Steppenwolf Transformation Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Preface if applicable, Paragraph)

Quote #1

I was amazed to see a small and pretty doorway with a Gothic arch in the middle of the wall, for I could not make up my mind whether this doorway had always been there or whether it had just been made. (8)

The first physical transformation in the novel takes place not in a person, as most of them do, but in a piece of architecture. A door springs up out of nowhere, Alice in Wonderland-style, and Harry has to figure out what this transformation means.

Quote #2

Now with our Steppenwolf it was so that in his conscious life he lived now as a wolf, now as a man, as indeed the case is with all mixed beings. (34)

That would be pretty tiring! Harry is in a constant state of transformation, but it's only back and forth between two beings. His new pals will teach him to expand his repertoire.

Quote #3

Oh, yes, I had experienced all these changes and transmutations that fate reserves for her difficult children, her ticklish customers. (72)

It seems like transformation is a punishment for Harry in this statement. Why do you think he experiences it as such a negative, when in nature there are lots of beautiful transformations?