The European by Hermann Hesse Essay Example

"The European," is one of Hermann Hesse's fairy tales that allows one to enter into a world full of dreams, visions, passions, and philosophy. The beginning of the fairy tale is somewhat biblical as it mimics the story of Noah and the ark in the Bible. When God had seen that the people had fallen short of his glory, he decided to punish the world by flood, thereby instructing Noah to build an ark and enter in it with his family and the animals at least seven days before the flood. The story goes ahead to describe the massive destruction of humanity that had sinned against the Lord for about 150 days until the ark came to rest at Mount Ararat and the subsequent receding of the destructive flood. It is on this premise that Hermann Hesse may be opined to image, "The European," following God's resentment and putting an end to the bloody World War (Hermann 1). Therefore, the paper is premised on an argument whether the European was worth saving.

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First, it is important to realize that, "The European," was one of the characters in the fairy tale that found himself in a new land and was saved by an old patriarch. The patriarch made his wish of recording the events of his last days to enable the men of the future to realize that his fatherland made efforts of defeating its enemies come true. The story may also be two-phase, the first phase has been imaged in the introductory paragraph and somewhat biblical while the second phase is symbolic. The European's wish of writing the events of his last days denotes of how his nation had defeated its enemies. The European technology that showed its mettle during the war also depicts a great nation full of technological knowledge that suffered the repercussions of the world war and the subsequent civilization of the African society. The latter justifies, "The European's," presence in the new world, a world that is more of Caribbean.

In consideration of the details given, either phase of analyzing the fairy tale would agree that the European was worth saving even though towards the end we witness disagreements between him and the cousins who brand him a joker. The following justifies why he was worth being saved. The people (The Indian, the Malay, the Chinese, the Eskimo and others presented in the story) were gifted with various talents, but they needed knowledge on how to advance them. For example, when the Indian shot a bird high up in the sky, the European commented on having the ability to make a better shoot thrice with an ounce of dynamite (Hermann 2). Many of them did not understand the last part of what was needed to make the shoot, and the European proceeded my mentioning the things he required to make the dynamite. Dynamite simply referred to an explosive of a higher capacity that is formed by nitroglycerine and mixed with other absorbent materials hence justifying the European's sentence of doing better in shooting than the Indian. He, therefore, represented an era of knowledge and technological advancement coupled with the resentment of the Africans.

In another instance the European tried speaking about his intellect and how it can be used to solve major problems that will be beneficial to the entire humanity, he also argues that he may not be there to witness its end or even his friends who were part of the Patriarch floating house (Hermann 3). The argument symbolized the technological knowledge that will lead to unending advancement which he anchored in his mind. Technology is something which improves daily, for example, the kind of the electric light bulb that was invented by Thomas Edison cannot operate today. The bulb has been developed to be more user-friendly, with little complications and energy saving. Therefore, what the European implied is that whatever he had in mind is one who can bring change to major world problems but is continuous, it changes with generations, and nobody can witness its end.

I, therefore, believe that those who opposed the European represented a people who were reluctant in embracing change and were comfortable with their current status of living which entailed, helping each other, worshipping God and doing little thing that made life more meaningful. The European agreed with their opinions but could enhance their skills and make their life better with his intellect that anchored technological knowledge, something they saw as mockery. Even though Hermann Hesse pens his last sentence and leaves everyone in suspense about how these people went along, I see hope that they will finally come to agree and test the European's knowledge.

Conclusion

In summary, the European in Hermann's fairy tale, "The European," was worth saving since he came with new knowledge from his warring land to people who had little knowledge on technology. Many of the people he found after being saved by the patriarch find it difficult to believe him just like the Africans showed resentment in embracing the white man's knowledge. I have hope that the same curiosity that made these people (the African, the Indian, the Eskimo and other noted in the fairy tale) want to know more about the European's intellect is the same one that will drive into testing his assertions which mainly relied on technological advancement.

Works Cited

Hermann Hesse, "The European" in If the War Goes On, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971 (Noonday N 407). Translated by Ralph Manheim.