Steppenwolf

Haller remarks on his uneventful day, both relishing and lamenting the normalcy of his life. He notes his pains, which he attributes to his age, and he imagines the regular people are content with simple pleasures. Haller speculates that normal people are content just to make it through a day without a new war or other conflict. As a Steppenwolf, though, Haller is not satisfied with mere warmth, and he remembers a golden thread that he experiences in special moments. At the concert hall, the piece by Bach evoked the golden thread, which Haller associates with meaning in his life. He appreciates the azalea and araucaria plants in the stairwell, though he criticizes the bourgeois, middle-class nature of his lodgings. Haller goes out to an older district in town, and he finds a partially lit electric sign on his favorite wall. The sign advertises a magical theater for “madmen,” but it disappears. Haller goes to a tavern, wishing he could find the theater.

Haller remembers valuable moments in his life, such as reading books in a monastery, admiring a fading fresco painted on the wall of an old hospital, and watching clouds by the Rhine. Haller reads a newspaper, thinking that it is ridiculous to read thoughts regurgitated by a journalist.