"Ayo Mr. White! I just heard this phrase; The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas. You're smart 'n shit, do you have any idea what that means, bitch?"
"Jesse, we - fine. I might as well explain, we're done cooking for Gus for today. You heard a line by the famous German author Hermann Hesse; specifically, from his 1919 novel 'Demian'."
"Demian? I thought that was just the name of that gay little bitch from the gacha game Skinny Pete likes."
"Jesse, you imbecile. You went through all your big years of high school and you never once listened to a Hesse lecture?"
"Demian follows the story of Emil Sinclair, a boy in Germany who slowly finds himself falling into the 'world of evil'. It all begins when another boy of his school, Franz Kromer, tempts him into keeping money from his family. An older boy, Max Demian, takes up for young Sinclair and drives Kromer away.
Years go by, and Sinclair, who grew up Christian, finds himself filled with desires he finds sinful; he blames Demian for this, and he hates himself, too. How could he have fallen into this world of evil, after all? All he wanted to do was thrive, why was that so hard?
As it turns out, he just needed to break free and accept himself for who he was. He needed to thrive to the beat of his own heart and live for himself, not for any god nor for his father or mother.
In the end, Sinclair and Demian reunite, and Demian departs as they enter war with a kiss. He disappears, yet Sinclair sees features of his friend and guide in himself in the mirror.
The novel has themes of Jungian and Freudian psychology, Catholic guilt, and self-liberation.
There, was that satisfactory? Or were you dozing off and not applying yourself, just like in class?"
"Damn, bitch. That's a lot to take in. I guess I'm a bit of an Emil Sinclair myself, Mr. White."
"In the end, Jesse, we must listen to our own hearts. We can't truly sort most things into 'good' and 'evil'.
And... I don't want anyone else to domineer over you."