrative.

Hesse considered Steppenwolf his most misunderstood work.

Perhaps he wouldn’t be overly pleased to find it now neatly snuggled up in the angst genre for people to read and believe they’re suffering an existential crisis.

Steppenwolf’s 1974 Film Adaptation

As you can see, there was a 1974 film adaptation which featured (for the time) cutting-edge special effects.

The film starred Max von Sydow (of The Exorcist fame) and really ramps up the resentment, doom, and gloom.

It’s the type of film we’d probably have loved when we were 18 and in our angst faze, but we haven’t gotten round to watching it yet.

A Bit About Hermann Hesse and His Personal Philosophy

Hesse argues Steppenwolf was misunderstood and that, instead of focussing on the doom and gloom of the work, readers should find greater meaning within the pages.

Just a reminder, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1946).

His works featured far-reaching considerations on personal identity, authenticity, and spirituality. And his philosophical stance is summed up as this.

“I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I’ve got.”

Hesse didn’t like the idea of conformity. He argued everyone should follow a personal destiny, instead of flocking towards tedious, engineered notions of success.

He argued the usual societal stuff (money, success, power) were there to ensure the state could continue without collapse.

This is all a basic summary of his personal philosophies, and political stance, but if you’re interested you should check out the likes of Narcissus and the Goldmund (1930) or Siddhartha: An Indian Novel (1922) for more insights.