I strongly agree with what Sarah is saying in her post. If Emil had not ventured into the dark side he would still be a sheltered little kid, living under his parent's rules in a veil of innocence. I think that we all have been in our own dark side. Because of his happenings with Kromer and Demian he is now not as unkown to some of the other things beyond his house and the simple world he was living in before. This "dark world" requires more of Emil and I think that, in a way, he enjoys being challenged. At home all he had to do was read the bible and not get rough while playing with his sisters. This other world requires him to think and be independent. I'm not sure if Demian has necesarily poisened Emil. We all have someone in our lives who influenced us to grow up or be more mature. Maybe Demian is that person in Emil's life, only a lot creepier.

As I was reading these first couple chapters I felt myself being pulled into the material. Almost repulsive, but still mesmorizing. Which is why I strongly agree with Cameron's suggestion to pray while reading Demian. I also thought that Becky's point of saying that Emil rejected Demian when he sought forgiveness and instead went to the light side where he knew he would be forgiven. I think he was taking the easy way out of the situation because he didn't know how Demian would react because he's so unpredictable. As of right now Demian still confuses me but I think that the more we read hopefully his ture character will be shown.

What is the dark side? To Emil it is wherever his parents are not. Whatever is mysterious. Something that he doesn't quite understand fully. Anything that is unholy or "dirty". I think it represents the dark side of our personalities. The ugly stuff we don't want anyone to know about us or to see. Perhaps anger, innermost thoughts, depression, any of that. Anything we tried to hide. I think that Emil is more comfortable on the dark side because it doesn't expect anything from him. On the light side he is required to be gentle and live up to his parents expectations, which to a 10 year old boy can be quite overwhelming. I don't know which side I'm more comfortable on yet because I've never really thought about there being a dark side or a light side before. After reading only 3 chapters of Demian (and I hope I'm not the only one who did this) walked around my house with my brow furrowed, trying to determine which objects and people were on which side. It is a lot to think about....