In fairness, Steppenwolf seems to have been subject to a myriad of interpretations down the years, and Hesse himself commented that the book had been very much misunderstood by many people. At the risk of being accused of misunderstanding the many messages myself, I have attempted to dissect some of the themes which are touched on or probed.
Through the main character, Harry Haller, the novel takes a look at to what degree some people have split personalities (in Haller's case between "man" and "wolf"), but also the notion that we have multi-layered personalities.
Within the context of all this, we also delve into the conflicts and tensions between individualism and bourgeois existence, and see how a solitary and single-minded approach to life and culture can often become a blind alley, where resentment and bitterness might fester and thrive.
As Haller continues on his journey, he meets people who introduce him to frivolity and decadence. Touching on the issue of multi-layered personalities once more, it is hinted that we should value some levity as an emollient. Alien worlds are much more welcoming and accommodating than we might have imagined. Other people are fascinated by the strengths of the loner or the thinker, and they themselves may yearn to fill in some of the gaps in their own development. There is no shame in these "compromises", as greater rewards may lie ahead...
One strand which I picked up, rightly or wrongly, during the period when Haller links up with Hermine and the saxophonist Pablo, is an assertion that the sensual, and the pleasures of the flesh, are just as worthy and valid as the intellectual. Sensuality is a form of an expression, and a mode of living, just as "conventional" culture is.
This part of the novel was the most fascinating for me, as it began to steer the story discernibly in the direction of transcendence, a much favoured subject of Hesse. The question began to form in my mind - "well, we've learned to welcome more joviality and hedonism into our lives, but where does this take us?". There is a recognition that even those individuals who cultivate advanced tastes for both the individual and the sensual will be little appreciated, and that shallowness and mediocrity will still hold sway. But will there still be some form of escape, or release, for the inquisitive and the curious?
Grandiose though the ending of Steppenwolf is, many matters are left wholly or partly unresolved for me. There are references to immortality and eternity, and the almost obligatory allusion to a return to a child-like state, which is presumably in part what endeared this work to the post World War 2 "counterculture".
During the Masked Ball scene, intoxication appears to be put forward as a kind of release from the constant striving, suffering, indiscretions and effort of life, but even this is not sufficient for Harry Haller.
The subsequent hallucinatory scenes offer additional clues, and build on the premise of a multi-layered human being. The killing of Hermine by Haller (the Steppenwolf) provides persuasive hints that the animalistic side of him was still lurking, the irony being that she prevailed upon him to end her life in exchange for tutoring him in the ways of her social milieu.
So is life for most of us a never-ending struggle, characterised by our constant shuffling of the various pieces of our multi-faceted personality, and not finalised by even death itself?
Another thought which increasingly weighed on my mind as I progressed through Steppenwolf was that rather than simply taking life too seriously, some of us fail to take some aspects of life, and our "souls", seriously enough. A balancing is desirable.
Even allowing for the outwardly downbeat ending, some optimistic notes are still struck towards the end of the story. We all have it within our power to change, but our "souls" need to be unlocked, and this may entail the assistance of others.
Not as linear as Siddhartha, or as enriching as The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf is nevertheless a work which will continue to provoke much thought and reflection among many people.
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