Steppenwolf Literary Elements

The autobiographical, adventure, existential novel

Place: a random Swiss town. The action of the novel covers about three weeks. The plot of the book opens with commentary of a narrator, who is recollecting interesting details about a man renting apartments from his aunt. He represents to our attention the manuscript published by his guest, making for us a short introduction.

There are three narrators: Harry Haller himself, the nephew of Landlady and anonymous third-person, omniscient. For the most part, the narrative is from the first person, but there are some parts when story is told by a third person.

Tone of the book is similar to waves, as it changes very often with a fast pace. There are all types: from relaxed and calm to ironic and even illusory-fanciful.

Harry Haller, who is also known as the Steppenwolf is the protagonist.

There are several key conflicts in the book. The inner conflict of Harry Haller, who wanders in his heart between the desires of the ‘Steppenwolf’ and his human counterpart is the deepest issue. Moreover, the issues of alienation and life on the verge of suicide are also important and can be easily classified as the major conflict.

Murder of Hermine, that caused Harry’s understanding of his self-identity.

The nephew’s foreword about Harry Haller and his peculiar behavior. Hermine’s previous request. Steppenwolf’s thoughts.

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The main allusion is the Steppenwolf itself, because the protagonist tries to assume such a role after reading the treatise. The other important allusion is chess pieces. Their meaning lies in the personification of all those parts into which the personality decays:
“"Then be so kind as to place a few dozen of your pieces at my disposal."
"My pieces—?"
"Of the pieces into which you saw your so-called personality broken up. I can't play without pieces."”

Imagery is used to describe Harry Haller’s feelings, they are mostly visualized through smells (smells of cleanness and araucaria) and sounds (music in the Magic theatre) to make it more realistic for reader's perception. It also used to describe the other characters (their feelings and appearance) and places where events took place for better understanding.

The struggle - the reluctance is to tolerate the world, but the desire to be part of it.

In the life of this man, too, as well as in all things else in the world, daily use and the accepted and common knowledge seemed sometimes to have no other aim than to be arrested now and again for an instant, and broken through, in order to yield the place of honor to the exceptional and miraculous.
Only in the theatrical world, occasionally, in earlier years had I come across similar existences—women as well as men who lived half for art and half for pleasure.

We sat there for an hour, and while I drank two glasses of mineral water, he accounted for a pint of red wine and then called for another half.

“Somewhere below I heard a door, a glass break, a titter of laughter die away, mixed with the angry hurried noise of motorcars starting up”
‘Heard the door’ means heard the door opens
This Magic Theater was clearly no paradise. All hell lay beneath its charming surface.
‘Magic Theater” stands for immortals existed there, ‘all hell’ also stands for immortals, but with characteristic hint.
I heard Mozart's "Violets" and Schubert's "Again thou fillest brake and vale" quite distinctly.
Names of songs in this sentence are examples of metonymy, that represents the general name for the music compositions of these brilliant composers.

By chance I was there at the very moment when the Steppenwolf entered our house for thefirst time and became my aunt's lodger.
By the time we had reached dessert, silence had descended on all three of us.
“…my heart gave a sudden bound; for all at once the poem came to my mind—"The dusk with folding wing."
It is impossible for these objects to behave in such a way or to have such characteristics in literal sense of the word.