The form and meaning of H. Hesse’s novel A child’s soul

The fictional world of the work is considered as one marked by binary oppositions of nature/civilisation, the world of children/adults, the ideal/the reality, the truth/a lie, fear/bravery, judgement/absolution, God/devil. The authors analyse the psychology of the novel’s main character. The central autobiographical image of the novel is interpreted in the context of religious and philosophical ideas about the duality of human nature and is connected to the features of adolescent psychology and age-related alienation and rebelliousness.