Steppenwolf Paragraphs 583-647 Summary

  • Back in the theater hallway, Harry reads signs on the doors. He chooses one that says "GUIDANCE IN THE BUILDING UP OF THE PERSONALITY. SUCCESS GUARANTEED." Inside the room there is a man sitting in front of a chessboard. He kind of looks like Pablo.
  • However, the guy says he is not anybody, that no one has names here.
  • The Pablo lookalike asks Harry for his pieces, by which he means all the little pieces his personality broke up into when he looked into the mirror. It turns out all those little Harrys turned into GI Joe-like action figures in his pocket, so he gives them to the chess player.
  • The chess player explains that the self is not limited to one individual; that there are thousands of possibilities for every life.
  • He starts playing with Harry's pieces by arranging them, and they start living out little societies there. It is all very interesting to Harry.
  • The cool thing about the game is that it shows Harry that even if a piece has bad luck in one life, like Skee-Lo, he might be a huge baller in the next.
  • Harry gathers up his pieces and takes off, planning to go sit in the hall and play the game himself. But in the hallway he sees an irresistible sign on a door: "MARVELOUS TAMING OF THE STEPPENWOLF."
  • He goes in and sees a sort of circus scene where a man is taming a wolf. The wolf does everything the man says, just like a trained dog. This is terrible for Harry, who didn't like to see the wolf's spirit broken.
  • Part two is much cooler, though. The wolf suddenly becomes wild, and now the man has to do what he says.
  • Uh-oh! A pretty girl comes onto the stage and the wolf goes nuts and scares her off. Then he rips a rabbit to shreds.
  • This is too much for Harry, and he runs out.
  • He can taste the rabbit's blood in his own mouth, and is terrified as he runs through the hallways.
  • Harry remembers the door his teenaged self had gone through at the beginning of the crazy entertainment, and goes back to it. The sign says "ALL GIRLS ARE YOURS."
  • Inside he is back in his hometown, in the hills.
  • The first girl he ever liked, Rosa Kreisler, walks by. In real life Harry had been shy, but here in the theatre he gets up the courage to tell her he loves her.
  • They become boyfriend and girlfriend (sitting in a tree), and from there Harry relives all the loves that he never had in real life.
  • Anyone he ever had the slightest crush on shows up, and he gets to experience what it would have been life if he had actually gotten to love them—even Pablo!
  • Harry ends up back in the hallway and sees another door that says "HOW ONE KILLS FOR LOVE." Yeah, this isn't going to be pretty.
  • He suddenly remembers the day that Hermine made him promise he would kill her. He thinks that if he uses the little figurines he might be able to change the course of things, but when he reaches into his pocket for them all he finds is a knife.
  • Harry runs away down the hallway and ends up in front of the mirror.
  • The only person he sees in the reflection this time is his old self. He talks to himself, and the reflection tells him that he is waiting for death.
  • He suddenly hears music coming from the theater, and it's the part of the opera Don Giovanni that means that a dead guy, "the stone guest" is showing up (it's pretty cool; check it out here). Not surprisingly, it's by Mozart. If that's not drama, we don't know what is.
  • Remember how Harry talked to Goethe in one dream? Well, now Mozart shows up, laughing like a loon (for a really fun cinematic version of Mozart's laugh, look at Amadeus)
  • Mozart tells Harry that they are in the last act of his opera Don Giovanni. And once again, Harry goes all brainiac and starts listing all the important composers. Mozart cuts him off and shows him the composers Brahms and Wagner (see the shout-outs for more on those guys) being punished because their music had way too much fluff, parts that could be taken out.
  • Harry thinks that's ironic because Brahms and Wagner were considered to be extreme opposites (listen to Brahms vs. Wagner for a taste). Now these guys who were supposed to be totally different are being punished for the same crime…
  • Mozart explains that the problem wasn't personal; both of the composers were products of their time.
  • Harry doesn't think it's fair that they should pay the price for something that wasn't their own fault, but was history's fault.
  • Mozart just explains that life is pretty much frightful and that everyone is born with original sin ever since Adam and Eve.
  • When Harry gets sad, Mozart starts teasing him with word games and laughing at him. Harry can't take it anymore and grabs Mozart by his ponytail, but it starts stretching and they fly through space.
  • Harry loses consciousness.