What do you think of this quote?
"The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world."
Hi everyone, I stumbled across this quote by Hermann Hesse's Demian the other day and wanted to hear some different interpretations. If it speaks to you too, let me know your thoughts on it.
@Percy9 if you assume your views of the world represent reality, your world may be cozy but very small. In an egg we are the only being that exists. For us, emerging from our shell takes work that must continue throughout our life. Leaving our shell we find a world that has much more to offer. We know some people who refuse to leave their shells. We call the most extreme, Karens. Your shell may be the safest place but you could also end up in an omelette.
@PineTreeTree
Thanks for sharing. I had a similar interpretation myself. I also wonder if the shell could represent limitations imposed by other people/the environment. So, in order to break out, one must "destroy" the limitations placed on them by their situation
@Percy9 I also agree with @PineTreeTree. To me also, it seems to suggest that personal growth or transformation often requires breaking free from the confines of what we know. The "egg" represents the familiar, safe world we've been in—our comfort zone or the limits of our past beliefs. To "be born" into something new, we have to challenge and destroy the old version of ourselves or the world around us that holds us back. Afterall, that is the central theme of Demian. This quote also resonates deeply with Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse as well. Andy Weir's The Egg takes this to a whole new level, where the idea of breaking free is expanded to a more cosmic and spiritual scale, showing that the "egg" isn't just a personal barrier, but a universal cycle of life - reincarnation and stuff.