Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

In the book, Treatise on the Steppenwolf, which the mysterious man gives to Harry in the street, there is a lot of telling it like it is. For example, the book says, "And so the Steppenwolf had two natures, a human and a wolfish one" (33); later on it reveals that Harry "was numbered among the suicides" (39).

This is a pretty nifty trick of Hesse's—he uses the book within the book to tell us everything we need to know about Harry. It's like direct characterization indirectly. Or something.

Physical Appearances

Our first narrator, the guy that writes the preface, reads a lot into Harry's outer appearance. We guess he never heard that saying about judging a book by its cover. He is sure that Harry's a nut just by the way he looks:

Though not very big, he had the bearing of a big man. He wore a fashionable and comfortable winter overcoat and he was well, though carelessly, dressed, clean-shaven, and his cropped head showed here and there a streak of grey. He carried himself in a way I did not at all like at first. There was something weary and undecided about it that did not go with his keen and striking profile nor with the tone of his voice. (Preface, 6)

In just a few lines we learn that Harry should be powerful (because he carries himself like a big man), but that he doesn't live up to his potential (because he walks like a wimp). We also find out that he is getting up in years because of his grey hair. Or maybe he's just really into chalking?

Sex and Love

Getting it on (and on, and on, and on) is a big part of how characters show who they are in Steppenwolf. Harry has one divorce and a bad relationship with his girlfriend under his belt when he meets Maria, who teaches him all sorts of new kisses and sexy moves.

Maria, Pablo, and Hermine are love children who just follow their nose to their next conquest. Hanky panky is the name of the game, and Harry is both puzzled and attracted by the way the other characters are so free with themselves:

It was curious and mysterious to know, when I was with Maria again, that she had had Hermine in her arms just as she had me… New, indirect and complicated relations rose before me, new possibilities in love and life; and I thought of the thousand souls of the Steppenwolf treatise. (400)

This shows us that love and sex is a way of self-expression in the book, and by having many partners, sometimes all at once, the characters are exploring different identities.