Jenny Parker: The Journey to the East (Outside Reading) III

In this novel Hesse is on a pilgrimage to the East with others in the League. In this novel he mentions the differences between pilgrimage and tourism as we have done in class as well. "Faithful to our instructions, we lived like pilgrims and made no use of those contrivances which spring into existence in a world deluded by money, number and time, and which drain life of its content" (Hesse, 13). In tourism one needs money to go; however, in pilgrimage one does not need money. In pilgrimage one does not need nice luxury hotels. There is no hierarchy sense to is as there is in tourism. In pilgrimage one is treating the sheep as Thou not It. In Hesse's book he admits that as the journey went on he missed all the luxuries and felt as if they were irreplaceable. However before he started questioning his faith and the journey he says, "as we League brothers traveled throughout the world without motor-cars or ships, as we conquered the war-shattered world by our faith and transformed it into Paradise, we creatively brought the past, the future and the fictitious into the present moment" (Hesse, 28). It is crazy to me how he can say that and then just a few pages later say "during the course of our further journey, tools, valuables, cards, and documents which were all lost seemed, to our shame, to be indispensable" (Hesse, 42). In this book I saw stability --->change---> restored stability/post criticism.