How we cite our quotes: (Preface if applicable, Paragraph)
Quote #1
The books constantly increased, for besides bringing whole armfuls back with him from the libraries he was always getting parcels of them by post. [...] Many of the books, however, were not of a scholarly nature. The majority were works of the poets of all times and peoples. (Preface 23)
This bit of characterization shows us that Harry is a bookworm, sure, but we also get the idea that he is obsessed with poetry and knowing everything about culture. In just a few short sentences we know what is important to this character, which will later be one of his biggest misunderstandings that has to be cleared up in the Magic Theater.
Quote #2
After the Handel came a little symphony by Friedemann Bach, and I saw with surprise how after a few bars my stranger began to smile and abandon himself to the music. He was completely absorbed in himself, and for about ten minutes so happily lost and rapt in pleasant dreams that I paid more attention to him than the music. (Preface 36)
When the narrator of the preface follows Harry to a concert we get a taste of Harry's connection to music—it seems like his only escape from his sad, suicidal existence.
Quote #3
"There I was, sitting with people as one of themselves and believing that they thought of Goethe as I did and had the same picture of him in their minds as I, and there stood that tasteless, false, and sickly affair and they thought it lovely and had not the least idea that the spirit of that picture and the spirit of Goethe were exact opposites. (144)
Uh-oh! Someone's getting a little selfish about his Goethe! Harry is revealing the know-it-all side of his personality that doesn't let other people hold opinions on the things that he is supposedly an expert in.
Quote #4
"Well," he said with equanimity, "you see, in my opinion there is no point at all in talking about music. I never talk about music. [...] But, you see, I am a musician, not a professor, and I don't believe that, as regards music, there is the least point in being right." (349)
Say what? Pablo is going for the jugular here, and providing a 180-degree revolution for Harry to think about. Harry used to be so caught up in knowing about music that he doesn't understand how someone can just enjoy it.
Quote #5
"Look at the faces in a dance hall at the moment when the music strikes up after a longish pause, how eyes sparkle, legs twitch, and faces begin to laugh. That is why one makes music." (351)
The physical part of music that makes you dance and feel rhythm is like a foreign concept to Harry. Just as he's learning to dance with Hermine, here he's learning that music isn't just an academic subject; it's also a part of joy and life.
Quote #6
[…] I heard pieces by Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Bach and Haydn. I had gone the old beloved way once more. […] Stealing away out of the Cathedral, I had wearily paced the dark and narrow streets, where here and there behind the windows of the restaurants jazz orchestras were playing the tunes of the life I had now come to live. Oh, what a dull maze of error I had made of my life! (360)
We can see this moment, where Harry goes back to the church to listen to classical music as he used to before meeting Hermine, as a real crossroads in the novel. Harry is seeing that his life is changing—he is participating in what he used to reject, and losing touch with what he used to believe in. That is scary for anybody, but especially someone as set in his ways as the Steppenwolf.
Quote #7
For long during this night's walk I had reflected upon the significance of my relation to music, and not for the first time recognized this appealing and fatal relation as the destiny of the entire German spirit. (361)
Whoa! Getting deep there. Harry thinks that the deal with music is that it is able to communicate a spirit without having to put it down into words. He thinks that the German intellectuals have been lazy because they don't try to explain their national spirit in language, but accept music as a substitute. Do you think that language is the ultimate use of reason and logic? Are there other ways to express ideas?
Quote #8
"Do you think I can't understand your horror of the fox trot, your dislike of bars and dancing floors, your loathing of jazz and the rest of it?" (425)
What did the fox trot ever do to Harry? Hermine is describing all of the popular or low culture activities that contrast very starkly with Harry's old likes. She's also telling him that he's not special for being snooty—she understands him, just doesn't agree with him.
Quote #9
"And if you still think it worth your while we can philosophize together and argue and talk about music and Mozart and Gluck and Plato and Goethe to your heart's content. You will understand now why it was impossible before." (507)
Hmm… why was it impossible for Pablo to talk to Harry about music and philosophy before? Does it have something to do with the laughter Harry is supposed to learn about?
Quote #10
And in fact, to my indescribable astonishment and horror, the devilish tin trumpet spat out, without more ado, a mixture of bronchial slime and chewed rubber; that noise that owners of gramophones and radios have agreed to call music. (661)
Poor Harry. His ultimate musical idol, Mozart, turns on Harry's biggest nightmare, the radio. The use of machinery to play classical music seems like blasphemy to Harry, kind of like the picture of Goethe that got him so riled up at his friend's house.