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....