Steppenwolf

The Preface of Steppenwolf sets up a common framing device, in which an unnamed, fictional editor describes having found the contents of the novel. This framework is often used to add credibility to the text, implying that it is the actual writing of the character, and it can also serve to highlight the secretive or elusive nature of the novel’s contents. The narrator notes that whether “this manuscript needs any introductory remarks may be open to question” (3), while ironically adding his remarks on Haller. The Preface presents itself as an unbiased, outside view of Haller, allowing the reader to see how Haller made an impression on those not described in the manuscript itself. At the same time, the narrator’s lack of confidence in how to publish Haller’s writing implies that Haller did not necessarily intend for the manuscript to be published at all, adding another layer of secrecy to the text.

The Preface includes hints at later themes in Haller’s writing, such as Social Norms and the Repression of the Unconscious. The narrator suspects that Haller’s parents instilled a sense of self-loathing in him, and that loathing extends to society more broadly. At the lecture, the narrator sees Haller’s reaction to the speaker, describing the expression on Haller’s face as “a look that did not simply criticize the lecturer, annihilating the famous man with its delicate but crushing irony” (10). Haller’s reaction makes the narrator question all social organization, adding how “the great and the enduring in man fell away and became a monkey’s trick” (10). This insight into Haller’s life and attitude sets him apart from regular society as an observer and critic of that which most people consider normal. More so, Haller’s reaction to the lecturer exposes his distaste for arrogance and conceit, which he notes in the speaker’s tone and attitude.

However, the narrator also sees Haller as a seeker in The Search for Spiritual and Psychological Fulfillment, specifically when he sees Haller at the music hall. During a performance of Bach, the narrator sees Haller “completely absorbed in himself, and for about ten minutes so happily lost and rapt in pleasant dreams” (19). This connection establishes the motif of music as a source of spirituality, and it hints at Haller’s potential for tranquility and genuine contentedness. In describing Haller’s unhappiness, the narrator introduces the theme of Overcoming Alienation, as Haller sees himself and his generation as torn between two ages. Haller sees the modern age as “caught […] between two modes of life,” because of which it “loses all power to understand itself and has no standard” (24-25). This sense that there are no longer any durable values from which to derive meaning is the source of Haller’s alienation and of his despair.