Steppenwolf

An unnamed narrator introduces the writing of Henry Haller, the Steppenwolf. Haller lodged at the narrator’s aunt’s home, and the narrator was wary of Haller at first. Haller remarked on the pleasant smell of his aunt’s home, but he was otherwise antisocial. Haller was around 50 years old when he came to stay with the narrator’s aunt, and he stayed with her for about eight months. Haller appeared to be ill or injured, limping and struggling to climb stairs at times. The narrator notes that Haller had the air of a larger, secure man. The narrator recalls attending a lecture with Haller. The lecturer was arrogant and dull, and Haller looked at the narrator with a horrible, sad face, and the narrator saw that Haller knew what he also knew: that society is a performance or joke. The narrator did not approve of Haller’s drinking and smoking, but he concedes that Haller’s many books, pictures, and cigars gave him the air of an intellectual. The narrator speculates that Haller hates himself, perhaps because of abuse by Haller’s parents. One day, the narrator came home to find Haller sitting on the stairs. Haller explained that the tidy plants and cupboards of one corner of the stairwell represented social order and bourgeois life.