Emit Sinclair's Demian

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EeeeeeDreams play a prominent role in Demian being that they lead Emit Sinclair to make certain decisions and impact his emotional being. The dreams that Emit Sinclair has are full of symbolism that reflect Sinclair’s life. Dreams also play a large role in the Harry Potter series, which can be compared to the symbolism seen in Demian. In psychology, dreams are said to be a valid source of learning about one’s self, which I believe to be true. Primarily, Sinclair dreams about Demian and the coat of arms, located above the doorway of Sinclair's house. On the coat of arms is a sparrow hawk. “It kept changing shape, Demian was holding it in his hands, often it was small and grey, often terrifically big and multicolored, but he explained to me…show more content…
In dream analysis, the ultimate goal is not to understand the dream itself, but to understand the person having the dream. The idea of learning about one’s self through dreams was first brought up by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Basically, Freud stated that dreams are meaningful results of psychic activity and that they can be analyzed, even the ones we believe to be incoherent. Carl Jung said, "in almost every dream, certain details can be found which have their origin in the impressions, thoughts, and moods of the preceding day or days" (24). In other words, dreams contain recollections of one’s past. The recollections that are found in dreams are also believed to shape a person’s future. Interestingly enough, the title of Demian actually came to Herman Hesse in a dream. Overtime, scientists continue to argue about whether or not dreams really do reflect our subconscious. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 96, No. 2) reports that dreams do in fact impact an individual’s decision making. Neuroscientist Matthew Wilson has actually proven, through an experiment with mice, that dreams are not simply random thoughts but instead a recollection of ideas that can help us understand an individual. In his experiment, mice were led to run around in a maze. After this, the mice fell asleep and the brain waves that the mice had while sleeping were the same waves they had when running in a maze, showing that the mice were dreaming about what they had just done (“Why We Need to Dream”). Clearly, dreams do not just occur from random thoughts, but occur as a result of recollections we hold in our brains. Personally, I believe that dreams reveal our subconscious thoughts and desires and I have often made certain decisions after having a dream. For instance, I often have internal battles with myself when I have to make a certain decision. Sometimes, I have dreams

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