34 pages • 1 hour read
Hermann HesseJourney to the East
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The East
The East can be seen as a geographical location or as a variety of metaphors for a lofty goal: “Our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country and something geographical, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and nowhere, it was the union of all times” (26).Its status as an actual location is difficult to sustain. Facing eastward and beginning to walk is not a guarantee of eventually reaching concepts such as the “youth of the soul” or arriving “everywhere and nowhere” (26). When viewed in light of the author’s beliefs, it is more likely that he is using the Journey to the East to illustrate a lifelong journey.
Hesse was deeply invested in Eastern mysticism and Buddhism, and most of H.H.’s descriptions of traveling to the East can be read as the path to enlightenment. Every step on the Journey can be viewed through the lens of another day lived in pursuit of a contemplative, meditative life. Because the mind is not required to live in the present, it is possible for one voyaging through contemplation visit different periods, to see fictional characters, to visit with the deceased, and so on.
The Alsatian Necker
When H.H. reunites with Leo in Seilergraben, they are approached by a dog—an Alsatian Necker—on their walk. The dog is calm with Leo, but growls at H.H. Leo describes the dog as a “good friend” (73) of his and tells the dog to leave H.H. alone and to be friendly. The dog obeys.
The “friendship and intimacy” (74) that Leo shares with the dog is alienating to H.H., who laments that he cannot share in their camaraderie. H.H. questions Leo about the League and the Journey and finds Leo evasive and disappointed in him. When Leo leaves H.H. alone on the walk, the dog immediately begins to growl and bark at him. In the moment, H.H. does not recall that one of Leo’s abilities was to communicate with animals. The dog is a symbol of H.H.’s tendency to place emphasis on the wrong things, which leads him to overlook clues that will enlighten him. The dog’s hostility towards H.H. is a sign that he feels protective
towards Leo, and that in H.H.’s current, unenlightened state, the dog senses that he will be a danger to Leo.
The Archives
The League archives are made accessible to Leo in Chapter 5 in order to test his faith. The archives appear to represent the sum of human knowledge as it pertains to the Journey to the East. And yet, as H.H. begins to investigate the archives, he sees that every fact of the world’s history, down to the level of personal details of any individual, are part of the Journey to the East. The archives represent knowledge, and it is a critical part of H.H.’s shifting perspective that he no longer fears knowledge—knowledge of the unvarnished truth—by the time he enters the archives in Chapter 5. He has accepted that only the truth as it is, and not the truth as he remembers, or the truth as he would have it to be, produces the best outcomes for people. And yet, for a time, he is still more uncomfortable reading about the other people in his group than about himself. Although he has unlimited access to knowledge, he must still have the courage to learn the truth about himself.
In Hesse’s Buddhist worldview, the archives can be read as the mind itself, or consciousness. Everything that a person experiences in a lifetime originates in the mind, and all sensory and experiential data is stored there. There is also a chance that when one chooses to study one’s own mind, the discoveries may be unpleasant, as evidenced by H.H.’s hesitancy to scrutinize himself as part of his test of faith.
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