A tortoise (Allegory)
Almost every person who has ever tried to take a path to himself or herself in order to understand the genuine nature of human beings knows how inexplicably difficult and exhausting this task may be. The world is full of various distractions, which prevent us from thinking and concentrating on really important things. A tortoise is an allegory of complete and utter detachment, for it can easily “crawl completely inside oneself”. To hide in one’s inner world like the tortoise hides in its shell. Just like a tortoise, Max Demian can easily do it and tries to teach Emil to do the same. When Emil witnesses this process of crawling “completely inside oneself”’ for the first time, he is horrified and thinks that Max might be “dead”.
Abraxas (Symbol)
Abraxas is a symbol which combines “godly and devilish elements”, a symbol, which shows that the world is united, that there is no the world of light or the world of bad. Abraxas is also a symbol of dissatisfaction with the old way of thinking, with the division of good and evil in Christianity. He is “God and Satan and he contains both the luminous and the dark world”. Representing the good and the evil, Abraxas becomes an important figure in Sinclair’s life, for he is a combination of the good and evil too.
A path to himself (Motif)
This story shows how difficult it could be to take a path to oneself. As it is said in the novel “each man’s life represents a road towards himself, an attempt at such a road, the intimation of a path”. It is usually preceded with numerous inner conflicts, crisis, problems with family or friends etc. No one can reach a harmonious state of a mind and a soul without a significant transformation. In a case of Emil Sinclair, his path to himself is a way from Christianity with its strict division of good and evil to Abraxas, who combines the luminous and the dark world.
