A review of Hesse's prose and poetry reveals three distinct periods. Each represents a different stage in the course of the author's struggle with himself and with life as a whole, and each reflects a correspondingly different phase in his style. The first of these three periods, the two decades preceding Demian …, is one of uncertainty and vague presentiment. These are the early years of a sensitive outsider who cannot cope directly with his particular problem of existence. He resorts ...

Youth is one of Hesse's major literary themes. (p. 181) [In his work, there] is one recurring theme, essentially a reiteration of that of Demian, the tortured development of genuine individuality.