With his novels, the Swiss-German author Hermann Hesse investigates a surprising oriental vision of the perception that people have of themselves. While Westerners traditionally describe each person with precise characteristics such as names, appearance and main traits, Hesse argues that this idea is incorrect and sometimes even harmful. The main character of his famous novel Steppenwolf, Harry Haller, discovers multiple contradictory personalities within himself. Only after understanding and accepting these many sides of himself does Harry become free and happy. In his novel, Hesse encourages his readers to abandon the ancient Western idea of ​​a strictly defined personality, to learn to laugh, to become loving to themselves and their fellow men, and to seek liberation deep within their own unanticipated self. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay One of the main points made by Hesse is the inability of the Western world to understand the complexity of the human personality. Harry suffers because he cannot accept the fact that a part of himself defies the expectations of his immediate social environment. Sometimes Harry sees himself as an animal, a steppe beast: “He walked on two legs, wore clothes and was a human being, but despite this he was actually a steppe wolf. He had learned a lot. . . and he was a pretty smart guy. What he hadn't learned, however, was this: finding contentment in himself and in his life. The cause of this evidently was that deep down in his heart he always knew (or thought he knew) that he was in reality not a man, but a steppe wolf." Unfortunately, Harry not only cannot accept or understand, but cannot even see clearly multiple parts of himself. While his soul is a baroque mosaic, Harry perceives every unconventional part of himself as an anomaly. In the rush for money, in the attempt to remain moral, in the struggle to become educated, people often forget a sensual, "animal" part of themselves. . Harry spends years in refined reading and loses contact with the Harry-child, the Harry-dancer, the Harry-lover. "OH! how stiff you are! Go straight as if you were walking... Dancing, don't you see, is just as easy as thinking, when you can do it, and much easier to learn. Now you can understand why people don't get into the habit of think," - says Hermine, Harry's closest friend. Through Hermine Hesse teaches the reader not to neglect what modern Western society considers to be a "primitive" part of a person. Laughter, dancing and affectionate feelings towards other human beings are components of the potion that Hesse prescribes to Harry to combat the psychological illness from which the main character suffers: “This night of the ball I was touched by an experience that I had never experienced in all my fifty years. years, although it is known to every idiot and student: the intoxication of a general celebration, the mysterious fusion of personality in the mass, the mystical union of joy”. An immersion in the larger human mass and the disintegration of the personality bring Harry the joy and liberation that has long been missing. In other words, confined within narrow limits of a well-defined character, acquiring wealth and status, but losing contact with himself, a person does not find true happiness. Hesse not only admits that different souls are imprisoned within a single mind, but also underlines the need for "space" and attention of each of them. For example, throughout most of the book Hesse glorifies interpersonal relationships of numerous types: camaraderie, friendship, artistic bonds, and intimacy between lovers. But loneliness is inevitable, sometimes beautiful.