Dreams in the novel Demian

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To dream is to acknowledge, realize, or admonish something. As the great philosopher Sigmund Freud once theorized: when we dream, we are making wishes come true. Dreams can be interpreted many different ways. The way we interoperate or dreams can have a like altering effect on who and what we are. Throughout the novel “Demian” by Hermann Hesse, the main character Emil Sinclair struggles to find himself while interoperating his dreams. There are three main instances in the book where Emil is changed in some way because of his dreams. The first dream that has significance to Emil is the dream of Demian and the coat of arms. In the dream, Demian holds the coat of arms in his hand as it changes continuously. It changes to be diminutive and gray, often powerful and varicolored. In the dream Demian explains to Emil that these qualities are one in the same thing. Then Demian instructs Emil to eat the Sparrow Hawk. As he does so the heraldic bird comes to life inside of him, swells up, and threatens to devour him from within. Then Emil awakens. This dream can be interoperated to suggest that Emil has become the Sparrow Hawk, in other words, the dark and diminutive creature that he has swallowed. Also when interoperating this dream, the phrase, “you are what you eat” comes to mind. This would seem to suggest that unwillingly Emil is changing into a more sinister and mysterious character. In this way Emil has grown. Another Dream where Emil grows is the dream of hatching from the Sparrow Hawk’s egg. This dream causes Emil to paint a picture of his struggles to free himself from the egg. When we dream it is as if we are going through a doorway into a different world. This is the idea demonstrated in Emil’s painting. By fighting to break through the egg shell he is breaking out of an old world and into a new. This passage signifies a change in Emil. This
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